1

Chapter 1

Signals and Amplifiers

© Niwareeba Roland
 2

Chapter Outline
 Signals
 Frequency Spectrum of Signals
 Analog and Digital Signals
 Amplifiers

© Niwareeba Roland
 3

Signals
 Signals contain information about a variety of things
and activities in our physical world. Examples abound:
 Information about the weather is contained in signals
that represent the air temperature, pressure, wind
speed, etc. The voice of a radio announcer reading
the news into a microphone provides an acoustic
signal that contains information about world affairs.
 To extract required information from a set of signals,
the observer (be it a human or a machine) invariably
needs to process the signals in some predetermined
manner.
© Niwareeba Roland
 4

Signals
 This signal processing is usually most conveniently
performed by electronic systems.
 A signal is a time-varying quantity that can be
represented by a graph such as that shown in Fig. 1.1.
In fact, the information content of the signal is
represented by the changes in its magnitude as time
progresses; that is, the information is contained in the
“wiggles” in the signal waveform.

© Niwareeba Roland
 5

Signals

Figure 1.1: An arbitrary voltage signal vs (t).

© Niwareeba Roland
 6

Frequency Spectrum of Signals

Figure 1.4 Sine-wave voltage signal of amplitude 𝑉𝑉𝑎𝑎 and frequency f

= 1/T Hz. The angular frequency ω = 2πf rad/s.

© Niwareeba Roland
 7

Frequency Spectrum of Signals

 Figure 1.2 shows a sine-wave voltage signal 𝑣𝑣𝑎𝑎 𝑡𝑡 .
 𝑣𝑣𝑎𝑎 𝑡𝑡 = 𝑉𝑉𝑎𝑎 sin 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔
 where 𝑉𝑉𝑎𝑎 denotes the peak value or amplitude in volts
and 𝜔𝜔 denotes the angular frequency in radians per
second; that is, 𝜔𝜔 = 2𝜋𝜋𝜋𝜋 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟/𝑠𝑠, where f is the
frequency in hertz, f = 1/T Hz, and T is the period in
seconds.
 The sine-wave signal is completely characterized by
its peak value 𝑉𝑉𝑎𝑎 , its frequency 𝜔𝜔 , and its phase with
respect to an arbitrary reference time.

© Niwareeba Roland
 8

Frequency Spectrum of Signals

 In the case depicted in Fig. 1.2, the time origin has
been chosen so that the phase angle is 0.
 It should be mentioned that it is common to express
the amplitude of a sine-wave signal in terms of its
rootmean- square (rms) value, which is equal to the
peak value divided by 2 . Thus the rms value of the
sinusoid
 𝑣𝑣𝑎𝑎 𝑡𝑡 of Fig. 1.2 is 𝑉𝑉𝑎𝑎 (𝑡𝑡)/ 2 . For instance, when we
speak of the wall power supply in our homes as being
240 V, we mean that it has a sine waveform of 240 2
volts peak value
© Niwareeba Roland
 9

Exercise
1. Find the frequencies f and 𝜔𝜔 of a sine-wave signal
3 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟
with a period of 1 ms. 𝑓𝑓 = 1000 𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻; 𝜔𝜔 = 2𝜋𝜋 × 10
𝑠𝑠
2. What is the period T of sine waveforms characterized
by frequencies of (a) f =60 Hz? (b) f =10-3 Hz?
(c) f =1 MHz? (16.7 ms; 1000 s; 1 ms)
3. The UHF (ultra high frequency) television broadcast
band begins with channel 14 and extends from 470
MHz to 806 MHz. If 6 MHz is allocated for each
channel, how many channels can this band
accommodate? (56; channels 14 to 69)
© Niwareeba Roland
 10

Analog and Digital Signals

 The voltage signal depicted in Fig. 1.1 is called an
analog signal. The name derives from the fact that
such a signal is analogous to the physical signal that it
represents. The magnitude of an analog signal can
take on any value; that is, the amplitude of an analog
signal exhibits a continuous variation over its range of
activity.
 The vast majority of signals in the world around us are
analog. Electronic circuits that process such signals
are known as analog circuits.

© Niwareeba Roland
 11

Analog and Digital Signals

 An alternative form of signal representation is that of a
sequence of numbers, each number representing the
signal magnitude at an instant of time. The resulting
signal is called a digital signal. To see how a signal
can be represented in this form—i.e., how signals can
be converted from analog to digital form—consider
Fig. 1.3(a). Here the curve represents a voltage signal,
identical to that in Fig. 1.1. At equal intervals along the
time axis, we have marked the time instants t0, t1, t2, t3
and so on. At each of these time instants, the
magnitude of the signal is measured, a process known
as sampling.
© Niwareeba Roland
 12

Analog and Digital Signals

Figure 1.3: Sampling the continuous-time analog signal in (a) results in the
discrete-time signal in (b).
© Niwareeba Roland
 13

Analog and Digital Signals

 Figure 1.3(b) shows a representation of the signal of
Fig. 1.3(a) in terms of its samples. The signal of Fig.
1.3(b) is defined only at the sampling instants; it no
longer is a continuous function of time; rather, it is a
discrete time signal. However, since the magnitude
of each sample can take any value in a continuous
range, the signal in Fig. 1.3(b) is still an analog signal.

© Niwareeba Roland
 14

Analog and Digital Signals

 Now if we represent the magnitude of each of the
signal samples in Fig. 1.3(b) by a number having a
finite number of digits, then the signal amplitude will
no longer be continuous; rather, it is said to be
quantized, discretized, or digitized.
 The resulting digital signal then is simply a sequence
of numbers that represent the magnitudes of the
successive signal samples.

© Niwareeba Roland
 15

Analog and Digital Signals

Figure 1.4: 3-bit resolution with eight levels

© Niwareeba Roland
 16

Analog and Digital Signals

 The choice of number system to represent the signal
samples affects the type of digital signal produced,
and has a profound effect on the complexity of the
digital circuits required to process the signals. It turns
out that the binary number system results in the
simplest possible digital signals and circuits.
 In a binary system, each digit in the number takes on
one of only two possible values, denoted 0 and 1.

© Niwareeba Roland
 17

Analog and Digital Signals

 Correspondingly, the digital signals in binary systems
need have only two voltage levels, which can be
labeled low and high. As an example, in some of the
digital circuits, the levels are 0 V and 5 V. Figure 1.5
shows the time variation of such a digital signal.
Observe that the waveform is a pulse train with 0 V
representing a 0 signal, or logic 0, and 5 V
representing logic 1.

© Niwareeba Roland
 18

Analog and Digital Signals

Figure 1.4: Variation of a particular binary digital signal with time

© Niwareeba Roland
 19

Analog and Digital Signals

 If we use N binary digits (bits) to represent each
sample of the analog signal, then the digitized sample
value can be expressed as
 𝐷𝐷 = 𝑏𝑏0 20 + 𝑏𝑏1 21 + 𝑏𝑏2 22 + ⋯ + 𝑏𝑏𝑁𝑁−1 2𝑁𝑁−1
 Where 𝑏𝑏0 , 𝑏𝑏1 … 𝑏𝑏𝑁𝑁−1 denote the N bits and have
values of 0 or 1. Here bit 𝑏𝑏0 is the LSB, and bit𝑏𝑏𝑁𝑁−1 is
the MSB. Conventionally, this binary number is written
as 𝑏𝑏𝑁𝑁−1 𝑏𝑏𝑁𝑁−2 … 𝑏𝑏0
 Such a representation quantizes the analog sample
into one of 2N levels.

© Niwareeba Roland
 20

Analog and Digital Signals

Figure 1.6: Block-diagram representation of the analog-to-digital converter

(ADC).

© Niwareeba Roland
 21

Analog and Digital Signals

 Obviously the greater the number of bits (i.e., the
larger the N), the closer the digital word D
approximates the magnitude of the analog sample.
i.e., increasing the number of bits reduces the
quantization error and increases the resolution of the
analog-to digital conversion.
 This improvement is, however, usually obtained at the
expense of more complex and hence more costly
circuit implementations.

© Niwareeba Roland
 22

Analog and Digital Signals

 The ADC accepts at its input the samples of an analog
signal and provides for each input sample the
corresponding N-bit digital representation at its N
output terminals. Thus although the voltage at the
input might be, say, 6.51 V, at each of the output
terminals (say, at the ith terminal), the voltage will be
either low (0 V) or high (5 V) if bi is supposed to be 0
or 1, respectively.
 The dual circuit of the ADC is the digital-to-analog
converter (D/A or DAC). It converts an N-bit digital
input to an analog output voltage.
© Niwareeba Roland
 23

Analog and Digital Signals

 Once the signal is in digital form, it can be processed
using digital circuits. Of course digital circuits can
deal also with signals that do not have an analog
origin, such as the signals that represent the various
instructions of a digital computer.
 Since digital circuits deal exclusively with binary
signals, their design is simpler than that of analog
circuits.
 Furthermore, digital systems can be designed using a
relatively few different kinds of digital circuit blocks.

© Niwareeba Roland
 24

Analog and Digital Signals

 However, a large number (e.g., hundreds of
thousands or even millions) of each of these blocks
are usually needed. Thus the design of digital circuits
poses its own set of challenges to the designer but
provides reliable and economic implementations of a
great variety of signal-processing functions, many of
which are not possible with analog circuits.

© Niwareeba Roland
 25

Analog and Digital Signals

 At the present time, more and more of the signal-
processing functions are being performed digitally.
Examples around us abound: from the digital watch
and the calculator to digital audio systems, digital
cameras and, more recently, digital television.
 Moreover, some longstanding analog systems such as
the telephone communication system are now almost
entirely digital. And we should not forget the most
important of all digital systems, the digital computer.

© Niwareeba Roland
 26

Amplifiers
 From a conceptual point of view, the simplest signal-
processing task is that of signal amplification. The
need for amplification arises because transducers
provide signals that are said to be “weak”, that is in μV
or mV range and possessing little energy. Such
signals are too small for reliable processing, and
processing is much easier if the signal magnitude is
made larger.
 The functional block that accomplishes this task is the
signal amplifier.

© Niwareeba Roland
 27

Linearity in amplifiers
 When amplifying a signal, care must be exercised so
that the information contained in the signal is not
changed and no new information is introduced. The
output must be an exact replica of the input except
having a larger magnitude. Any change in waveform is
considered to be distortion and is undesirable.
 An amplifier that preserves the details of the signal
waveform is characterised by
𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡 = 𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 (𝑡𝑡)
Where 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 are input and output signals
respectively and A is the amplifier gain.
© Niwareeba Roland
 28

Linearity in amplifiers
 The previous equation is a linear relationship; hence
the amplifier it describes is a linear amplifier.
 If the relationship between 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 contains higher
powers of 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 , then the waveform of 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 will no longer be
identical to that of 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 . The amplifier is said to exhibit
non-linear distortion.

© Niwareeba Roland
 29

Voltage gain
 A linear amplifier accepts an input signal 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 (𝑡𝑡) and
provides at the output, across a load resistance RL an
output signal 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡 that is a magnified replica of 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 (𝑡𝑡).
 The voltage gain of the amplifier is defined by:
𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜
 𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣 = .
𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖

 Figure 1.7(a) shows the transfer characteristic of a

linear amplifier. If we apply to the input of this amplifier
a sinusoidal voltage of amplitude 𝑉𝑉� , we obtain at the
output a sinusoid of amplitude 𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣 𝑉𝑉� .
© Niwareeba Roland
 30

Voltage gain

Figure 1.7 (a) A voltage amplifier fed with a signal vI(t) and connected to a load
resistance RL. (b) Transfer characteristic of a linear voltage amplifier with voltage
gain Av.
© Niwareeba Roland
 31

Power Gain and Current Gain

 An amplifier provides the load with power greater than
that obtained from the signal source. i.e. amplifiers
have a power gain defined as:
𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 𝑃𝑃𝐿𝐿 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 𝑖𝑖𝑜𝑜
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝐴𝐴𝑝𝑝 ≡ =
𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 𝑃𝑃𝐼𝐼 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 𝑖𝑖𝐼𝐼
Where 𝑖𝑖𝑜𝑜 is the current that the amplifier delivers to the
load (RL), 𝑖𝑖𝑜𝑜 = 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 /𝑅𝑅𝐿𝐿 and 𝑖𝑖𝐼𝐼 is the current the amplifier
draws from the signal source. The current gain of the
amplifier is defined as:
𝑖𝑖𝑜𝑜
 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖 =
𝑖𝑖𝐼𝐼
 and, 𝐴𝐴𝑝𝑝 = 𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣 𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖 © Niwareeba Roland
 32

Expressing the Gain in Decibels

 The amplifier gains described above are ratios of
similarly dimensioned quantities. Electronic engineers
usually express the gain in decibels.
𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 20 log 𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 20 log 𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
 Since power is related to voltage (or current) squared,
the power gain can be expressed in decibels as
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 10 log 𝐴𝐴𝑝𝑝 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

© Niwareeba Roland
 33

The Amplifier Power Supplies

Figure 1.8:An amplifier that requires two dc supplies (shown as batteries) for
operation

© Niwareeba Roland
 34

The Amplifier Power Supplies

 Since the power delivered to the load is greater than
the power drawn from the signal source, what is the
source of this additional power?
 Amplifiers need DC supplies for their operation. These
dc sources supply the extra power delivered to the
load as well as any power that might be dissipated in
the internal circuit of the amplifier (such power is
converted into heat).
 Figure 1.8 shows an amplifier that required two dc
sources.
 𝑃𝑃𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 𝑉𝑉1 𝐼𝐼1 + 𝑉𝑉2 𝐼𝐼2
© Niwareeba Roland
 35

The Amplifier Power Supplies

 If the power dissipated in the amplifier circuit is
denoted 𝑃𝑃𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 , the power-balance equation for
the amplifier can be written as
 𝑃𝑃𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 + 𝑃𝑃𝐼𝐼 = 𝑃𝑃𝐿𝐿 + 𝑃𝑃𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
 Where 𝑃𝑃𝐼𝐼 is the power drawn from the signal source
and 𝑃𝑃𝐿𝐿 is the power delivered to the load. Since the
power drawn from the signal source is usually small,
the amplifier efficiency is defined as:
𝑃𝑃𝐿𝐿
 𝜂𝜂 = × 100
𝑃𝑃𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

© Niwareeba Roland
 36

The Amplifier Power Supplies

 The power efficiency is an important performance
parameter for amplifiers that handle large amounts of
power. Such amplifiers, called power amplifiers, are
used, for example as output amplifiers of stereo
systems.

© Niwareeba Roland
 37

Amplifier Saturation

Figure 1.9: An amplifier

transfer characteristic that is
linear except for output
saturation.

© Niwareeba Roland
 38

Amplifier Saturation
 The amplifier transfer characteristic remains linear
over only a limited range of input and output voltages.
For an amplifier operated from two power supplies the
output voltage cannot exceed a specified positive limit
and cannot decrease below a specified negative limit.
 The resulting transfer characteristic is shown in figure
1.9, with the positive and negative saturation levels
denoted L+ and L- respectively. Each of the two
saturation levels is usually within a volt or so of the
voltage of the corresponding power supply.

© Niwareeba Roland
 39

Amplifier Saturation
 Obviously, in order to avoid distorting the output signal
waveform, the input signal swing must be kept within
the linear range of operation.
𝐿𝐿− 𝐿𝐿+
 ≤ 𝑣𝑣𝐼𝐼 ≤
𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣 𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣
 Figure 1.9 shows two input waveforms and the
corresponding output waveforms. The peaks of the
larger waveform have been clipped off because of
amplifier saturation.

© Niwareeba Roland
 40

Exercise
1. Consider an amplifier operating from ±10-V power
supplies. It is fed with a sinusoidal voltage having 1
V peak and delivers a sinusoidal voltage output of
9V peak to a 1-kΩ load. The amplifier draws a
current of 9.5 mA from each of its two power
supplies. The input current of the amplifier is found
to be sinusoidal with 0.1mA peak. Find the voltage
gain, the current gain, the power gain, the power
drawn from the dc supplies, the power dissipated in
the amplifier, and the amplifier efficiency
(𝐴𝐴𝑣𝑣 = 19.1 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑, 𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖 = 39.1 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑, 𝑃𝑃𝐿𝐿 = 40.5 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚, 𝑃𝑃𝐼𝐼 = 0.05 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚,
𝐴𝐴𝑝𝑝 = 29.1 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑, 𝑃𝑃𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 149.6 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚, 𝜂𝜂 = 21.3 %)

© Niwareeba Roland
 41

Exercise
2. An amplifier has a voltage gain of 100 V/V and a
current gain of 1000 A/A. Express the voltage and
current gain in decibels and find the power gain.
(40 dB, 60 dB, 50dB)

3. An amplifier operating from a single 15 V supply

provides a 12 V peak to peak sine wave signal to a 1kΩ
load and draws negligible input current from the signal
source. The dc current drawn from the 15 V supply is 8
mA. What is the power dissipated in the amplifier, and
what is the amplifier efficiency?
(102 mW, 15%)

© Niwareeba Roland