Elements Of

Telecommunication
CHAPTER 5

RADIO FRQUENCY (RF) AMPLIFIERS

Aim

To provide students with the fundamental knowledge of RF

amplifiers used in radio transmission and their use in
telecommunication to amplify RF signals.
Objectives
At the end of the chapter participants should be able to:
• Explain the need for amplifiers in transmission
• Define selectivity, sensitivity and gain of an amplifier
• To differentiate between audio and radio amplifiers
• Outline the advantages and disadvantages of cascading
amplifiers
• Determine the application of Class A,B and C amplifiers
Introduction

• Two basic types of high or radio frequency amplifiers will be

discussed:
• a) RF low-level or small signal amplifiers.
• b) R.F power amplifiers.
• The low-level amplifiers are found in radio and television
receivers or small-signal applications in transmitters.
• RF power amplifiers are used in radio and TV transmitters or
special applications where high power RF ac signal is required.
Radio Frequency Spectrum
• The radio frequency spectrum is considered to be from 30 kHz
to 300 GHz, although communication is usually limited to
frequencies below 100 GHz.
AF And RF Amplifiers
• The fundamental difference between audio frequency (AF)
and radio frequency (RF) amplifiers is the bands of frequencies
they are expected to amplify.
• AF spectrum (20 to 20.000 Hz) equally well.
• RF amplifiers amplify only a relatively narrow portion of the RF
spectrum (narrow band), attenuating all other frequencies.
Rf Amplifier Bandwidth
• RF amplifiers with different bandwidths
• RF carrier waves amplitude modulated (AM) by voice
frequencies require a 6 kHz bandwidth.
• Standard broadcast band A.M for music requires at least 9 kHz
bandwidth.
• Frequency modulated (FM) voice emissions use a 7.5 kHz
bandwidth, and FM broadcast stations have a bandwidth of
180 kHz.
• Television transmission (TV) uses a 6 MHz bandwidth
• Radar may use a bandwidth up to 10 MHz even the bandwidth
of a radar emission represents only a small portion of the
whole RF spectrum.
Principle Of Operation Of An
RF Amplifier
• All RF amplifiers are tuned amplifiers.
• A tuned amplifier is one with the resonant tuned circuit.
• Such an amplifier has two main functions:
• It must provide the selectivity necessary to ensure that
frequencies outside the wanted or selected band are not
amplified to the same extent as the selected band of frequencies.
• It must provide a specified gain over a given or selected
frequency band.
Selectivity
•

• The required selectivity is generally obtained by a parallel

resonant circuit acting as the collector or drain load for the
transistor or FET.
• The required LC product, for resonance to occur at the desired
center frequency.
Sensitivity
Operation Frequency And
Bandwidth
• An amplifier with tuned LC circuits accepts the resonant
frequency and a few frequencies above and below.
• At 500 kHz the bandwidth may be 5 to 30 kHz.
• At 5 MHz the bandwidth may be 20 to 150 kHz.
• Note that the bandwidth is proportional to the frequency of
operation.
• Applications requiring amplification of a wide band of
frequencies, signals can be converted to higher frequency RF
bands to be amplified.
• Narrow band of frequencies amplifier converts signals to low RF
bands to be amplified.
• high-Q can be achieved using piezo electric crystals
• very narrow band widths can be obtained for any radio
frequency up to about 15 MHz with crystal filters.
GAIN
Can be achieved through the use of transistors, FETs and
operational amplifiers (IC)
Transistors
• The common-emitter configuration is chosen in preference to
the common-base because it provides the greatest gain and its
input and output impedance have more convenient values.
FET's
• Field effect transistors can also be used to provide radio-
frequency amplification and may be operated in either the
common-source or the common-gate configurations.
IC's
• Op amps
• A number of integrated circuit radio-frequency amplifiers are
available although available IC consists of an RF amplifier, a
mixer, an IF amplifier and a detector as well.
Resonance

1
𝐹 𝑜=
2 𝜋 √ 𝐿𝐶
• The output is maximum at the tank circuit's resonant
frequency fo
• At Frequencies above and below the resonant frequency fo,
the circuit's output signal falls off since its impedance is
maximum at fo.
• Its high-frequency cut-off (fhc) and low- frequency cut-off (fIc)
are defined as the points where the output voltage is down to
0.707 of the maximum output at fo
• This corresponds to the point where the power output is one-
half of the maximum at fo since power is proportional to
voltage squared, i.e. power at a 3 dB point is equal to
• Expressed in decibel form, at 3 dB point
• The high and low-frequency cut-offs are often referred to as
the -3dB points
• the power at the -3 dB is half of the maximum power

• In decibels (dB),
Bandwidth and quality factor
• The bandwidth BW of a tuned circuit is the range of
frequencies included between the high and low cut-off
frequency:

• The quality factor Q provides a measure of the tuned circuit's

selectivity.
• The higher the Q. the narrower will be the bandwidth.
• The relationship between Q, BW and resonant frequency fo is:

• The Q of a tuned circuit is primarily determined by how purely

inductive and capacitive its elements are.
•
 Tuned RF Amplifiers
• If a suitable transistor is chose, HF signals fed to the base of
the transistor will be amplified and will appear with greater
amplitude in the collector circuit. It is usual requirement of HF
circuits that only a certain well defined band of frequencies is
amplified. A selection of the required band of frequencies is
arranged by means of a tuned circuit in series with the
collector. As with LF amplifiers, the output impedance of the
next stage is low. For efficient coupling the inter-stage circuit
must be arranged for maximum power transfer, that is, the
output impedance of the next stage. This can conveniently be
accomplished by means of a step·dowl1 inductive coupling
form the tuned circuit inductance
The collector tuned circuit must provide the
required impedance/frequency characteristic
and also the necessary impedance
transformation. This type of circuit is generally
required to be tunable to any frequency within
given frequency band. The tuned circuit can
have either its inductance or its capacitance
branch tapped to give the required impedance
transformation; in Fig.5.2, a capacitive tap has
been used.
 Single-tuned transformer-
coupled amplifiers

The primary winding of the transformer is connected in the collector or drain circuit
of the amplifying device used and has a low D.C. resistance to minimize the D.C.
Voltage dropped across it. In the transistor circuit of Fig.5.4a the secondary winding
is tuned and the base terminal of the following transistor T1 is connected to a tap
on the secondary winding. T2 cannot be directly connected across the secondary
winding because its low input resistance (approximately 1000 ohms) would so
heavily dampen the tuned circuit that little, if any selectivity would remain. An
alternative arrangement would be to tune the primary winding as shown in the FET
circuit of fig. 5.4b.
Double tuned amplifiers
• The gain/ frequency characteristics of the tuned amplifiers
mentioned so far are rounded and fall away on either side of
the operating frequency. This means that a single-tuned
amplifier cannot discriminate against unwanted frequencies
near resonance without at the same time discriminating
against some of the wanted frequencies. This disadvantage
can be overcome in tuned amplifiers designed to work at a
constant frequency by the use of a double-tuned amplifier
(Fig.5.6).
• A double tuned amplifier employs transformer coupling in
which both primary and secondary circuits are tuned to
resonate at the desired operating frequency. The
gain/frequency response of the amplifier is that or the RF
transformer and this, in turn depends upon the mutual
inductance between the two windings (see Fig. 5.7).
• If critical coupling is employed a more or less flat topped
characteristic is obtained and the circuit will discriminate
sharply against unwanted frequencies lying outside the flat
top. The use of double-tuned amplifiers is generally restricted
to fixed-frequency applications such as intermediate-
frequency (IF) amplifiers in radio receivers, because of
difficulties associated with the need for the simultaneous of
two coupled tuned circuits.
• The input resistance of a common-emitter connected
transistor is of the order of 1500 Ω and this figure is sufficiently
low to ruin the selectivity characteristic of the coupled circuits
if shunted directly across the secondary winding. It is
necessary, therefore, for the transistor to be connected to a
lap on the secondary winding, as shown in Fig.5.6.
CASCADED STAGES
• Very often the gain required from all amplifiers is greater than the gain that can
be obtained from a single stage.
• Then two or more stages must be cascaded to obtain the desired gain.
• The overall gain Av of a multi-stage amplifier is the product of the individual
stage gains for example, if the three stages of a particular amplifier had voltage
gains of 22, 27 and 20 respectively the overall voltage gain A v would be
22x27x20 = 11880.
• Unfortunately, cascading stages to increase the available voltage gain also has
the disadvantage of reducing the 3 dB bandwidth of the amplifier.
• Consider, for example, an amplifier having 3 dB frequencies of f 1 and f2
respectively.
• If the gain of each stage is 20, for two stages the overall gain at resonance is
202 = 400 and the gain at f1 and f2 is (20/1.41)2 = 200. The gain at f1 and f2 is only
one half of the resonant gain and this means that, for the two cascaded sages,
f1 and f2 are the 6 dB frequencies Obviously the 3dB bandwidth is no less than f 2
–f1 i.e. the bandwidth has shrunk.
• When three steps are considered the bandwidth shrinkage is even more
pronounced.
WIDE-BAND TUNED
AMPLIFIER
• Amplifiers in the 10 to 100 MHz range are often used for television receivers and
radar receivers, and in both cases wide bandwidths are required of the order of
5MHz. To obtain this wide bandwidth the Q of the tuned Circuit must be very
low- of the order of 5 to 10. If a single tuned circuit is used, the turns ratio to the
secondary coupling coil can be made near unity so that heavy damping is
introduced across the tuned circuit by the low input impedance of the next
stage. If a double tuned band-pass circuit is used it is necessary to connect a
suitable resistance across the collector tuned circuit and also is arranged that
the secondary circuit is correctly damped by the input of the next stage.
• 5.4.1 BANDWIDTH SHRINKAGE
• When a wide bandwidth RF amplifier is to be constructed, the bandwidth
shrinkage effect which occurs when a number of stages are synchronously tuned
is a serious disadvantage. For a multistage amplifier to have a given overall
bandwidth the individual stage bandwidth must be considerably wider. This
means that the Q-factor of the tuned circuit of each stage must be fairly low and
because of this the gain of each stage is reduced. The practical result is that the
increase in overall gain obtained when an extra stage is added will be less than
anticipated
STAGGER TUNING
• Better results can be obtained if the stages are not all tuned to the
same resonant frequency.
• This process is called stagger tuning and is illustrated by Fig. 5.8.
• Two stages are tuned to frequencies spaced equally either side of
the wanted center frequency fo and provided their bandwidth are
suitable chosen, the overall response is reasonable flat over the
operating bandwidth.
• When three stages are employed, one stage is tuned to the
desired operating frequency with the other two stages tuned one
above and one below that frequency.
• Stagger-tuned stages are commonly used whenever a wideband,
fixed frequency amplifier is to be designed.
• Some examples are intermediate frequency (IF) amplifiers in
television receivers and in UHF/SHF radio-relay systems.
INTERGRATED CIRCUIT RF
AMPLIFIERS
• The gain/frequency characteristics of the tuned RF amplifiers so far mentioned have
been specified by the parallel-resonant circuits connected as the collector or drain loads.
• Inductors cannot be fabricated within a silicon chip and so an integrated tuned amplifier
must have its frequency determining components provided externally.
• Often, instead of tuned circuits, the selectivity is determined by means of a ceramic or a
crystal filter.
• A variety of different IC RF amplifiers are available from several different manufacturers.
Parameters of typical integrated circuit are as follows:
• i) Voltage gain Av = 20dB, bandwidth = 140 MHz, maximum input signal voltage = 100mV.
• ii) Voltage gain Av = 26dB, bandwidth = 100 MHz, maximum input signal voltage = 50mV.
• iii) Voltage gain Av =80dB, maximum input signal voltage =15 µV. input impedance =15Ω
in parallel with 100 pF capacitor.
• Many integrated RF amplifiers are associated with a number of other circuit functions
within the same package. For example, one IC contains an RF amplifier, an oscillator and
a mixer, while a second IC adds an IF amplifier a detector to the functions of the first.
Amplifier classes
• Class A – group 1
• Class AB – group 2
• Class B – group 3
• Class C – group 4
TUNED RF POWER
AMPLIFIERS
• Tuned radio-frequency power amplifiers find their main
application in radio and television transmitting where the
transmitted power may be anything from a few watts to
hundreds of kilowatts.
• When dealing with high power levels the maximum possible
efficiency is essential and for this reason tuned power
amplifiers are operated under either class C or B conditions.
• Class B operation of a valve or transistor means that the
device is biased to its cut-off point so that it conducts current
only during alternative half- cycles of the input signal
waveform.
• With class C operation the amplifying device is biased beyond
cut-off so that current flows in a series of less-than-half sine
wave pulses.
• A decoupling capacitor is a capacitor used to decouple one
part of an electrical network (circuit) from another.
• Noise caused by other circuit elements is shunted through the
capacitor, reducing the effect it has on the rest of the circuit.
• An alternative name is bypass capacitor as it is used to bypass
the power supply or other high impedance component of a
circuit.
• A bypass capacitor is a capacitor that shorts AC signals to
ground, so that any AC noise that may be present on a DC
signal is removed, producing a much cleaner and pure DC
signal.