CHAPTER 6 Valve Amplifiers D.C. Amplifier. Suppose some such device as a photocell, thermocouplo or glass-eleotrode for pH messuroments produces ‘9 amall diroot curront of tho order of 1 wA., whieh itis required ‘to amplify so that it can bo registored on a milliammeter, or made ‘to actuate a cireult requiving groator power than the device itself yields. A basi cirouit arrangement whereby thixean be arranged is indicated in ig. 48, where a triode valve is used asa D.C. amplifier. UT Fro. 48, ass D0 Ample Ore ‘The small current available is caused to pass through a resis: tanoo of, say, 1 M2. Thue e cument of 1 4A. passod through 138, will produce « B.D. of 1. This P-D. ia placed across the agrid-cathode of a teiode valve in aorica with a negative grid bias, ‘The negative grid bias ie lange enough to prevent the grid going positive, and so drswing grid current on application of the D.C. input. ‘Tho input resistance of the triode is therefore high, of the onder of § to § MO, for an ondinary triode valve, Positive ion feurrent and cleotrial Jeakago prevents tho input resistance ‘of « normal valve from being higher, though these disadvantages ‘can be overoome using a special type of electrometer triode, ‘The great virtue of the triode valve aa» D.C, amplifier lies in ‘te high input resistance, since it ensbles an E.M.P. input of high {internal rsiatanoe and low eurrent to be applied without damping, the high resistance is not reduoed by & lower resistance due to the valve being put in parallel with it, Even oo an input BAL, souroe of resistance greater then 2 MO. cannot be effectively ‘employed using a standard triode in a normal cient. f the triodo of the cizeuit has « mutual conductance of, say, 2 mA./V. at the anode potential used, then the anode ourrent ‘changed, by the 1V-P-D. applied to the grid, by 2mA. Henos fa device giving « current of only 1 wA. has given rise to an anode current change of 2 mA. "This is a D.C. current amplification of 2mA./1 pA, oF 2000 times, Likewise if the HT. battery potential raised po a8 to accommodate in the valvo anode circuit a caries resistance of 60 k®,, and yet achieve the same anode potential as before, despite the D.C. volts drop in this anode load, then the change of 2 mA. across 50 IQ. produces a voltage change across the load of 2/1000 60,000 100 V. A grid potential change of LY, has then given riao to an anode potential change of 100 V. ‘4 DO, voltago aumplifcation effect of 100 times is wchieved, Alternating Voltage Amplifier. Class A. A common re- quirement, especially in radio roooivers i that a small alternsting potential should be amplified, without distortion of wave-form, to give rise to a larger alternating potential, ‘This is achieved ‘using a triode Clase A amplifier ciruit. "The circuit of fig. 402 is used. An anode load resistance 2 is soontial in order that a voltage variation of the anode is produced by the variation of anode current due to the grid potential changes, ‘The valvo mutual characteristic indicated in fig, 49) hhence has to be tho so-called dynamic characteristic, which is ‘obtained exactly as the atatiocharacteriatio, but with the neocssary ‘anode Toad resistance in the circuit. ‘This load resistanoo will reduce the mutual conductance g,, of the valve to a lower value fe’, and, mareover, tho dynamic’ mutual characteristic will be ‘ore linear than the stati curve., IF the grid potential is increased positively, the corresponding inciease of anode eurrent causes an inoreased ‘volts drop across the anode load resistance. Since the ‘sotual anode potential i the HLT. potential minus the voltage ‘drop across the anode load, ao the anode potential falls. As the ‘gid volts aro increased so the anode volts are docreased, and, vice vvorm, a decreaso of grid volts causes an increase of anode voltsIf the grid voltage is altornating, then the anode voltage, with an ‘anode lond resistance in circuit, sltornates in anti-phase. Ob- ‘viously the change of 1-V. on the grid will produce an anode voltage chango whioh affects tho anode current in the reverse Uirection to the effect of the grid volta change. In other words ‘the statio mutual conductance is redueed to the dynamic mutual ‘conduetance. Tn operating the amplifer without distortion, Class 4 con- ditions are observed: (1) The straight portion only of the dynamic mutual characteris- tie is utilised, Le. the input alternating potential to the grid must produce grid voltage changes which are such that the anode ‘current variations are in direct proportion. (2) The grid must not be driven positive, otherwise grid current wil flow, and power be drawn fom the input souroe, causing damping. ‘Thus if the inpnt voltago has a RLS, value of 8 V., then the positive peak input volts is 3y2=42 V. ‘The negative steady {rid bias tsed must therefore he at least —£2 Y., so that the fltemating plus direct inputs in series do not give rise to a positive id Tn acoordanoe with requirements (1) and (2, the sinuoidal waveform representing the input to the eirouit of fig. 49a is ‘ccommodated under the negative straight portion ofthe dynamic haractoriatio of the chart, fg. 490 Tf tho RMS. input voltage =Z,, then the RMS. anode ‘current varietion produced in sories with the steady anode courrent is gq". Bp, Wheto gq’ is the dynamic mutual conductanoe of the valve, Consequently, tho RAS. value of the alternating voltage across the anode load Ris gq” Hol ‘The voltage amplifeation factor (V.A.P.) oF stago-gain (m) of the clreuit is defined as Output RAMS, voltago across anode load, © Taput LACS, voliage to grid m= ge! x ‘This is not the most convenient stage-gain formula to use in ‘practice, since g,’ is not known unlesa itis obtained by plotting aT + a Laie Ree (@) cise A voersce aunuiien MOO RET Nanton AVA Ree ae +X Tei (b) CHART 1LUSTRATING cLAG® A AMPLIFICATION (©) cineurr exeermeater rowvatenr “Te cuASs AAMMLIER, serie on tng Ci 8 eg tele, Char ring Cl‘the mutual characteristic for the valve with the anode lond to ‘be used. ‘Stage-Gain Formula. A cirouit whieh it electrically equi- valent to that of fig. 491 is shown in fig. de ‘Tho valvo is dispensod with in thie circuit on tho assumption that the change of potential J, on the grid is equivalent to an anode voltage change of ul, by deGnition of tho amplification factor, Across pF there is effectively the anode load R, and the A.C. resstanco of the valve 2, in series. Sinee linear operation of the eironit is pre-arranged, so Olm's law is applicable, and tho RAMS. value ofthe series ourvent inthe eruit is TauBoh(R+R) Correspondingly, there appears across the anode load R, a vollage variation of RMLS. value given by 1B, equal to we RiR+B) ‘The gain m is therefore why. R py alt BR, PER, Selection of Anode Load Resistance Value. In ig. 50 acurve {s plotted of gain vs. anode load resistance & for a particular valve. (186) . Cee] It 60, Graph of Gain node Lad 2 for Cla Amie, ‘As R is increased, so the gain inoreases to a maximum value of i, the valve amplification factor. Tt would therefore soom desirable ‘to uso as high a value for aa possible. Against this consideration, however, it must be realised that the presence of @ great value for 8 will introduce an excessively large D.C. volts drop between ‘the HLT. supply and the valve anode. This voltage drop is inevitable using a resistance load because of the necessary direct anode current through the valve, In practice, therefore, a com- promise is adopted whereby to obtain the maximum outpat alternating voltage without using an excessive HT. supply, the ‘node load resistance is chosen to be threo to four times the valve A.C. resistance. From the ourve of fg. 60 it can be readily seen ‘that this doce not produce any serious loss of gain, In auch circumstances the valve stesdy anode potential will be about one- ‘third of the fall ILT. supply volts, ‘Multistage D.C. Amplifiers, The circuit of fig. 48 can be extended to obtain another stage of amplifcation by using a ‘second valve to amplify the output of the frst, Thus a direct ‘current or voltage amplification of, gay, 100 times ean be obtained from each stage, giving a total amplification of 100°, or 10,000 times. Indeed, moto stages ean be added so that a very small ‘D.C. voltage input to the first valve ean be magnified by as mach ‘6 millon times: an input of 1 V. can give ike to an output of LV. ‘Theoretically, there is no limit to the total amplieation obtainable in this manner, but a practical limit ia seb by “shot coffe, thermal agitation “noise”, snd fluctuations of HT. supply voltages (se0 pp. 184 and 168), A circuit showing D.C. amplifying stages connected in cascade is shown in fg. a, ‘A small input D.C voltage applied to valve V; grid gives vse to a larger voltage across the anode load 2, between tho points A and B. The point 4 is connected to the cathode of valve V vie ‘the HLT. battery of voltage By; the point 2 is connected to the avid of Y, vin a grid bins battery of voltage Voy, ‘The total D.O. potential appesring cross the grid to eathode of Vis therefore: By=Ly,R,— Vow, where 1, ia the anode current of valve Vy 'f the valve V, is to operate without grid current flow, then ‘this voltage must be 2er0, or somewhat negative, so tho grid bias battery supplying Vo, must have a potential of at least ~(iy~ Tal). ‘The chief disadvantage of such a method of connection is, therefore, the large geid bina battery required for the second stage, ‘Again, this amplifier exhibits a tondeney to “sift”, whioh is more pronounced the greater the amplification attempted. ‘This drift