Effect of the Cathode Capacitor on P-P Output Stage ROBERT M. MITCHELL Because of the fact that some amplifiers use a bypass capacitor across the cathode resistor in the push- pull output stage and some do not, the conclusions reached in this paper should be of considerable inter est, Note, however, that these conclusions refer only to Class A amplifiers, while most modern ampl fiers are designed to work up into the Class AB region. is one of the resolts of « balanced stage. ‘The Initial Avereach Figure 1 shows the basic push-pull ‘output cireuit with signal voltages labeled and the bypass capacitor in question, Cy, shown in series with a witch whioh will allow it to be Snaerted for removed at will during the course ‘of measurements, Tt should be noted ‘hat this ia the eommon type of push pull circuit, and the entire discussion which follows is condned to this eirenit and tio relly and devin, it has Sroowe swneite forthe auto soginer to examine some af hep. Cedars hat formerly were tke largely for granted. Among thee procedures i the te of the by-pass capacitor in Chae pope tpt tage "The pe oor of thin captor seems evident fone, yet the engineer i constantly Saing eres without this component fd jal ae froguenly fading eeuls with it 'To make the mater tore Dua 2g aly be wl ead ope authors ed fellows ig conned to thle, cen sod Socio hat ou abuaately noses Ga Sa RGSS aire ieee ee on erp sary, and another's that its use is ranged to switch capacitor in or out of | cireuit. specially to be avoided. ne revit for measurements described. ‘The actual amplifiers used in the teat Tp view of thia ambiguity of opinion, were the UTC W-10 Williamson ampli- 58 was felt that a test af the difference sommop onthode, it is sino tron that ers, nines these conform almost exactly would be interesting. ‘Tho reli, whieh since they appear as in-phase inputs at to Williamson's circuit. (See Fig. 2.) tro not. always, co ntcpaied, are ‘age ty appear as i-phne ipl Presented ‘in this article, along! with Gh Sri? tes ed 19 he pict Teste same evaluation of the outcome. The "Another and more serious change is _ The first messurements made were of nature of this investigation neccesitated ya the even-order distortion terms of total harmonie distortion, using « Geu- the examination of some of the effects 1 kinds which pass through the eathode eral Radio Type 1032-A Noise and Dis- of balancing techniques in the Out ution may ers molulte with the lotion Meter, and a low-dstorton Sage tn well and the ests of tis Dat vata and ne ite Thiet tequency wee 80 ae ot the undertaking are also pre: i2emt wallace and th Go and. messurements were made st oer which, not necessarily being in phaoe from 4 wat ‘Hib cach otter, may appear it the ona te wer de J Peblom tpt sampler ing 561 ee ‘As a representative of the other ("‘un- stage, and gave very consistent results. Proponents of bypassed cathode op- bypassed”) school of thouzht, William- The addition of the bypass espacitor qation maotain, among other thingy, san sate {Wirese Word, May sleeve icrewed the ifrton, rgard- ‘hat since the even-order harmonic terms 947) “A feature of this arrangement less of power level. The increase was which are generated in the output stage js that the valves operate with a eom- very slight, but nevertheless very definite, of necessity pass through the common mon unbypassed cathode bias resistor, The total distortion was small, so it be- eathode resistor, they therefore sppetr which ussists in preserving the balance came very difficult to measure, expecially between grid and cathode of both tubes, of the stage under dynamic conditions,” since the distortion of the oscillator it- sre thus introduetd at igs, e000 Sod inthe August Toad ‘neue’ "Due fo wef wes of te sume order of magni fear in he output. While i gute trie tke ae of common unbyresed ressors as that of the amplier. Consequently, it Sha ta even harmonic tes do appear for the posh pl sage, the amplifer mas deed to mean theperformanee ss voltage drop from each grid tothe yen elf balancing to sigaal.--” widoat feedback. This ctange would Here, then, are te two opporing views Increase the distortion, of course, bat vu tie fabs ual te ensoor nivenced would not offek the ction of the : foreach by their respective proponents. capacitor. ‘The revlls of this tit. were The meaturements discribe bere ‘ithongh the retsns advanced sem to similar, with distortion increasing When ese alt i Iterator of the Satya, iy semonnble to auune the apace wn ued, (See Fg). ed caraptormer Company Oring that redotion of distortion iv alse the These reals were obtained consent Me pee rien t stat sved hy Watinnon, nines thin after ourerour heske and reebok‘ding tests at higher frequencies (600 tnd 2000 eps), ‘Several ‘curves were rawn and the date wan about to De nae tembled for write-up when it waa decided {o eubstitate woe other type of ontput ‘tubes and se if there was any difference. ly, a pai of 1618's was subst the teste re-ran. The revlla ‘were as complete a reversal of the trend tr could be imagined! Almost every teat showed lower distortion withthe eapaei= for én the cireit. A typical messuremeat is Ulasteated in Fig. 4. In view of such ‘onfliting resis, ib was decided to re- measure with as) many different (ube types and amplifers an possible. Conse- ‘quently, the tect sehedule outlined below ras evolved. (1) Pour different stock ampliers with 1614 tubes were checked for total bbarmonie distortion ona distortion ameter, (2) The same four were checked for Individual harmonie distortion compo- ‘nents on a wave analyzer, (8) The meamurements of (2) were made with different degrees of current ‘unbalance (2) Ove amplifier wae checked with four diferent ets of utp ties al of face diretlyinterebangeable in the UTC W-10. These four seta indaded fo pairs of 1ais's and one each of KsTet's and 5881's (3) The amplider of (4) wae checked for intermodulation distortion with the three tube types mentioned bore, 18) The amplifier of (4) was ex tunined for transient distortion by the square wave method, with differing de- ies of current unbalance, (7) All measurements were made with the 100.R8 bypess capacitor switshed in and out of the clveuit and the couparisoas made pont-by-pofat on fs ASD lai Care wa taken Uo prevent ‘any transient disturbance during eonnee- tion or diseonnestion of the expacitor from being ineluded a recorded data, eats ‘The outcome of the harmonic distor- tion measurements of (1) was very in- conclusive at low frequencies. The addi ton of the capacitor either reduced oF Increased the isbortion depending va ‘which type of tobe was used, and even ‘Varied among tubes of the same type. At the higher frequencies, however, the nddition of the capacitor quite consi svaced the distortion. ‘This ambiguity of reslts pointed up. the need for'a more refined analysis, so the next step was to measure the individ- unl harmenie components on a ware analyzer. A fundamental frequency af 50'eps was chosen, and the second and third harmonies were checked, with out- put tube currents adjusted to" produce there four diferent conditions: (2) Misimum wubalaueed current (2) Minimum Srdbarmonie in the oxtpat (3) Maximum unbalanced current in one direction (2) Moximom unbalanced corrent in opposite direction Again the reslta were indefisite, with diferent tube types or diferent tubes of the same type giving different results, fia wo prepuuderauce uf senlle une way for the other. Figure 5 shows a graphic ‘comparizon of the results of this test for ‘to partieular pairs of output tuber, ‘An interesting, and rather unexpected, Sniling was that tho oapacitor made ® (greater relative change in dstortio, thc lover the system was to balance Wb (greatest aliferencas inthe two eon!i-s {king place when the currents wer = {usted to produce « minimum of 'h hharmonie, This is shown clearly in ‘The condition for minimum thini lr tmonie waa ali found to oatar very ow to that for minimum second harmon close in faet that the two were > cally coincident. or example, when the currents were sdjonted for minimsm wnbalanen oF ‘inimam third harmonic, addition ofthe capacitor produced changes of the order of two or four to ase, When the enrrents were greatly out of balance, however, the addition of the capacitor caused changer of the order of only 10 per cent for less, although the distortion terms Were muek larger, of course, Ie was ale Found that the coadition for minimun Sreramenaw eT Do ma Bes m eames, Onn mrarel ce Cols Fig. 3. Hormonie distortion curves on am plier of Fig. 2. with and without bypors capaci. ‘unbalanced earrent wat generally net ‘the condition for minimum harmonie ds tertion, This isnot surprising, sine the {net thet the two tubes are in tate ha lance (Ge. conditions) does not mean that they are also balanced dymanicalle (ae conditions), The purpore of the Delaneing errangement in the “Wiliam: fon” amplifier is primarily to winimiae ‘the unbslaneed de. eurreut in the outpet transformer primary, and thereby ine erence the lov-frequesey respons, while simultaneously reducing core saturation, Invermodulation Distortion ‘The ment step was to measure the fa termoduletian distortion of the sxpliir, sand since tho method of measurement ‘was not that most widely used, a brief disevssion of the technique will be. of Tnlermodalation distortion oocura when two or more frequencies interact fo ns to produce frequency components whieh are proportional to the peodost of the input Frequencies. One result of such a rele- tionship isthe production of frequenciesTYPE Je pain rowr eee ay : i 5 z qual to the som and difference of the tro input frequencies, or of one input and harmonies of the olber, ele, This tution is the basis of our common system ef amplitude modulation, where the pro- dustion of such sidebande is « necessary Telace of Whe process, Ta the commonly ‘sed (and niost familiar) method of in- ferwodulation tests, a high-frequency tae {the carrier) is modulated by a low- requeney tone, and the resulting side- inde dotocted and mensured hy site ‘le circa, Although this method is an exelent indication of nonlinearity which gon ally correlates elosely with listening tests, ‘t vas found that another method gave resus whieh sometimes seemed t0 corre: lste even more closely. This second nnethed of intermodulation distortion measurement also vtilizes the fact that tilference frequencies are produced, Im ‘bie method, gunorelly ealled the COIP rurthod, two high-frequency tones of qual amplitude end separated in fre- ‘qeney by a fixed amount are applied to the device under test. The output is rueasured by a wave analyzer tuned to ‘ne of the distortion frequencies such as Je fo Be fv 08 2, =f, ad the distor- ion voltage ia expressed aa a percentage of the sum of the two input voltages Figure 6 shows the two types of inter: ‘uudulation is graphle form. One notiew- thle fenture of the CCIF type is the location of the differenoe-frequeney com potent f,~ fe. Sinee thin component is 00 far removed from the two input frequen cvs thar ig Inea tondoney for the nignsl tomssk the distortion as there might be in the SMPTE method, or in the CCTF nuethod for the 2f,~f, und 2f,~f, terms. This difference tone is particularly ol Jectionable when it falls in tho region of iaarimum sensitivity of the ear (400 to 5000 epa), and is notieeable in amounts sa all asa fraction of one per cent. Tt must be pointed out, however, that doe tthe difference in method of expressing percentages in the two methods, equiva lant peremtsges are wnt indicative af equivalent degrees of nonlinearity. The SMPTE values appear relatively high while the COIF values appear relatively low for the same nonlinearity? Ta using the CCLF method of measure ment two procedures are commonly used. One is to select two fixed input frequen, cies aud measure the distortion as the power output is varied. The other is to Select a fixed power output level and to ‘ary the two luput frequsscies sinule taneously, maintaining a constant dif ference frequency. The frst is rather readily accomplished, whereas the second requires cither a special omilator such fas the General Hadio 1303-4, oF two ‘seillators calibrated with sufficient e- PERCENT Tmo HARREME 5 Fig. 5. Comporative distortions with dif ferent typer of tubes in the output stoge ‘show different results earacy to enable the difference to be readily distinguished from the dial set- tings. ‘The stock oscillator in the UTC laboratories is a deende-type oscillator with an securacy of four places, and ‘consequently is ideal suited to any such application. ‘Two such oscillators are used with the simple mixer-potentiometereireait shown in Fig. 7 to provide control of Erequency and output of either oscilator and the overall voltage outpet, The isolating resistor networks prevent any interac: *A discussion of the two methods of intermodulation distortion measurement will be found in the General Radio Com. any “Technical Publication B-3, The Measurement of Nowlinzar Distortion, by Ammold Peterson. 7. Method of connecting two au tnillatrs 10 provide CCI type of UA wig. ok without Introducing intermodulation in the mixing circu, tion, an consequent intermodulation, Tetween tbe two enistors “The CIP inermolelaton tert were performed sing bath methods tentioned hove. When tortion was measured i Tanstion of power lve, te following Felttne were taken into einsieretion! Sine to Eeauencna. ane ieniend, conpies {wonsiuscdal) wave 1s pro- Shue, and the indieation of a2 ordinary ‘zcauin tube voltmeter i, therefore, not ntti detaining tbe power level by to enstommry formula P= B*/R. Fore thermore, unc one wave rides fe ole, the peak value of the two waver may race value egoal fo the algebra sum OF the invidual waves with the result {bat overuad en occur for tno fregien- fhm wl ac i ony onechld fhe ams Pitde ruined for overload by a single frequeney. (See Fig. 8) Since cach wave isonly one-taf the taxinain ampli, it tam. produce only one-quarter the Jower-of nance maximus amplitude Mave. The power ssl fon feo sich Mraves withost aay pomblity of over Toul ior therefore, only one-half. the jer avaible from a singlestrequeney Rave The carves forthe CCT intermods itdow tet are caravan tee of Nolte av read onan aio trequeney ‘Continued on along pe) Fig. 6 Comparison of frequencies pres Cent in two different types of intermody- lation measurements.ag [caer maximum voltage resulting from mixing two. signols of lightly different fre- ‘quency and of the same amplitude, ot In the CCIF method. vyecuum-tube voltmeter. In seeordance ‘with the above, maximum power level is equivalent to an output vollage reading ‘of about 933 volte on these curves, The eurves of Fig. 0 were obtained by ‘maintaining the indjeated input frequen cies constant, varying the input voltage up to overload and above, and messuring Ue Msst-order differenes frequency. The tubes used were 1614's and the difference frequency was 400 cps. Notice that al- though the difference in distortion i slight, it is slmost always lower when the authode resistor jn bypassed. ‘The same revulte wore obtained with 5881's ‘hd KT-66's, "The curves of Fig. 10 were obtained by Keeping the inpit voltages constant and varying the input frequencies. This vwas done for three dfference-freqaen- cies, providing a consideruble amount of ange overlap as shown, The tubes used were KT.60's. Again itis seen that the ‘capacitor effects a slight but definite im- provement. (Note thar cach difterence frequency has separate distortion ordi ‘As a final check the amplifier square wave response was observed for different (Amounts of current unbalance, With wn balanced eurrents up to 10 ma in either ‘ireetion there was no discernible differ ‘ence in the ovtpat wave shape ar the fapacitor was added or removed a! fre- 9. Effet of copactor on CCIF inver- ‘modulation mearurements at two differ ‘ont oreat ofthe framuency spectum, Fig. 10. Effect of capacitor on CCIF inter ‘modulation meosurements whan differ fence Frequency tr varied. (The three pairs of curves are plotted to different base Tinea) ‘quencies from 20 to 20,000 eps. At ios frequencies there was a noticesble round ing of the trailing edges as the unbalance exceeded 10 ma. (See Fig. 11} These re sulls were obtained with any of the three types of output tubes. From the foregoing experiments st least one curious resolt stands oul: fn Class A amplifier the use of a bypass ‘capacitor across the output eathode gen erally reduees the intermodulation dis: tortion, although it may either decrease or increase the harmonie distortion, The decision ss to whether or not to tse such eapmritvr depends unity om the magnitade of the distortion. IE itis ‘very small, then it may be safely left off ‘with no possible audible difference, Tie is only moderately low, then the use of bypnea capacitor ie nlvienle All of the foregoing applies to a Class A-amplider only. In the case of a Clase ‘AB amplifier the bypass capacitor it ab- ‘olately necessary if the amplifier ie to Pegg wih the odes nits of igh deity performance. aa 1 Effect of current unbolance on Ware waves, Note that only the low frequency is affected, as indicated by ‘ounding of wailing adge of wav