55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Midterm 2 Exam
Name: _____________________ Max: 56 Points

Question 1 (2 points each unless noted otherwise)

1. What frequency is 2.2 decades higher than 500 Hz?

(a) 1.01 kHz (b) 644 Hz (c) 522 Hz (d) 79.24 kHz

Answer: 2.2 = log( 500), so that = 79.24 Hz, so (d) is the answer.

2. The internal circuitry of the 555 timer consists of ________, an R-S flip-flop, a transistor switch,
an output buffer amplifier, and a voltage divider.

(a) a comparator
(b) a voltage amplifier
Answer: two comparators
(c) two comparators
(d) peak detector

3. Briefly explain why the duty cycle of the basic 555-timer astable
multivibrator can never be 50%.

Answer: The timing capacitor charges through and and

during this time, the output is high. The capacitor discharges
through and during this time the output is low. + >
ON time is always larger than OFF time, duty cycle is
always more than 50%

4. In the circuit below = 1 mA and all the capacitors are large enough to be considered shorts.
Estimate the midband gain = .

(a) 6.8
(b) 3.4
(c) 272
(d) 136
(e) 12.1

Answer: (d)

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

5. In the circuit below = 1 mA and all the capacitors are large enough to be considered shorts.
Estimate the midband gain = .

(a) 12.1
(b) 8
(c) = 272
(d) 136
(e) 6.1

Answer: ( || )560 = 3.40.56 = 6.07, so (e).

6. In the current mirrors below, neglect base currents and take REF = 30 A, What is copy2 ?

(a) 30 A
(b) 30 A3 = 10 A
(c) 30 A2 = 15 A
(d) 2 30 A = 60 A
(e) 3 30 A = 90 A

Answer: (d)

7. Consider the following drive circuit for an IR remote control. The drive signal is a 05 V square
wave and = 9 V. The BJT is replaced with an NPN Darlington transistor. The new peak
current through the IR diode will be

a) Increased by
b) Increased by 2
c) Halved
d) Doubled
e) Stay the same

Answer: () for a Si Darlington is about double that of a normal BJT. Thus, about double
the current must flow before the Darlington turns on.

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

8. The transistor in the amplifier shown has = 350 and is biased at = 1 mA. Determine .
You may ignore .

a) 14.1K
b) 17.2K
c) 13.7K
d) 1.05K

Answer: = = 35040 = 8.75K. Using BJT scaling, = 65K18K +

(1 + )(1.3K), = 13.68K , so (c) is the answer.
9. Consider the following drive circuit for an IR remote control. The drive signal is a 05 V square
wave and = 9 V. The average current through the LED is

a) 83 mA
b) Need additional information
c) 41 mA
d) 58.3 mA
e) 525 mA

Answer: The BJT is off until the LED current reaches a peak of 0.712 = 58.3 mA. Then it
turns on and prevents the MOSFET from turning on further. With a 70% duty cycles this peak
corresponds to an average of 0.7 58.3 41 mA, so (c).

10. Consider the circuit shown. Assume () = 0.64 V, = 200, and

= 9 V. With = 3K, 1 mA, and the BJT is not in saturation.
When is changed to 1K, the new will be

a) Essentially unchanged
b) 3 1 mA = 3 mA
c) 1 mA3 = 333 A
d) Need additional information
Answer: (a)

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Question 2 For the BJT amplifier shown, determine .

Assume the transistor is operating in the forward active mode.
Assume () = 0.65 V, and = 44 (5 points)

Solution Replace the coupling capacitor with an open circuit and replace the base bias network with its
Thevenin equivalent network as shown below.

= 1 ||2 = 6.06K
8
= 24 = 5.82 V
8 + 25
= 0.65 V

Now
+ + 0.6 + = 0

However, = (1 + ) so that

+ + 0.6 + (1 + ) = 0
5.82 + ( )6.06K + 0.65 + (45)( )(1K) = 0

Solving yields = 101 A.

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Question 3 For the circuit, = 300, 1 = 120K, 2 = 75K, and

assume = 1 mA.
(a) Show that = 7.5K. (2 points)
(b) Determine the output resistance using BJT scaling. You
may ignore . (3 points)
(c) Determine the lower 3-dB bandwidth in Hz (2 points)
(d) Determine the mid-band voltage gain. (1 points)

Solution

Part (a) = 40 = 40 mS, and = = 7.5K

Part (b) Using BJT impedance scaling

7.5K
= = 4K = 24.7 25
1 + 301

Part (c) The capacitor sees a resistance + 25 so that = 25 2 = 50 s and 3 dB =

1(2) = 3.18 kHz.

Part (d) The mid-band voltage gain is 1 (the circuit is an emitter follower).

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Question 4 An engineer uses the circuit shown to estimate the input offset voltage and input bias
of the op-amp as follows. At = 0 she opens the switch and measures the output voltage at different
times. The table shows her measurements for 1 = 10 , = 1K, and = 1 F. Plot her data and use
the plot to estimate . Be sure to label plot axes. (4 points)

(seconds) (V)
20 1.5
40 2.6
60 3.25

Solution

The linear fit intercepts the voltage axis at

about 0.5 V. The gain of the noninverting
amplifier is = 1 + 1K10 = 101, so that
the offset voltage is about 0.5101 5 mV.
4

3
(V)

10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time (seconds)

Question 5 For the circuit shown, =350, and =

2.5 mA. What is the voltage gain = ? (2 points)

Solution The voltage gain is approximately 1 (this is a follower; does not affect the gain)

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Question 6 The figure is a plot of the open-loop

gain function for the LT1007 voltage amplifier. An
engineer will use the amplifier as a non-inverting
amplifier with a mid-frequency voltage gain of 10.

(a) What is the GBP of the LT1007? (2 points)

(b) Use the plot and estimate the bandwidth of the

feedback amplifier. (2 points)

(c) Write an expression for the gain () for the

feedback amplifier. (2 points)

(a) The open loop gain is 120 dB (1 106 ) at = 10 Hz, so the GBP is 10 MHz. Alternatively, the BW
is about 10 MHz when the open loop gain is 0, so the GBP is 10 MHz.

(b) A voltage gain of 10 is equivalent to a gain of 20 log10 (10) = 20 dB. A horizontal line at 20 dB
intercepts the LT1007 gain curve at 950 kHz. Alternatively, from the GBP, with a gain of 10, the
bandwidth is 1 MHz.

(c) The closed-loop response is

10
() =

1 +
1 106

Question 7 Consider a first-order RC low-pass filter with 3-dB frequency = 60 Hz. By how much
does it delay a 50 Hz sine wave? Express you answer in ms. (3 points)

Solution The phase shift at 60 Hz is 45 and increases at 45 / decade. 50 Hz is log(5060) = 0.08

decades higher than 60 Hz. (The negative sign implies 50 Hz is 0.08 decades before 60 Hz.) Thus, the
phase shift is 45 0.08 45 = 41.4. The period of a 50 Hz sine wave is 20 ms, so the delay is
(20)(41.4360) = 2.3 ms. An alternate and more accurate calculation for the phase is tan1 (5060) =
39.8 and delay of 2.2 ms.

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Question 8 Shown is the functional diagram of dual current source IC,

REF200. In addition to two 100-A sources, the IC incorporates a
current mirror. For each of the circuits below, determine .
(6 points)

(a) (b) (c)

Iout
Iout

Iout

Solution (a) 50 A, (b) ( + 1)100 A (c) 50 A

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 55:041 Electronic Circuits. The University of Iowa. Fall 2014.

Question 9 For the op-amp in

the circuit show below, the
supply voltage is 15 V and the
slew rate is 1 V/s. Sketch the
output voltage for the first
. (4 points)

Solution

4
(V)

5 10 15 20
4.5 Time (s)
The gain of the amplifier is = 1 + 80K10K = 9. The input signal ramps up at the start with a rate
0.5 V. The desired leading ramp at the output is 9 0.5 = 4.5 Vs. However, the amplifier has a
slew rate of 1 V/s, so that it will reach 4.5 V after 4.5 s.