Electronic Circuits I Laboratory

9 Multistage Amplifiers and Logarithmic Scales

9.1 Objectives
To measure and calculate the voltage gain of a multistage amplifier.
To learn dB concept.
To plot the frequency reponse curve.

9.2 Description
When the amplification of a single stage amplifier is not efficient for some
purpose, two or more stages may be connected in cascade. That is, the output of a
given stage is connected to the input of the next stage. These two stages are coupled
by the RC network. The total voltage gain AV of a multistage amplifier equals the
product of the voltage gains of each stage. That is,
AV = AV1 x AV2.
Decibels
The term bel is derived fron the surname of Alexander Graham Bell. For
standardization, the bel(B) is defined by the following equation relating two power
levels, P1 and P2:

P2
G = log10 bel. (9.1)
P1
It was found, however that the bel was too large a unit of measurement for
practical purposes, so the decibel (dB) is defined (10 decibels = 1bel). Therefore;

P2
G = 10 log10 dB. (9.2)
P1
The terminal relating of electronic communication
equipment (amplifiers, microphones, etc.) is commonly in
decibels.
There exists a second equation for decibels that is
applied frequently. It can be best described through the
system shown on the right. For Vi equal to some value V1,
we can write
(9.3)
V12
P1 =
Ri
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where Ri is the input resistance of the system. If Vi should be increased or decreased

to some other level, let s say V2, then:

V22
P2 = (9.4)
Ri
If we substitute into Equation (9.2) to determine the resulting difference in
decibels between the power levels, we obtain:
2
P2 V22 / Ri V
GdB = 10 log10 =10 log10 2 = 10 log10 2 and
P1 V1 / Ri V1
V (9.5)
GdB = 20 log10 2
V1
Frequently, the effect of different impedances is ignored and Equation (9.5)
applied simply to establish a basis of comparison between levels voltage or current.
For situations of this type, the decibel gain shoul be more correctly be referred as the
Voltage or Current Gain in decibels to differentiate from the common usage of
decibel as applied to power levels.
One of the advantages of the logarithmic relationship is the manner in which it
can be appllied to cascaded stages. For example, the magnitude of the overall voltage
gain of an n stage cascaded system is given by (as stated before)

AV = AV 1 AV 2 AV 3 AV n . (9.6)

Applying the proper logarithmic relationship results in

GV = 20log10 AV = 20log10 AV 1 + 20log10 AV 2

+ 20log10 AV 3 + +20log10 AV n (dB) (9.7)

In words, the equation states that the decibel gain of a cascaded system is
simply the sum of the decibel gains of each state, that is,

GdB = GdB 1 +GdB 2 +GdB 3 +.....+GdB n (dB) (9.8)

Table 9.1 shows the association between dB levels and voltage gains. First note
that a gain of 2 results in a dB level + 6 dB, whereas a drop to results in a -6 dB
level. A change in Vo/Vi from 1 to 10, 10 to 100 or 100 to 1000 results in the same
20 dB change in level. When Vo/Vi =1 the dB level is 0.

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Voltage Gain, Vo/Vi dB Level

0.5 -6
0.707 -3
1 0
2 6
10 20
40 32
100 40
1000 60
10,000 80

Table 9.1

9.3 Experiment Equipments

1. KL- 200 Linear Circuit Lab. Device
2. Experiment Module: KL-13008
3. Experiment Instruments:
Oscilloscope, Multimeter, Function Generator
4. Connection cables and short-circuit clips

9.4 Procedures
Procedure 1: Total Gain of a Cascaded Amplifier

( 1 ) Locate the block e on the module KL-13008.

( 2 ) Insert the short-circuit clips by referring to Fig 9.1.

Fig. 9.1
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( 3 ) Adjust the output of signal generator to 1 kHz sine wave with possible
minimum amplitude.

( 4 ) Measure and calculate the voltage gain and BW of whole system, in

linear and log. scales(dB) and record these in Table 9.2. If the output sine
voltage has a saturated (distorted) form, then connect VR3 (100K) for
pre-attenuation and make adjustment until you have the non-distorted
waveform.

( 5 ) Measure the gain of each stage while the whole circuit is active and
record these in Table 9.2.

( 6 ) Now, measure and calculate the voltage gain and BW of each stage
seperately (disconecting from whole circuitry) and record these in
Table 9.3.

( 7 ) Verify whether the equations (9.6) and (9.8) hold and comment on the
results.

Frequency Response
AV GV (dB)
fL (-3dB) fH (-3dB) BW

Overall

Stage 1

Stage 2

Table 9.2

Frequency Response
AV GV (dB)
fL fH BW

Stage 1

Stage 2

Table 9.3

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