ANALOG COMMUNICATION LABORATORY REPORT

BERYL ROBERT FERNANDEZ B080343EC BHAVANI.B.S B080524EC FATHIMA SININ B080120EC FEBA THOMAS B080385EC

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, CALICUT

EXPERIMENT-6
28th October 2010

IF AMPLIFIER

Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 2 UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 3 IMPLEMENTED DESIGN 3.1 Experimental set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Procedure and Observations . . . . . . . . . 4 RESULT 5 CONCLUSION 3 4 7 13 15 16 17

INTRODUCTION

In communication, the intermediate frequency (IF) is one to which the carrier frequency is shifted as an intermediate step in transmission or reception. At the receiver end, the IF is created by mixing the received RF signal with a locally generated signal (using the local oscillator), such that the dierence frequency obtained is the IF. IF is used for several reasons. At high frequencies, circuitry performs poorly. Active devices like transistors enter their region of non ideality and do not perform up to expectations. Connecting wires must be compensated for the distributed parameters phenomenon that is associated with them at high frequencies, introducing inductances and capacitances that contribute to the poor functionality of the circuit.[2] One of the biggest reasons for IF is that it is very dicult to build ampliers, lters and detectors that can be tuned to every single RF that is received by the receiver. Instead, it is simpler to build tunable oscillators that can produce the IF at the output of the mixer, which is then used as the common frequency for processing.[2] An IF amplier circuit is an amplier that selects the IF from the received signal and amplies it. The transfer function of the IF amplier is such that it provides a theoretical innite gain to the IF and a theoretical zero gain to all the other frequency components of the received signal. The amplier circuit is synthesized using pole-zero analysis such that the transfer function of the amplier provides a single dominant pole at the IF. All other poles that may appear due to stray and parasitic capacitances must be accounted for and annihilated.

UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

Poles and zeros are the singularities that give personality and identity to the circuit. The transfer function of a system can be expressed generally as follows: H(s) = bm sm + bm1 sm1 + ... + b1 s + b0 an sn + an1 sn1 + ... + a1 s + a0 (1)

This can be factorized and expressed as H(s) = K (s z1 )(s z2 )...(sz m1 )(s zm ) (s p1 )(s p2 )...(s pn1 )(s pn ) (2)

The roots of the equation for which the numerator vanishes are called the zeros of the transfer function. At the zeros, the transfer function drops to magnitude zero.
szi

lim H(s) = 0

(3)

The roots of the equation for which the denominator vanishes are called the poles. At the poles, the transfer function assumes innite magnitude.

spi

lim H(s) =

(4)

A pole pi for this system is represented as pi = + j. The poles and zeros are properties of the transfer function, and therefore of the dierential equation describing the input-output system dynamics. Together with the gain constant K they completely characterize the dierential equation, and provide a complete description of the system.[1]

The above gure shows the pole zero plot for a typical third order system consisting of a pair of conjugate poles, a single real pole and a real zero.[1] Consider the response of a system to a set of initial conditions to be of the form
n

y(t) =
i=1

C i e i t

(5)

where the constants Ci are determined from the given set of initial conditions and the exponents i are the roots of the characteristic equation or the system eigenvalues. The characteristic equation is D(s) = sn + an1 sn1 + ... + a0 = 0 (6)

and its roots are the system poles, that is i = pi .[1] It is then obvious from the above that A real pole to the left of the j axis, i.e. pi = denes an exponentially decaying component in the response. Rate of decay is given by the magnitude of . Larger the magnitude, i.e. farther it is from the j axis, more rapid is the decay. A pole on the origin, i.e. pi = 0 denes a component of constant magnitude determined by the initial components. A real pole at the right of the j axis, i.e. pi = denes an exponentially increasing component, thus rendering the system unstable.

 A complex conjugate pole pair j in the left-half of the s-plane combine to generate a response component that is a decaying sinusoid of the form Aet sin(t + ) where A and are determined by the initial conditions. The rate of decay is specied by the frequency of oscillation is determined by . An imaginary pole pair, that is a pole pair lying on the imaginary axis, j generates an oscillatory component with a constant amplitude determined by the initial conditions. A complex pole pair in the right half plane generates an exponentially increasing component, thus rendering the system unstable.[1]

IMPLEMENTED DESIGN

We initially consider an RLC circuit signifying the Intermediate Frequency Transformer (IFT), where the resistance R symbolizes the energy dissipation by the inductor and the capacitor in the tuned circuit. This network is then placed at the output of a basic CE amplier, in place of the collector resistor Rc .

The IFT is designed to produce a pair of conjugate poles at the IF of 455 kHz. But, placing this in the CE amplier circuit can produce other poles, and hence the transfer function must be analyzed. We assume the presence of the junction capacitances C and C in our analysis.

Using the concept of Miller eect, the feedback capacitance is split into two as follows.

R = r (1 + gm Rc ) CM = C + C (1 + gm Rc ) Vi (R r rb + (R
1 CM s ) 1 r CM s )

(7) (8)

V =

(9)

LetR = r

1 CM s

R=

r CM s

1 CM s

(10)

= =

r s(C +C (1+gm Rc ))) 1 r + s(C +C (1+gm Rc )))

(11) (12)

r sr (C + C (1 + gm Rc )) + 1 9

R =R R R = r r (1 + gm Rc ) r (1 + gm Rc )[sr (C + C (1 + gm Rc )) + 1 V = Vi R rb + R

(13) (14) (15)

Vi r (1 + gm Rc )r r (1 + gm Rc )r + rb r (1 + gm Rc )[sr (C + C (1 + gm Rc )) + 1] = Vi r r + srb r [C + C (1 + gm Rc ) + 1] = s(GM = Vi + 1)rb + 1

(16)

(17) (18)

Vi (CM +1)rb 1 + (CM +1)rb

(19) (20)

gm V (R Ls

1 ) = Vo Cs

1 gm Vi (R Ls Cs ) = Vo gm (CM + 1)rb + 1 1 gm (R Ls Cs ) H(s) = srb (CM + 1) + 1

(21)

(22) (23)

(LCs2

gm RLs + RCs + 1)(1 + rb (CM + 1)s)

We note there are 3 poles and one zero. The zero is at: s=0 The poles are at: s= 1 rb (CM + 1) R 1 ( )2 L LC 10 (25) (24)

s=

1 2

(26)

From this, it is observed that the transfer function consists of a pair of conjugate poles corresponding to that of the IFT and a single real pole that depends inversely on the Miller capacitance.

The pair of conjugate poles are at the IF frequency of 455 kHz (since they depend on the parameters of the IFT). Since these poles have a non zero magnitude for attenuation , it is implied that the output will undergo an attenuation corresponding to this value of , at the IF frequency. The presence of the real pole produced due to the Miller capacitance produces signicant eects on the circuit that must be analyzed: This real pole is found to vary inversely with the Miller capacitance CM . Hence, if the gain of the circuit is increased, so does the Miller capacitance (since CM is directly proportional to gm Rc ), and hence the magnitude of decreases. This moves this pole closer to the j axis. Since this real pole is analogous to the center of mass of a system (since the pair of conjugate poles are symmetric to each other), its movement will aect that of the conjugate pair. The pair moves to the left, hence increasing the rate of attenuation of the output signal. It is found however, that in no situation will the real pole cross over to the right half plane. This is because it has a negative magnitude, and only the presence of a negative resistance Rb will cause this shift and hence instability in the circuit.

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 When the gain of the circuit is decreased, the magnitude of of the real pole increases and hence it moves away from the j axis. This causes the conjugate pair to move closer to the axis, decreasing the rate of attenuation of the output. Signicant increase in the gain of the circuit can cause the conjugate pair to shift over to the right half plane and cause instability.

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1 At a time that equals the time constant , the magnitude of the output would have decreased to (1/e) times its initial magnitude. At a greater gain, the conjugate pair was found to move away from the j axis, implying greater magnitude for . This means that the output decays at a faster rate, and hence the time constant would have a lesser magnitude. The reverse occurs when the gain of the circuit is decreased.

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3.1

Experimental set up

The CE amplier stage was designed as follows: is taken as 100. Gain was set as 200 =gm Rc = Ic was taken as 2 mA. Rc = 2.6k VE was set at 1.2V. VE = IE RE where IE =
+1 Ic Ic VT

Rc

RE = 0.6k Using Thevenin analysis for the input loop, Vth = 12 R1R2 2 = 1.2 + 0.7 + IB Rth +R where Rth =
R1 R2 R1 +R2

R1 = 5.08R2 Let Rth = 3.6k R1 = 222k R2 = 4.7k A load resistance RL was connected across the IFT to compensate for the presence of loading caused by the detector and AGC circuits which would follow the IF amplier. RL connected was 10 k. The value of coupling capacitors at the base and capacitor were taken as 0.1 F . 14

 The value of emitter capacitor CE was designed such that impedance oered by it was much lesser than that oered by RE for an AC signal. i.e. XCE <
RE 10

Hence, we take RE as 0.1 F .

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3.2

Procedure and Observations

The circuit was set up as in the gure. Transistor used was BF195. RE was replaced with a xed resistance of 330 and a potentiometer of 470, and partial feedback was introduced by connecting the center of the potentiometer to CE . This was done to vary the feedback and hence, the gain of the circuit for analytical purposes. The base resistance R2 was also replaced with a xed 4.7k and a potentiometer of 4.7k. This was done to vary the bias as is required. Vcc was given as 12V. The input signal was fed through the coupling capacitor to the base of the transistor. The signal input was a square wave of 30 kHz frequency. The output observed was a decaying sinusoidal wave of frequency 500 kHz, as was expected. This shows that all the poles are on the left half plane. The time constant was measured to be 23 s. The load resistance RL was varied and no observable change was found in the output. Next, the gain was increased by reducing the feedback. The output was found to attenuate at a faster rate, as was expected, and at the same frequency. The gain was then decreased by increasing feedback. This was done by increasing the potentiometer value to 1k. It was found that the output attenuated at a slower rate, with the same frequency. The time constant measured in this case was 41 s. It was attempted to bring the circuit to instability by reducing the gain to a signicant amount so that the dominant pair would cross the j axis to the right half plane. However, repeated eorts in the form of increasing RE and removing the bypass capacitor CE altogether failed to make this happen. It was hence inferred that the rate of movement of the dominant pair toward the j axis was very slow in comparison to the decrease in gain.

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RESULT

The output observed was at approximately 500 kHz frequency and attenuated to a degree as is shown.

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CONCLUSION

The radio frequencies received at the receiver are down converted to a common IF frequency through a mixer. The IF amplier stage amplies this particular frequency only and feeds it to the detector and AGC stages. Down conversion of all received RF signals to a common IF has several advantages with respect to greater eciency and lesser complexity of the receiver design. The IF amplier circuit designed consisted of a basic CE amplier stage with RC replaced by the IFT which is tuned to the IF. Synthesis and design of the circuit involved a thorough analysis of the poles associated with the transfer function, especially the one produced by the Miller capacitance and its eects on the conjugate pair of the IFT. Conditions for instability of the circuit were also analyzed and studied.

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References
[1] Understanding Poles and Zeros, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, MIT; http://web.mit.edu/2.14/www/Handouts/PoleZero.pdf [2] http://www.wikipedia.com

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