Lab 1 Report

Design of a Common-Emitter BJT Amplifier

Kevin Bradshaw & Kai Qin
ECEN 326-502
Instructor: Sebastian Hoyos
Date Performed: February 4, 2016

Objectives
Understand the characteristics of a common-emitter BJT Amplifier.
Design and analyze a common-emitter configuration meeting certain constraints.
Evaluate the DC operating point of a single transistor amplifier.
Procedure
In this lab, the BJT circuit designed from the pre-lab was constructed. The commonemitter amplifier was designed to fit the constraints shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1: BJT Amplifier Design Constraints

Using a chosen value for the emitter voltage and a Q2N2222 BJT, this circuit was
designed with by finding the minimum and maximum values of the collector resistance.
Choosing a collector resistance between these range of values, the collector current
could easily be found by using the common topology formulas. Then, the rest of the
resistances for the circuit were calculated using these currents. Figure 2 shows the
resulting circuit designed and Table 1 shows the actual values used in the circuit. These
values were adjusted after construction in order to get an optimum gain with no clipping
in the voltage swing.
Figure 2: One Stage BJT Amplifier

After the circuit was adjusted, the operating currents and voltages (including the
maximum unclipped output signal voltage amplitude) were measured and can be seen

in Table 2. Furthermore, the input resistance, output resistance, current supply, and gain
were measured and can also be seen in Table 2. The overall gain of this circuit to
achieve a output swing greater than 1.6 V can be seen in Figure 3. Lastly, to obtain the
total harmonic distortion (THD) of less than 5%, a signal of 30 mV was placed at the
input and an output of approximately 1.44 V was obtained. Figure 4 shows the THD
achieved.
Figure 3: Overall BJT Amplifier Gain

Figure 4: Total Harmonic Distortion Analysis

Data Tables
Table 1: Final Design Circuit Parameters
Parameter

Value

Base Resistor 1 (RB1)

143 k

Base Resistor 2 (RB2)

72.7 k

Collector Resistor (RC)

4.058 k

Emitter Resistor 1( RE)

1.47 k

Load Resistor (RL)

10 k

Emitter Resistor 2 (RG)

10

Capacitors 1, 2, 3 (C)

10 F
Table 2: Measured Circuit Values

Parameter

Value

Collector Current

602.021 A

Emitter Voltage

0.934 V

Collector Voltage

2.557 V

Base Voltage

1.543 V

Supply Current

626.19 A

Gain

43

Input Resistance

8.623 k

Output Resistance

4.0313 k

Maximum Unclipped Out Signal

Amplitude

Approximately 2.5 V

Discussion
In this lab, a single-supply common-emitter BJT amplifier circuit designed from the prelab was constructed using PSPICE. The common-emitter amplifier bias point was
calculated from the equations given in the lab instructions. The collector resistance is a
key factor that the circuit required to meet the given constraints. It was calculated using
the equation below. Matlab was used to solve this quadratic equation.

Equation 1. Minimum Collector resistance calculation

Conclusion

The main lessons of this lab was to understand the characteristics of a common-emitter
BJT Amplifier. By using PSPICE, the bias point was chosen to fit the design constraints.
During the lab, we used a potentiometer to adjust the collector resistance to avoid the
output voltage clipping.