3.4 Complementary Push-Pull stages Complementary transistor amplifiers consist of a NPN and a PNP transistor.

Both transistors are operated in common collector configuration. A class B complementary amplifier has the following advantages:

Simple construction of the circuit Both transistors can be controlled by the same signal No output transformer required Low output resistance due to common collector configuration.

Fig. 3.4.1: Principle of the complementary amplifier. Transistor T1 will amplify the positive half wave while transistor T2 will amplify the negative half wave of the signal. This basic circuit has the disadvantage that the working point is set by UBE = 0 which is below cut off. This is a class C working point. This amplifier will produce considerable cross over distortions. To achieve a class B or class AB working point the transistors have to be biased. Different methods can be used for biasing.

Fig. 3.4.2: Different methods of biasing of a complementary amplifier: a: Diode biasing b: Resistor biasing Diode biasing: The voltage drop across the diodes will put UBE of the transistors near the cut off point, so providing class B operation. The dynamic resistance of the conductive diodes is low and produces little attenuation to the signal. Resistor biasing: The voltage divider consisting of R1, R2 and R3 is adjusted so that the voltage across R2 is UBE1 + UBE2. R2 allows to adjust a class B or class AB working point. R2 must be by-passed by a capacitor to apply the same signal to both transistor. A critical part of this simple complementary push pull stage are the biasing resistors RB1 and RB2. These resistors have to provide sufficient base current for the transistor if the maximum collector current flows. The voltage between base and collector will be very low (1V to 3V) then.

This will give low values for RB, which result in a high average current and high power dissipation in RB

Therefore such a simple complementary push pull stage can only supply output currents of up to a few 100mA. If higher currents are required, several transistor stages have to be cascaded. Transistor stages driving the final stage are called driver stages or driver amplifiers. A simple and very convenient arrangement is achieved, if the biasing diodes are substituted by the base emitter path of transistors. These transistors will form a driver stage, as they provide additional amplification of the input current.

Fig. 3.4.3: Complementary push pull stage with driver transistors in the biasing path. Another method to achieve higher current gain is to use Darlington transistors at the output.

Fig. 3.4.4: Complementary push pull stage with Darlington transistors at the output. Push pull amplifiers are ideally used with a symmetrical or dual supply. In this case the load (loudspeaker) could be connected directly between output and ground. Where only one supply voltage is available (battery operated equipment) the d.c. output voltage will be at half of the supply voltage. A coupling capacitor will be required to prevent d.c. current from flowing to the load. The capacitor forms a high pass with the load and the output resistance of the amplifier. It must be calculated to produce negligible voltage drop at the lowest frequency.

Typically Co will have values between several 100 F and several 1000 F.

Fig. 3.4.5: Push-pull stages with symmetrical supply can have the load connected directly between the transistors and ground. If only one supply voltage is available a coupling capacitor is required at the output. In practice these basic circuits are found with a variety of modification to adopt the circuit to special requirements and to improve the performance.

3.5 Quasi-Complementary Push-Pull stages Complementary push-pull amplifiers require a power NPN and PNP transistor. In order to achieve symmetric amplification of both half waves, the transistors should have similar characteristics. Especially in the early days of transistors this was difficult to achieve. Silicon power transistors with reasonable current amplification were difficult to produce. Therefore power amplifiers were required which worked with NPN power transistors only. The basic output stage looks like this:

Fig. 3.5.1: Basic principle of a push pull output stage with two NPN transistors. This configuration produces following problems:

The two transistors require control signals of different polarity The upper transistor is in common collector and the lower transistor is in common emitter configuration The upper transistor has a gain of 1 the lower transistor of more than 1. The two transistors have different output impedance.

The problems have to be overcome by suitable driver stages: The transistor T1 will be driven by a NPN transistor in Darlington configuration. The whole configuration works in common collector mode and has thus a gain of one. The transistor T2 will be driven by a PNP transistor in common collector mode between collector and base of T2. There is full NFB from the collector of T2 to the emitter of T1 so that the whole configuration has a gain of 1.

Fig. 3.5.2: Quasi-complementary push-pull stage. The complementary transistors T3 and T4 allow to drive the two sides of the push-pull stage with same control signal. The circuit shows that at the input of the amplifier we actually see a complementary push pull stage. The circuit also shows the same characteristics as a complementary stage. Therefore it is called quasicomplementary stage.