Mohammad Zilon, Mohammad Hijazi EE 322-2LM

Technical Report of The PA Audio Amplifier

As discussed in the laboratory report, we designed a public address (PA) amplifier. Our
PA amplifier can take a small digitized audio signal (typically a few millivolts) and amplify it
with a gain of approximately 92 V/V, to several volts. Then it can drive a speaker with its
amplified output, with minimal distortion before clipping.

To build this practical audio amplifier, we had to build three functional amplifiers. The
amplifiers are as such: Amplifier II, Amplifier III and Amplifier I which we have created during
Lab 4, 5 and 6 correspondingly. We started with a common emitter amplifier, Amplifier II built
in Lab 4 and comprehended that the amplifier did not provide enough gain and enough
undistorted output voltage. As we have calculated, the typical gain of the amplifier is only about
24.5 V/V and the maximum undistorted output voltage is 10.31 VPP. The undistorted
amplification was not enough to drive a common practical speaker. Thus, we had to build a push-
pull power amplifier, Amplifier III that would deliver at least 0.7 watts of power to an 8ohm
speaker, efficiently and with very minimal distortion. In the circuit of Amplifier III, we
embedded an 1000uF capacitor to bypass the push-pull power amplifier. Amplifier III is the
output stage of our PA audio amplifier. Then, we built Amplifier I and applied an input small
signal from the function generator to measure the distortion in time domain using an
oscilloscope.

To test Amplifier III, we used to the following values when biasing the circuit, which is
good enough to provide a gain of 0.8 V/V.
Quiescent Simulated Measured
VB5 5.996 V 6.00 V
VBE4 0.61409 V 0.609 V
VBE5 0.59079 V 0.595 V
VBE2 0.58617 V 0.587 V
VBE3 0.61471 V 0.615 V
VE2 5.963 V 5.97 V
VE3 5.97 V 5.97 V
ICC 12.72 mA 19.5 mA

Indeed, we achieved an average of 0.78 V/V gain in room temperature as seen in the
above oscilloscope image, which is very efficient.

After constructing Amplifiers II, III and I on the breadboard, we provided a small
digitized audio signal via a 3.5mm audio jack from a smartphone to the input stage of the PA
amplifier. Additionally, we connected a speaker to the output stage of the PA amplifier. Also, we
connected an oscilloscope to the input and output stage to graphically see our audio signal
amplified. Finally, we played the song John Legend’s “All of Me” and Adele’s “Hello,” and
enjoyed listening to the song from the speaker in high volume without any distortion.
To see a video clip of the PA amplifier in action please visit this link: PA Amplifier in
Action by Zilon and Hijazi
The figure below shows the assembly of the three amplifiers that makes up the PA audio
amplifier.

The image below shows the complete circuit of the PA amplifier.