An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase
the power of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). An amplifier uses electric power from
a power supply to increase the amplitude of a signal. The amount of amplification provided by an
amplifier is measured by its gain: the ratio of output to input. An amplifier is a circuit that can give
a power gain greater than one.[1][2][3]
An amplifier can either be a separate piece of equipment or an electrical circuit contained within
another device. Amplification is fundamental to modern electronics, and amplifiers are widely used in
almost all electronic equipment. Amplifiers can be categorized in different ways. One is by
the frequency of the electronic signal being amplified; audio amplifiers amplify signals in
the audio (sound) range of less than 20 kHz, RF amplifiers amplify frequencies in the radio
frequency range between 20 kHz and 300 GHz, and servo amplifiers and instrumentation amplifiers
may work with very low frequencies down to direct current. A further distinction is whether the output
is a linear or nonlinear representation of the input. Amplifiers can also be categorized by their
physical placement in the signal chain; a preamplifier may precede other signal processing stages,
for example. [4]
The first practical device that could amplify was the triode vacuum tube, invented in 1906 by Lee De
Forest, which led to the first amplifiers around 1912. Vacuum tubes were used in almost all
amplifiers until the 1960s1970s when the transistor, invented in 1947, replaced them. Today, most
amplifiers use transistors, but vacuum tubes continue to be used in some applications.
Contents
[hide]
1History
2Ideal
3Properties
4Negative feedback
5Categories
o 5.1Active devices
o 5.2Power amplifiers
o 5.3Operational amplifiers (op-amps)
o 5.4Distributed amplifiers
o 5.5Switched mode amplifiers
o 5.6Applications
5.6.1Video amplifiers
5.6.2Microwave amplifiers
5.6.3Musical instrument amplifiers
6Classification of amplifier stages and systems
o 6.1Common terminal
o 6.2Unilateral or bilateral
o 6.3Inverting or non-inverting
o 6.4Function
o 6.5Interstage coupling method
o 6.6Frequency range
7Power amplifier classes
8Example amplifier circuit
9Notes on implementation
10See also
11References
12External links
History[edit]
De Forest's prototype audio amplifier of 1914. This Audion (triode) vacuum tube had a voltage gain of about 5,
providing a total gain of approximately 125 for this three-stage amplifier.
The development of audio communication technology in form of the telephone, first patented in
1876, created the need to increase the amplitude of electrical signals to extend the transmission of
signals over increasingly long distances. In telegraphy, this problem had been solved with
intermediate devices at stations that replenished the dissipated energy by operating a signal
recorder and transmitter back-to-back, forming a relay, so that a local energy source at each
intermediate station powered the next leg of transmission. For duplex transmission, i.e. sending and
receiving in both directions, bi-directional relay repeaters were developed starting with the work of C.
F. Varley for telegraphic transmission. Duplex transmission was essential for telephony and the
problem was not satisfactorily solved until 1904, when H. E. Shreeve of the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company improved existing attempts at constructing a telephone repeater consisting
of back-to-back carbon-granule transmitter and electrodynamic receiver pairs.[5] The Shreeve
repeater was first tested on a line between Boston and Amesbury, MA, and more refined devices
remained in service for some time.
After the turn of the century it was found that negative resistance mercury lamps could amplify, and
were also tried in repeaters.[6] The concurrent development of thermionic valves starting ca. 1902,
provided an entirely electronic method of amplifying signals. The first practical version of such
devices was the Audion triode, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest,[7][8][9] which led to the first
amplifiers around 1912.[10] In analogy to previous types of relays in telegraphy and telephony, the
amplifying vacuum tube was first called an electron relay.[11][12][13][14] In the first extensive commercial
use of the vacuum tube, such repeaters powered the first transcontinental telephone line for
commercial service in 1915.[15]
The terms amplifier and amplification, derived from the Latin amplificare, (to enlarge or
expand),[16] were first used for this new capability around 1915 when triodes became widespread.[16]
The amplifying vacuum tube revolutionized electrical technology, creating the new field
of electronics, the technology of active electrical devices.[10] It made possible long distance telephone
lines, public address systems, radio broadcasting, talking motion pictures, practical audio
recording, radar, television, and the first computers. For 50 years virtually all consumer electronic
devices used vacuum tubes. Early tube amplifiers often had positive feedback (regeneration), which
could increase gain but also make the amplifier unstable and prone to oscillation. Much of the
mathematical theory of amplifiers was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories during the 1920s to
1940s. Distortion levels in early amplifiers were high, usually around 5%, until 1934, when Harold
Black developed negative feedback; this allowed the distortion levels to be greatly reduced, at the
cost of lower gain. Other advances in the theory of amplification were made by Harry
Nyquist and Hendrik Wade Bode.[17]
The Shreeve mechanical repeater and the vacuum tube were the only amplifying devices, other than
specialized power devices such as the magnetic amplifier and amplidyne, for 40 years. Power
control circuitry used magnetic amplifiers until the latter half of the twentieth century when power
semiconductor devices became more economical, with higher operating speeds. Shreeve repeaters
were used as adjustable amplifiers in telephone subscriber sets for the hearing impaired until the
transistor provided smaller and higher quality amplifiers in the 1950s.[18] The replacement of bulky
electron tubes with transistors during the 1960s and 1970s created another revolution in electronics,
making possible a large class of portable electronic devices, such as the transistor radio developed
in 1954. Today, use of vacuum tubes is limited for some high power applications, such as radio
transmitters.
Beginning in the 1970s, more and more transistors were connected on a single chip thereby creating
higher scales of integration (small-scale, medium-scale, large-scale, etc.) in integrated circuits. Many
amplifiers commercially available today are based on integrated circuits.
For special purposes, other active elements have been used. For example, in the early days of
the satellite communication, parametric amplifiers were used. The core circuit was a diode whose
capacitance was changed by an RF signal created locally. Under certain conditions, this RF signal
provided energy that was modulated by the extremely weak satellite signal received at the earth
station.
