EEET2600- Electronics

Lab 06 – Operating Point and Biasing BJT Amplifiers

Objectives
In this tutorial you will analyse the operating point of a BJT Amplifier and how different biasing affects
this.

1. Measuring Operating Point of a BJT Amplifier in Simulator

a. Open Multisim
b. Build the following circuit with one transistor and multiple resistors to bias it. This
configuration is called fixed bias circuit where the base voltage is fixed via the voltage
divider network between R1 and R2. Set the value of resistors as seen in the figure:

c. Add three voltage probes to measure voltage at Collector (C), Base (B) and Emitter (E)
• Place the probes – make sure they touch the nets between the transistor’s pin
and the resistors.
• Double click on the probes and then change the names accordingly so we can
easily observe later on

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 d. Add three current probes to measure the current flowing to Collector (C), Base (B) and
Emitter (E)
a. Place the probes – make sure they are on the nets between the transistor’s pin
and the resistors (current flows through the nets)
b. Double click on the probes and then change the names accordingly so we can
easily observe later on

Note – if you place the probes properly, they will appear as green as above. That can help you to know if
you have made the connections properly.

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 e. You can know run the simulation. If you choose to run the default Interactive you can see
the following results. This might be bit confusing to see many parameters at once so we
can adopt another type

f. Stop the current simulation and change into DC Operating Point, you can also see the
probes that you placed earlier will results in the 6 variables will be plotted as output (note
– if you don’t place the probes, you can just select output here, either ones are fine).

Save the simulation and then Run

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First of all, verify if your transistor is active mode

• Ratio between collector current and base current

𝐼𝐶
= 212.9
𝐼𝐵

• Voltage between two junctions

𝑉𝐵𝐸 = 0.62951 𝑉
𝑉𝐵𝐶 = −3.93352
The ration between two is within the typical range of the DC gain of the transistor from [] while the
junction voltages are in the range for active mode.

The operating point of the transistor can also be determined:

𝑄(𝐼𝐶, 𝑉𝐶𝐸 ) = (1.1𝑚𝐴, 4.56 𝑉)

We can also denote the operating point by adding the sub-fix Q as:
(𝐼𝐶𝑄, 𝑉𝐶𝐸𝑄 )

We can summaries it in the following table:

𝑅1 , 𝑅2 𝑉𝐵𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝑄 𝑉𝐸𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝐸𝑄 𝐼𝐶𝑄

𝑅1 = 68𝑘 1.74 5.67 1.11 4.56 1.1𝑚
𝑅2 = 15𝑘

g. Let’s change the Resistor R2 to another value to observe the change in the operating point

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Let’s add some more variables into the simulation so we can extract our values easier instead of manual
calculation

• Click Add expression

• Double click on V(VC) , then select the subtract, and finally V(VE)

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 • Click Save and run the simulation again

𝑅1 , 𝑅2 𝑉𝐵𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝑄 𝑉𝐸𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝐸𝑄 𝐼𝐶𝑄

𝑅1 = 68𝑘 0.682 9.56 0.114 9.45 113 𝑢𝐴
𝑅2 = 5𝑘

You can observe the changes in the operating points by just changing the resistor for biasing, which then
change the bias voltage at the base

h. Change the resistor to 1Kohms and record the operating point

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What working mode the transistor is in?

i. Change the resistor to 33 Kohms and record the operating point

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What working mode the transistor is in?

Exercise 1
For this part please review

a. Review the DC load line concept and plot one for the above circuit.
b. Try to calculation for different values of R2 above and compare your calculation vs the
simulation results above.
c. Build and simulate the following circuit with your transistor is 2N2222

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 2. Effect of Operating Point of a BJT Amplifier in Simulator Tool
a. Save the simulation file from the previous part. You can name it
Tut10_Operating_Point.ms14
b. Make a copy by Save as Tut10_Operating_Point_Amp.ms14 and we will work with this file
in this section
c. Remove all the probes from the previous schematic
d. Add two capacitors into the schematic as follows. Set them values at 22uF

We will discuss these capacitors’ roles later

e. Add an AC voltage into the circuit and set it as follows

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 f. Add an oscilloscope into the schematic to measure input and output

g. Change the R2 back to 15K

h. Change the interactive simulation and then observe the waveform as below

Note – you might need to change the scale to fit this

i. Measure the amplitude so we can calculate the gain

53.474
𝐴=− = −𝟑. 𝟕𝟖𝟔
14.121
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j. Increase the input to 0.5V

k. Increase the input to 0.707 V RMS (around 1V peak)

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Let’s analyse this:
3.673
• If you look at the upper peaks (YELLOW) of two signals 𝐴 = − 0.995 = −𝟑. 𝟔𝟗
−3.583
• If you look at the lower peaks (YELLOW) of two signals 𝐴 = − −0.995 = −𝟑. 𝟔 . MORE
IMPORTANTLY YOU SEE THE OUTPUT VOLTAGE IS CLIPPED. This is the situation where the
output of the amplifier is clipped and reach the value it is no longer LINEAR (Note – this is not
the boundary where it happens, it just one of the points).

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l. Change the R2 to 5K
0.089
• Try the input 0.025 VRMS, the output looks follow. Gain 𝐴 = − = −𝟑. 𝟏𝟕
0.028

• Try the input 0.025 VRMS, the output looks follow. If you notice the peaks of the
output are not identical (214 vs -225mV). This indicate the output is not linear.

• If you increase the input to the range of 0.12. you shall see the clipped output
clearer

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 m. Change the R2 to 33K
• You can also observe the clipped output too

Exercise 2
For this part please review

a. Check the DC Load line that you have finished earlier in the Part 1
b. Compare it with the output where the output is no longer linear and check if the range
agrees with your calculation

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 3. Measuring Operating Point of a BJT Amplifier on ELVIS
In this tutorial we will perform parts of what we did in Part 1 but with actual components

a. Collect components including a breadboard per two students

b. Build the following circuit on the breadboard. It is preferred to have the jumpers to be
minimized. Students are recommended to use hard wires to make jumpers for better
connectivity.

Please note the pin diagram of the transistor as highlighted in the Tutorial 8 is put down here again for
your information

The board looks like this:

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 c. Power the circuit with the ELVIS Instrument Launcher:
a. Variable Power Supply for power supply, which you set at +10VDC

b. DMM to measure the voltage and current

i. First, we will measure the voltages at Collector (C), Base (B) and Emitter
(E). For example, we can measure and get the voltage for the Emitter for
the above circuit as:

Record these voltages into the table. For example, you can get the following values. If you
receive different set of values just record them anyway

𝑅1 , 𝑅2 𝑉𝐵𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝑄 𝑉𝐸𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝐸𝑄

𝑅1 = 68𝑘 1.74 4.75 1.11 3.64
𝑅2 = 15𝑘
Using the voltages above you can find the collector current
𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝑉𝐶
𝐼𝐶 = ≈ 1.34 𝑚𝐴
𝑅𝐶
So we can get the operating point

Q(𝐼𝐶 , 𝑉𝐶𝐸𝑄 ) = (1.34𝑚𝐴, 3.64 𝑉)

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 d. Compare the values with your simulation data from above
e. Compare the values with your calculation from earlier too

Note – the above method to find the collector current is based on voltage measured. You can also
measure directly the current using ampmeter provided by ELVIS too.

• Change the DMM to measure DC current

Change the probes as follows to match this diagram

• From the diagram you shall see the COM and A connectors, we will connect them using the
following diagram

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The board can look like follow:

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 • Run the ELVIS and then read the value.

Note that the value you measure here 1.12mA is different with one from the calculation earlier 1.34mA.
That is expected some difference due to many factors: resistor values are not ideal, limitation of the
instruments in dealing with small values etc. Just note that these are there so you might want to revisit
and elaborate if these changes affect much the results.

f. Optional, Let’s change the Resistor R2 to another value to observe the change in the
operating point

𝑅1 , 𝑅2 𝑉𝐵𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝑄 𝑉𝐸𝑄 𝑉𝐶𝐸𝑄 𝐼𝐶𝑄

𝑅1 = 68𝑘
𝑅2 = 5𝑘

Exercise 3
• From the data above, draw the DC Load line and pin point the two operating points above on
that.
• From there determine the maximum input swing we can get theoretically before distortion
occurs at the output of the amplifier

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