OSCILLATIONS & GROUNDING
Application Hints (Continued)
Most power amplifiers work the first time they are turned on.
They also tend to oscillate and have excess THD. Most os-
cillation problems are due to inadequate supply bypassing
and/or ground loops. A 10 mF, 50V electrolytic on each
power supply will stop supply-related oscillations. However,
if the signal ground is used for these bypass caps the THD
is usually excessive. The signal ground must return to the
power supply alone, as must the output load ground. All
other groundsÐbypass, output R-C, protection, etc., can tie
together and then return to supply. This ground is called
high frequency ground. On the 40W amplifier schematic all
the grounds are labeled.
TRANSIENT INTERMODULATION DISTORTION
There has been a lot of interest in recent years about tran-
sient intermodulation distortion. Matti Otala of University of
Oulu, Oulu, Finland has published several papers on the
subject. The results of these investigations show that the
open loop pole of the power amplifier should be above 20
kHz.
To do this with the LM391 is easy. Put a 1 MX resistor from
pin 3 to the output and the open loop gain is reduced to
about 46 dB. Now the open loop pole is at 30 kHz. The
current in this resistor causes an offset in the input stage
that can be cancelled with a resistor from pin 4 to ground.
The resistor from pin 4 to ground should be 910 kX rather
than 1 MX to insure that the shutdown circuitry will operate
correctly. The slight difference in resistors results in about
15 mV of offset. The 40W, 8X amplifier schematic shows
the hookup of these two resistors.
Capacitive loads can cause instabilities, so they are isolated
from the amplifier with an inductor and resistor in the output
lead.
AB BIAS CURRENT
To reduce distortion in the output stage, all the transistors
are biased ON slightly. This results in class AB operation
and reduces the crossover (notch) distortion of the class B
stage to a low level, (see performance curve, THD vs AB
BRIDGE AMPLIFIER
A switch can be added to convert a stereo amplifer to a
single bridge amplifer. The diagram below shows where the
switch and one resistor are added. When operating in the
bridge mode the output load is connected between the two
bias). The potentiometer, R , from pins 6–7 is adjusted to
B
give about 25 mA of current in the output stage. This current
is usually monitored at the supply or by measuring the volt-
Ý
Ý
2 is disconnected.
outputs, the input is V
1, and V
age across R .
E
IN
IN
Typical Applications (Continued)
Bridge Circuit Diagram
TL/H/7146–7
Output Transistors Selection Guide
Table A.
Driver Transistor
Output Transistor
Power
Output
PNP
NPN
PNP
NPN
@
20W 8X
MJE711
MJE171
D43C8
MJE721
MJE181
D42C8
TIP42A
2N6490
TIP41A
2N6487
@
30W 4X
@
40W 8X
MJE712
MJE172
D43C11
MJE722
MJE182
D42C11
2N5882
2N5880
@
60W 4X
7