looks like a resistor. It doesn't. Rather,
it looks approximately like a poor
-
quality
constant
-
current sink (the value of current
depending on the signal applied to the
base), primarily because of this little man's
efforts.
Another thing to keep in mind is that,
at any given time, a transistor may be (a)
cut off (no collector current), (b) in the
active region (some collector current, and
collector voltage more than a few tenths
of a volt above the emitter), or (c) in
saturation (collector within a few tenths of
a volt of the emitter). See Appendix
G
on
transistor saturation for more details.
2.03
Emitter follower
Figure 2.6 shows an example of an
emitter
follower.
It is called that because the out
-
put terminal is the emitter, which follows
the input (the base), less one diode drop:
-
0.6
The output is a replica of the input, but 0.6
to 0.7 volt less positive. For this circuit,
must stay at volt or more, or
else the output will sit at ground. By
returning the emitter resistor to a negative
supply voltage, you can permit negative
voltage swings as well. Note that there is
no collector resistor in an emitter follower.
Figure
2.6.
Emitter
follower.
At first glance this circuit may appear
useless, until you realize that the input
impedance
is
much larger than the out
-
put impedance, as will be demonstrated
SOME BASIC TRANSISTOR CIRCUITS
2.03
Emitter follower
shortly.
This means that the circuit re
-
quires less power from the signal source
to drive a given load than would be the
case if the signal source were to drive the
load directly. Or a signal of some inter
-
nal impedance (in the sense) can
now drive a load of comparable or even
lower impedance without loss of amplitude
(from the usual voltage
-
divider effect). In
other words, an emitter follower has cur
-
rent gain, even though it has no voltage
gain. It has power gain. Voltage gain isn't
everything!
Impedances of sources and loads
This last point is very important and is
worth some more discussion before we
calculate in detail the beneficial effects of
emitter followers. In electronic circuits,
you're always hooking the output of some
-
thing to the input of something else, as
suggested in Figure 2.7. The signal source
might be the output of an amplifier stage
(with Thevenin equivalent series imped
-
ance driving the next stage or per
-
haps a load (of some input impedance
In general, the loading effect of the follow
-
ing stage causes a reduction of signal, as we
discussed earlier in Section 1.05. For this
reason it is usually best to keep
< <
(a factor of 10 is a comfortable rule of
thumb).
In some situations it is OK to forgo
this general goal of making the source stiff
compared with the load. In particular, if
the load is always connected
within
a circuit) and if it presents a known and
constant it is not too serious if it
"
loads
"
the source. However, it is always
nicer if signal levels don't change when
a load is connected. Also, if varies
with signal level, then having a stiff source
< <
assures linearity, where
erwise the level
-
dependent voltage divider
would cause distortion.
Finally, there are two situations where
is actually the wrong thing to