AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER DESIGN
Application Information (Continued)
A 1W/8Ω AUDIO AMPLIFIER
width is dictated by the choice of external components
shown in Figure 1. The input coupling capacitor, Ci, forms a
first order high pass filter which limits low frequency re-
sponse. This value should be chosen based on needed
frequency response for a few distinct reasons.
Given:
Power Output
Load Impedance
Input Level
1 Wrms
8Ω
1 Vrms
20 kΩ
Selection Of Input Capacitor Size
Input Impedance
Large input capacitors are both expensive and space hungry
for portable designs. Clearly, a certain sized capacitor is
needed to couple in low frequencies without severe attenu-
ation. But in many cases the speakers used in portable
systems, whether internal or external, have little ability to
reproduce signals below 100 Hz to 150 Hz. Thus, using a
large input capacitor may not increase actual system perfor-
mance.
Bandwidth
100 Hz–20 kHz 0.25 dB
A designer must first determine the minimum supply rail to
obtain the specified output power. By extrapolating from the
Output Power vs Supply Voltage graphs in the Typical Per-
formance Characteristics section, the supply rail can be
easily found. A second way to determine the minimum sup-
ply rail is to calculate the required Vopeak using Equation 2
and add the output voltage. Using this method, the minimum
In addition to system cost and size, click and pop perfor-
mance is effected by the size of the input coupling capacitor,
Ci. A larger input coupling capacitor requires more charge to
reach its quiescent DC voltage (nominally 1/2 VDD). This
charge comes from the output via the feedback and is apt to
create pops upon device enable. Thus, by minimizing the
capacitor size based on necessary low frequency response,
turn-on pops can be minimized.
supply voltage would be (Vopeak + (VOD
+ VODBOT)), where
VOD
and VOD
are extrapolated frToOmP the Dropout Volt-
TOP
age BvOsT Supply Voltage curve in the Typical Performance
Characteristics section.
(2)
Besides minimizing the input capacitor size, careful consid-
eration should be paid to the bypass capacitor value. Bypass
capacitor, CB, is the most critical component to minimize
turn-on pops since it determines how fast the LM4872 turns
on. The slower the LM4872’s outputs ramp to their quiescent
DC voltage (nominally 1/2 VDD), the smaller the turn-on pop.
Choosing CB equal to 1.0 µF along with a small value of Ci
(in the range of 0.1 µF to 0.39 µF), should produce a virtually
clickless and popless shutdown function. While the device
will function properly, (no oscillations or motorboating), with
CB equal to 0.1 µF, the device will be much more susceptible
to turn-on clicks and pops. Thus, a value of CB equal to
1.0 µF is recommended in all but the most cost sensitive
designs.
Using the Output Power vs Supply Voltage graph for an 8Ω
load, the minimum supply rail is 4.6V. But since 5V is a
standard voltage in most applications, it is chosen for the
supply rail. Extra supply voltage creates headroom that al-
lows the LM4872 to reproduce peaks in excess of 1W with-
out producing audible distortion. At this time, the designer
must make sure that the power supply choice along with the
output impedance does not violate the conditions explained
in the Power Dissipation section.
Once the power dissipation equations have been addressed,
the required differential gain can be determined from Equa-
tion 3.
LOW VOLTAGE APPLICATIONS ( BELOW 3.0 VDD
)
(3)
The Lm4872 will function at voltages below 3 volts but this
mode of operation requires the addition of a 1kΩ resistor
from each of the differential output pins ( pins 8 and 4 )
directly to ground. The addition of the pair of 1kΩ resistors (
R4 & R5 ) assures stable operation below 3 Volt Vdd opera-
tion. The addition of the two resistors will however increase
the idle current by as much as 5mA. This is because at 0v
input both of the outputs of the LM4872’s 2 internal opamps
go to 1/2 VDD ( 2.5 volts for a 5v power supply ), causing
current to flow through the 1K resistors from output to
ground. See fig 4.
Rf/Ri = AVD/2
From Equation 3, the minimum AVD is 2.83; use AVD = 3.
Since the desired input impedance was 20 kΩ, and with a
AVD impedance of 2, a ratio of 1.5:1 of Rf to Ri results in an
allocation of Ri = 20 kΩ and Rf = 30 kΩ. The final design step
is to address the bandwidth requirements which must be
stated as a pair of −3 dB frequency points. Five times away
from a −3 dB point is 0.17 dB down from passband response
which is better than the required 0.25 dB specified.
fL = 100 Hz/5 = 20 Hz
fH = 20 kHz * 5 = 100 kHz
Jumper options have been included on the reference design,
Fig. 4, to accommodate the low voltage application. J2 & J3
connect R4 and R5 to the outputs. J1 operates the shutdown
function. J1 must be installed to operate the part. A switch
may be installed in place of J1 for easier evaluation of the
shutdown function.
As stated in the External Components section, Ri in con-
junction with Ci create a highpass filter.
Ci ≥ 1/(2π*20 kΩ*20 Hz) = 0.397 µF; use 0.39 µF
The high frequency pole is determined by the product of the
desired frequency pole, fH, and the differential gain, AVD
.
With a AVD = 3 and fH = 100 kHz, the resulting GBWP =
150 kHz which is much smaller than the LM4872 GBWP of
4 MHz. This figure displays that if a designer has a need to
design an amplifier with a higher differential gain, the
LM4872 can still be used without running into bandwidth
limitations.
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