5
The output stage I
Classes and devices
The almost universal choice in semiconductor power amplifiers is for a unity-gain output stage, and specifically a voltage-follower. Output stages with gain are not unknown – see Mann[1] for a design with ten times gain in the output section – but they have significantly failed to win popularity. Most people feel that controlling distortion while handling large currents is quite hard enough without trying to generate gain at the same time.
In examining the small-signal stages, we have so far only needed to deal with one kind of distortion at a time, due to the monotonic transfer characteristics of such stages, which usually (but not invariably[2]) work in Class A. Economic and thermal realities mean that ...
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