Greetings fellow AAC'ers

How do folks define a "stage"? Separate amplifying elements? or a group of amplifying elements serving a specific purpose?

 

Generally an amplifier stage is the components in an amplifier that have an internal input and output with gain in between.
There can be one or more stages in the complete amplifier to get the desired overall gain and frequency response.

 

I can not find a formal definition. I would say a stage.....is just the area of circuitry under discussion, analysis or design.

 

Hello,

Have a look here:
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Amplifier+Stage
https://wiki.analog.com/university/courses/electronics/text/chapter-9
https://wiki.analog.com/university/courses/electronics/text/chapter-10

Bertus

 

Okay, so we are agreeing with separate amplifying elements... I agree; however when there is parallel staged circuitry involved, it becomes difficult to serially designate each stage name when the signal path splits off in several directions. Sorry for being vague.

 

Sounds like you are describing a specific piece or class of equipment. Are you?

Also, is it important to "serially designate each stage"? If so, why is it a problem if the stages are physically or electrically non-serial? Note that resistors are capacitors are serially designated even though they can splattered be all over the place.

ak

 

Hmmm... Well it sort of is when you are trying to find ground loops. It becomes a bit cumbersome when you are trying to follow a signal, and then it splits off into feed back somewhere else into other stages at the same time. Then I try to figure out which stage takes priority in order to keep ground points in order so as not to loop anything. I guess I need to think this through a bit more.

 

Amps are cool like that... separate paths for processing and filtering also... I just look at it in blocks if that helps

 

https://www.wikihow.com/Read-Schematics
Try this. It has been awhile since I taught this. After several decades it is 3rd nature. I feel for you. I remember struggling through military manuals as a boot ET. They developed a flow chart type, can't remember the name. It was a great help. The only problem was that it took 10 or 15 square feet to use. Impossible on the bridge of a boat. Got out of the military and struggled through RCA, GE, Motorola and host of others. I consider a "stage" to consist of a single active unit and the associated passive components. In a parallel circuit, such as a push-pull, I consider also a single stage. Where a signal branches to provide feedback or source another function, I consider those separate stages or possibly even separate circuits.
I would help if you could post the schematic and highlight areas of confusion

 

Sometimes it is a bit challenging to accurately define a "stage", but mostly, in analog circuits, a stage is indeed the components associated with an active device, usually a transistor at present. A stage can also be defined as a segment of a circuit with a single function, which is good most of the time.