An amplifier has gain and output limited to by its supply rails

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Electronics, Instrumentation & Communication · Signals, systems, control and digital signal processing · Signals, systems, control and digital signal processing

Electronics for Measurement, Ch Linear systems, the impulse response and convolution

Problem

An amplifier has gain

100

and output limited to

\pm13\,\mathrm{V}

by its supply rails. An engineer measures its impulse response using a

5\,\mathrm{mV}

test pulse and obtains

h(t)

. Reasoning that "one impulse-response measurement fixes the output for any input," they then use the convolution integral with this

h(t)

to predict the amplifier's output when it is driven by a

500\,\mathrm{mV}

peak sinusoid at

1\,\mathrm{kHz}

. ((a)) Explain what property of the amplifier the quoted sentence assumes, and say whether the amplifier has that property for every input amplitude. ((b)) Calculate the largest peak input amplitude for which the amplifier stays linear, and say whether the engineer's prediction for the

500\,\mathrm{mV}

input is valid.

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