TDA1516Q Driven 2x18W Power Amplifier

Figure 1 

The circuit was designed with two integrated circuit of TDA1516Q having 18 W each to create a power amplifier that will be used to drive amplifiers in car radios.

• TDA1516 – an integrated class B output amplifier enclosed in a 13-lead single in-line (SIL) plastic power package primarily designed for car radio applications due to its features such as flexible leads, identical inputs, load dump protection, good ripple rejection, low thermal resistance, mute/standby switch, reverse polarity safe, fixed gain, thermally protected, high output power, capability to handle high energy on outputs, flexibility in use, no switch-on/switch-off plop, low offset voltage at output, and requires very few external components
• 1N5408 – a rectifier with 50V to 1000V reverse voltage and 3A forward current and other features such as low reverse leakage current, surge overload rating to 200A peak, plastic material, high current capability, low forward voltage drop, and diffused junction

Most of the cars which are using radios are having amplifiers that do not exceed 5 W on their output power and with controlled distortion in the power limits. This problem can be avoided by utilizing external amplifiers that can provide much larger amount of power but with much minimal distortion. There are no chances that the power would exceed above the limit since the voltage operation of a car is 12 V. the two amplifiers can be connected by bridging which will result to a quadruple power output. This is theoretically preferred due to the process of doubling the output.

The presence of operational amplifier TDA1516Q will aid in making the circuit into operation with simple construction and with very few external components. Each IC consists of two amplifiers that will provide a 20 dB gain. During the operation, the IC is protected from overheat and short circuit. An output of 18 W can be obtained from the bridge connection and it will show in the 4R load with 0.5% of distortion. However, with a distortion near 10%, a power above 20 W is a preferably advisable in cars. The output of the existing amplifier can drive the amplifiers. A potentiometer may also be required in series to adjust the level wherein the distortion can be prevented due to overdrive. A heatsink is required on the amplifiers to prevent excessive increase in temperature.

Figure 2 

This particular circuit can also be used to drive small personal computer speakers and not only in cars. They are widely used in automotive sound systems, portable consumer products, digital players, telephony, and automotive head units. In some commercial equipment, they can also be found in in-dash DVD player, digital class and active subwoofers power amplifiers for cars and Hi-Fi applications.

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