What is a darlington output exactly?

[mjarve]

I have seen the term darlington output used in several instances regarding the output stages of an amplifier and I never quite understood what the difference was with a "standard" output stage. Do all darlington outputs use the (in)famous Darlington Power Packs (STK-0040 - 0050, etc.)?

Please pardon my ignorance on the issue.

[Jan Dupont]

Hi
Darlington Output refers to that two output devices are coupled close together, - output from the first device to the Base/Gate of the second device, as seen on most power amps.
This is quite common, and can be made by using two devices (a driver and an output device) or a single Darlington device (which contains two devices in one package)

Furthermore there are the "Three Darlington Output Circuit", which I*m very fond of my self. This TDD uses three devices; a predriver, a driver and the output device

[mjarve]

Thank you. That was just one of those things that has been sitting around in the back of my mind for years.

[cunningham]

Darlingon connected BJT's usually come in integrated packages. The transisors inside are matched precisely to have an overall charactoristic whether it be high gain, linear operation. If you use darlington connection with unmatched nonsimilar type transistors in a class AB operation, you are going to have problems... you may have problems anyway...better match them up.

[Easyamp]

Darlington