CFA Topology Audio Amplifiers

With my 5-pair sim ... I get about half 28ppm (12-14) ... the OPS
is a "player" with these power levels.

As a reference , I have the genesis class A OPS. I have swapped
these iPS's to IT , and they are down to 2ppm /.0002%.

I have noticed that these CFA's are SO FAST that they actually can
try to correct the X-over distortion of my EF3. Distortion stays
lower even if the OPS is not optimally biased.

OS

😎🙂
 
Group delay (GD) vs. slew/stability

CFA's have a very low GD. Don't need to play any compensation "tricks"
to get them to have uber high UG freq./slews.

My VFA "leach" was only able to reach 200V/us by the careful addition
of lead compensation. Without it , a higher value Cdom was needed
to prevent ringing on SW tests. The "leach" also simulated at 4X the
GD , (as compared to the typical CFA).
That extra phase delay requires the lead comp. to retain adequate
margin at UG.
The CFA "bypasses" all this with its utter simplicity.

In the end , I did get the leach and NAD/NX to nearly match each
other's performance .... it "blurred" the basic CFA/VFA differences.
OS
 
CFA's have a very low GD. Don't need to play any compensation "tricks"
to get them to have uber high UG freq./slews.

My VFA "leach" was only able to reach 200V/us by the careful addition
of lead compensation. Without it , a higher value Cdom was needed
to prevent ringing on SW tests. The "leach" also simulated at 4X the
GD , (as compared to the typical CFA).
That extra phase delay requires the lead comp. to retain adequate
margin at UG.
The CFA "bypasses" all this with its utter simplicity.

In the end , I did get the leach and NAD/NX to nearly match each
other's performance .... it "blurred" the basic CFA/VFA differences.
OS

😎🙂
 
CFA's have a very low GD. Don't need to play any compensation "tricks"
to get them to have uber high UG freq./slews.

My VFA "leach" was only able to reach 200V/us by the careful addition
of lead compensation. Without it , a higher value Cdom was needed
to prevent ringing on SW tests. The "leach" also simulated at 4X the
GD , (as compared to the typical CFA).
That extra phase delay requires the lead comp. to retain adequate
margin at UG.
The CFA "bypasses" all this with its utter simplicity.

In the end , I did get the leach and NAD/NX to nearly match each
other's performance .... it "blurred" the basic CFA/VFA differences.
OS

Hey OS, have you seen the original super leach published in the
AUDIO magazine in the 80's? it used lead compensation on the emitters of
the input long tail pairs, any chance you can visit it for a simulation?
 
Hi Richard,

I have definitely been considering it, although it might not be a chapter. For example, it could be a section in the IPS/VAS chapter. Just not sure. If I can reach the point where I am truly confident in articulating the CFA design issues in a fair and understandable way, that would be a key to whether I would cover it and to what extent. This excellent thread has definitely sensitized me to the CFA topology. Even though I am not a strong advocate of no-NFB amplifiers, I tried to give a fair description of their design approaches and challenges, and a decent example of one. That is how I would seek to cover CFA if I do. Of course, it also comes down to time and page priorities as well. There will be a new chapter devoted to switching power supplies for audio amplifiers, which I have been doing some writing on for quite some time now. I'll have to devote more space to class D amplifiers as well.

Cheers,
Bob

Bob, I hope you call the topology as it is meant to be and not something ridiculus like D Self did in his latest book. 😉
I cant quite remember the term he used right now, something like series connected LTP input amp or something in that line. 🙁
 
Thanks Richard for posting this reminder of a CFA amplifier. To my understanding, when the impedance seen looking into the negative feedback input (e.g., 1/gm of the input stage) is small compared to that of the feedback network, then it is a CFA.

Put similarly, if 100% of the current in the feedback resistor goes into the (for example) emitters of the input stage, as opposed to the shunt leg of the feedback network, then it is pretty much a "pure" CFA. It seems technically to be a matter of degree. If each of those input transistors in the complimentary arrangement are biased at 1mA, then one sees a net input impedance (1/gm) of about 13 ohms. If the shunt network impedance of the feedback network is, say, 10X this, at 130 ohms, I'd be tempted to loosely call it 90% a CFA. If on the other hand, the shunt FB element was only 13 ohms, then only about half the feedback current would flow into the emitters and I would loosely think of it being behaviorally only 50% CFA.

When we replace the BJTs with JFETs, the gm will be perhaps 10X smaller for a given bias current value. This would seem to mean that it will qualify as a CFA to the same degree if the impedances in the feedback network are on the order of 10X greater.

So it all seems to me to be a matter of degree. What percentage of the feedback current flows into the active devices as opposed to the passive shunt impedance of the feedback network.

Cheers,
Bob

Bob, that's a very thoughtfull and sensible viewpoint, thanks for articulating it this way!

Jan
 
Why is that manso, here your inputs are really High impedance, the FB pint is set by the feedback resistor to a point around zero potential, but not referenced to GND, essentially a low impedance node, thus current feedback.

The input is made up of two buffers. One is the input for the signal, the other is input for feedback node. Both of them have have high impedance, just like in a Ltp based input section. Whoever decided on the definition didnt mean to involve the feedback resistor at this point but understandable as this is also not required to define a LTP based amp. See LM6172 datasheet or the patents involved, its a good reference as to the workings of this topology.
 
At CFA cross-roads ---

This is my simplified CFA. It really didnt ever get simplified - it started this way to use some of the inherent cancellation which might apply. Later I embellished it with cascode and ccs. You can also..... if we want to take this CFA in a slightly different direction to see what happens... difference... pro-con; CFA vs "Simplified" CFA/ compl p-p?

View attachment 404170


This basic topology is now extreamly advanced in IC form. For example, see AD8001 thru AD8011.

[Note: mfr of consumer audio... like Marantz use the CFA and not the simplified or compl p-p.]

Thx-RNMarsh

Hi Richard,

What document did these CFA PDF figures come from?

Cheers,
Bob
 
He did .. his 2 posted PDF's were representive of those two topologies.

As far as CFA/VFA ... the line has "blurred" for me.
My question is simple .... is the great performance/sound Q the result
of just the current Feedback ? , or is it just the fact that these amps are
balanced /symmetrical (true push-pull).

An augmented VFA "leach" actually has these CFA's beat in ALL aspects. 😛
(PSRR , slew , thd20 , LF thd) ... even clipping !

PS- the "CFA" trick is good to reduce parts count.

Good question/point. It may be the case that the CFA topology is one that is most often implemented with a push-pull VAS, and that may account for much of the SQ improvement. I'm a strong believer in superiority of PP VAS, and they are not as "natural" to do in a conventional VFA (apartt from the fully symmetrical VFA's using paralleled complementary input LTPs.

The CFA is just a natural, straightforward fit to a push-pull VAS topology.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Bob
 
Bob, I hope you call the topology as it is meant to be and not something ridiculus like D Self did in his latest book. 😉
I cant quite remember the term he used right now, something like series connected LTP input amp or something in that line. 🙁

I get very annoyed by Doug renaming terms to his own use. His ditching TMC in favor of his own term, just because someone else (Edmond) came up with it is a good example.

I cringe when people use his term "Blameless" to describe a topology as old as dirt.

Cheers,
Bob
 
Good question/point. It may be the case that the CFA topology is one that is most often implemented with a push-pull VAS, and that may account for much of the SQ improvement. I'm a strong believer in superiority of PP VAS, and they are not as "natural" to do in a conventional VFA (apartt from the fully symmetrical VFA's using paralleled complementary input LTPs.

The CFA is just a natural, straightforward fit to a push-pull VAS topology.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Bob
This I agree completely with. That's why I said in one of the first posts in this thread that Esperado was cheating a bit by having a PP vas integrated as opposed to the basic blameless VFA 🙂 The circuit of mine you may have seen around here manages to do just that, having a PP vas connected to a single LTP input, happily married.

Edit: oops sorry to have made you cringe 😀
 
Thanks Richard for posting this reminder of a CFA amplifier. To my understanding, when the impedance seen looking into the negative feedback input (e.g., 1/gm of the input stage) is small compared to that of the feedback network, then it is a CFA.

Put similarly, if 100% of the current in the feedback resistor goes into the (for example) emitters of the input stage, as opposed to the shunt leg of the feedback network, then it is pretty much a "pure" CFA. It seems technically to be a matter of degree. If each of those input transistors in the complimentary arrangement are biased at 1mA, then one sees a net input impedance (1/gm) of about 13 ohms. If the shunt network impedance of the feedback network is, say, 10X this, at 130 ohms, I'd be tempted to loosely call it 90% a CFA. If on the other hand, the shunt FB element was only 13 ohms, then only about half the feedback current would flow into the emitters and I would loosely think of it being behaviorally only 50% CFA.

When we replace the BJTs with JFETs, the gm will be perhaps 10X smaller for a given bias current value. This would seem to mean that it will qualify as a CFA to the same degree if the impedances in the feedback network are on the order of 10X greater.

So it all seems to me to be a matter of degree. What percentage of the feedback current flows into the active devices as opposed to the passive shunt impedance of the feedback network.

While I think this description is correct, I'm afraid it is though incomplete without discussing what is the current diverted into the inverting input (whatever % of the feedback resistor current) doing. It is easy to devise an example in which that current is doing nothing (AC wise) - and such an example doesn't make a CFA.