WHAT IS DISTORTION?

INTRODUCTION
Distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of something, such as an
object, image, sound or waveform. Distortion is usually unwanted, and so engineers strive to
eliminate distortion, or minimize it. In some situations, however, distortion may be desirable.
The important signal processing operation of heterodyning is based on nonlinear mixing of
signals to cause intermodulation. Distortion is also used as a musical effect, particularly with
electric guitars.
The addition of noise or other outside signals (hum, interference) is not deemed distortion,
though the effects of quantization distortion are sometimes deemed noise. A quality measure that
explicitly reflects both the noise and the distortion is the Signal-to-noise-and-distortion (SINAD)
ratio.

HARMONIC DISTORTION
INTRODUCTION

The power quality of distribution systems has a drastic effect on power regulation and
consumption. Johan Lundquist of the Chalmers University of Technology in Goteberg, Sweden
put it best, stating The phrase power quality has been widely used during the last decade and
includes all aspects of events in the system that deviates from normal operation. This has been
especially true after the second half of the 20th century when new types of electronic power
sources caused distortion in waveforms of the power system. Power sources act as non-linear
loads, drawing a distorted waveform that contains harmonics. These harmonics can cause
problems ranging from telephone transmission interference to degradation of conductors and
insulating material in motors and transformers. Therefore it is important to gauge the total effect
of these harmonics. The summation of all harmonics in a system is known as total harmonic
distortion (THD).

WHAT IS HARMONIC DISTORTION ?

Total harmonic distortion is a complex and often confusing concept to grasp. However, when
broken down into the basic definitions of harmonics and distortion, it becomes much easier to
understand.
Imagine a power system with an AC source and an electrical load (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Power System with AC source and electrical load

Now imagine that this load is going to take on one of two basic types: linear or nonlinear. The
type of load is going to affect the power quality of the system. This is due to the current draw of
each type of load. Linear loads draw current that is sinusoidal in nature so they generally do not
distort the waveform (Figure 2). Most household appliances are categorized as linear loads. Nonlinear loads, however, can draw current that is not perfectly sinusoidal (Figure 3). Since the
current waveform deviates from a sine wave, voltage waveform distortions are created.

Figure 2: Ideal Sine wave

Figure 3: Distorted Waveform

As can be observed from the waveform in Figure 3, waveform distortions can drastically alter the
shape of the sinusoid. However, no matter the level of complexity of the fundamental wave, it is
actually just a composite of multiple waveforms called harmonics.
Harmonics have frequencies that are integer multiples of the waveforms fundamental frequency.
For example, given a 60Hz fundamental waveform, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5 th harmonic
components will be at 120Hz, 180Hz, 240Hz and 300Hz respectively. Thus, harmonic distortion
is the degree to which a waveform deviates from its pure sinusoidal values as a result of the

summation of all these harmonic elements. The ideal sine wave has zero harmonic components.
In that case, there is nothing to distort this perfect wave.
Total harmonic distortion, or THD, is the summation of all harmonic components of the voltage
or current waveform compared against the fundamental component of the voltage or current
wave:

The formula above shows the calculation for THD on a voltage signal. The end result is a
percentage comparing the harmonic components to the fundamental component of a signal. The
higher the percentage, the more distortion that is present on the mains signal.
The Usual Suspects
Harmonics have existed on power systems from the time of the very first generators. However,
the harmonic components were so small that their effects on systems were negligible. This was
due to the lack of non-linear loads before the 1960s. As associated professor of the University of
Wollongong, V.J. Gosbell wrote, Harmonic distortion is not generally due to the operation of the
power system, and was largely absent before the 1960s. At about this time, a different type of
customer load with electronic power supplies became popular. This was the beginning of the era
of non-linear loads which now include electronics ballasts, computer power supplies, fax
machines, arc furnaces and variable frequency drives (VFDs).

Harmonic distortion can have detrimental effects on electrical equipment. Unwanted distortion
can increase the current in power systems which results in higher temperatures in neutral
conductors and distribution transformers. Higher frequency harmonics cause additional core loss
in motors which results in excessive heating of the motor core. These higher order harmonics can
also interfere with communication transmission lines since they oscillate at the same frequencies
as the transmit frequency. If left unchecked, increased temperatures and interference can greatly
shorten the life of electronic equipment and cause damage to power systems.

AMPLIFIER DISTORTION
INTRODUCTION
From the previous tutorials we learnt that for a signal amplifier to operate correctly without any
distortion to the output signal, it requires some form of DC Bias on its Base or Gate terminal so
that it can amplify the input signal over its entire cycle with the bias Q-point set as near to the
middle of the load line as possible. This then gave us a Class-A type amplification
configuration with the most common arrangement being the Common Emitter for Bipolar
transistors and the Common Source for unipolar FET transistors.
We also learnt that the Power, Voltage or Current Gain, (amplification) provided by the amplifier
is the ratio of the peak output value to its peak input value (Output Input). However, if we
incorrectly design our amplifier circuit and set the biasing Q-point at the wrong position on the
load line or apply too large an input signal to the amplifier, the resultant output signal may not be
an exact reproduction of the original input signal waveform. In other words the amplifier will
suffer from what is commonly called Amplifier Distortion. Consider the Common Emitter
Amplifier circuit

Common Emitter Amplifier

common emitter amplifier

Distortion of the output signal waveform may occur because:
1. Amplification may not be taking place over the whole signal cycle due to incorrect biasing
levels.
2. The input signal may be too large, causing the amplifiers transistors to be limited by the
supply voltage.
3. The amplification may not be a linear signal over the entire frequency range of inputs.

This means then that during the amplification process of the signal waveform, some form of
Amplifier Distortion has occurred.
Amplifiers are basically designed to amplify small voltage input signals into much larger output
signals and this means that the output signal is constantly changing by some factor or value,
called gain, multiplied by the input signal for all input frequencies. We saw previously that this
multiplication factor is called the Beta, value of the transistor.
Common emitter or even common source type transistor circuits work fine for small AC input
signals but suffer from one major disadvantage, the calculated position of the bias Q-point of a
bipolar amplifier depends on the same Beta value for all transistors. However, this Beta value
will vary from transistors of the same type, in other words, the Q-point for one transistor is not
necessarily the same as the Q-point for another transistor of the same type due to the inherent
manufacturing tolerances.
Then amplifier distortion occurs because the amplifier is not linear and a type of amplifier
distortion called Amplitude Distortion will result. Careful choice of the transistor and biasing
components can help minimise the effect of amplifier distortion.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
search=amplifier+distortion&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go
2. http://www.aptsources.com/resources/pdf/Total%20Harmonic
%20Distortion
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion
4. http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/amplifier/amp_4.html

ELECTRONICS
(HARMONIC DISTORTION & AMPLIFIER DISTORTION)
NAME

:1. AMIR FARHAN B. SAIFUL MAZNAN (960501-08-6139)

2. MUHAMAD SAIFUL ANUAR B. SALIH (960911-01-6977)

YEAR/COURSE : 2/DDPP
SECTION

: 06

LECTURER

: PN ZAINAB BT RASOL