Common-Collector and Common-Emitter Microphone Amplifiers
A lab paper comparing two basic transistor amplifiers for a microphone signal, from biasing the circuits to measuring their gain.
A microphone puts out a very small signal, so it needs to be amplified before it’s useful. This paper compares two basic transistor circuits for doing that: the common-collector, a buffer that keeps the signal’s voltage but can drive more current, and the common-emitter, which adds voltage gain. It covers how I biased each one, how they measured on the bench, and when you’d pick one over the other.