
AD600/AD602 
A simple half-wave detector is used based on Q1 and R2. The 
average current into Capacitor C2 is the difference between the 
current provided by the 
AD590
 (300 μA at 300 K, 27°C) and the 
collector current of Q1. In turn, the control voltage V
G
 is the 
time integral of this error current. When V
G
 (thus the gain) is 
stable, the rectified current in Q1 must, on average, balance 
exactly the current in the 
AD590
. If the output of A2 is too 
small to do this, V
G
 ramps up, causing the gain to increase until 
Q1 conducts sufficiently. The operation of this control system 
follows.  
Rev. E | Page 18 of 28 
First, consider the particular case where R2 is zero and the 
output voltage V
OUT
 is a square wave at, for example, 100 kHz, 
well above the corner frequency of the control loop. During the 
time V
OUT
 is negative, Q1 conducts. When V
OUT
 is positive, it is 
cut off. Since the average collector current is forced to be 
300 μA and the square wave has a 50% duty-cycle, the current 
when conducting must be 600 μA. With R2 omitted, the peak 
value of V
OUT
 would be just the V
BE
 of Q1 at 600 μA (typically 
about 700 mV) or 2 V
BE
 p-p. This voltage, thus the amplitude at 
which the output stabilizes, has a strong negative temperature 
coefficient (TC), typically –1.7 mV/°C. While this may not be 
troublesome in some applications, the correct value of R2 
renders the output stable with temperature. 
To understand this, first note that the current in the 
AD590
 is 
closely proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT). In fact, 
this IC is intended for use as a thermometer. For the moment, 
assume that the signal is a square wave. When Q1 is conducting, 
V
OUT
 is the sum of V
BE
. V
OUT
 is also a voltage that is PTAT and 
that can be chosen to have a TC equal but opposite to the TC of 
the base-to-emitter voltage. This is actually nothing more than 
the band gap voltage reference principle in thinly veiled 
disguise. When R2 is chosen so that the sum of the voltage 
across it and the V
BE
 of Q1 is close to the band gap voltage of 
about 1.2 V, V
OUT
 is stable over a wide range of temperatures, 
provided Q1 and the 
AD590
 share the same thermal environment. 
Since the average emitter current is 600 μA during each half-
cycle of the square wave, a resistor of 833 Ω would add a PTAT 
voltage of 500 mV at 300 K, increasing by 1.66 mV/°C. In 
practice, the optimum value of R2 depends on the transistor 
used and, to a lesser extent, on the waveform for which the 
temperature stability is to be optimized; for the devices shown 
and sine wave signals, the recommended value is 806 Ω. This 
resistor also serves to lower the peak current in Q1 and the 
200 Hz LP filter it forms with C2 helps to minimize distortion 
due to ripple in V
G
. Note that the output amplitude under sine 
wave conditions is higher than for a square wave because the 
average value of the current for an ideal rectifier would be 
0.637 times as large, causing the output amplitude to be 1.88 V 
(= 1.2/0.637), or 1.33 V rms. In practice, the somewhat nonideal 
rectifier results in the sine wave output being regulated to about 
1.275 V rms.  
An offset of 375 mV is applied to the inverting gain-control 
inputs C1LO and C2LO. Therefore, the nominal –625 mV to 
+625 mV range for V
G
 is translated upwards (at V
G
′) to –0.25 V 
for minimum gain to +1 V for maximum gain. This prevents 
Q1 from going into heavy saturation at low gains and leaves 
sufficient headroom of 4 V for the 
AD590
 to operate correctly 
at high gains when using a 5 V supply. 
In fact, the 6 dB interstage attenuator means that the overall 
gain of this AGC system actually runs from –6 dB to +74 dB. 
Thus, an input of 2 V rms would be required to produce a 
1 V rms output at the minimum gain, which exceeds the 1 V rms 
maximum input specification of the AD600. The available gain 
range is therefore 0 dB to 74 dB (or X1 to X5000). Since the gain 
scaling is 15.625 mV/dB (because of the cascaded stages), the 
minimum value of V
G
′ is actually increased by 6 × +15.625 mV, 
or about 94 mV, to 156 mV, so the risk of saturation in Q1 is 
reduced. 
The emitter circuit of Q1 is somewhat inductive (due its finite f
t
and base resistance). Consequently, the effective value of R2 
increases with frequency. This results in an increase in the 
stabilized output amplitude at high frequencies, but for the 
addition of C3, determined experimentally to be 15 pF for the 
2N3904 for maximum response flatness. Alternatively, a faster 
transistor can be used here to reduce HF peaking. Figure 38 
shows the ac response at the stabilized output level of about 
1.3 rms. Figure 39 demonstrates the output stabilization for the 
sine wave inputs of 1 mV to 1 V rms at frequencies of 100 kHz, 
1 MHz, and 10 MHz. 
FREQUENCY (MHz)
A
1
100
10
0.1
3dB
0
Figure 38. AC Response at the Stabilized Output Level of 1.3 V rms