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AC ground VS DC ground

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walters

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ac ground

Whats the difference between AC ground VS DC ground?

How do u know which is AC ground and where is DC ground?

To add more GAIN we use a "bypass capacitor" in the emitter or cathode, but the bypass capacitor is to DC ground, i don't understand how AC signal can not go to DC ground but get more Gain from the AC signal

Someone told me that the + symbol of the rails is AC ground and the ground symbol is DC ground is this true

But how can AC signal not go to DC ground but get signal GAIN from components like bypass capacitors tied to DC ground


RULES

1.) If a circuit is grounded through a capacitor it is referred to as AC-grounded because only AC signals can pass through the cap to ground, DC levels are blocked.

2.) Whereas if a circuit is such that DC current can flow to ground, such as through a resistor, then it is considered to be DC-grounded.

3.) capacitor to ground (AC-grounded), or directly to ground (DC-grounded).
 

dc ground

Hi,
It really does not matter whether you call it AC ground or DC ground or something else, because, ultimately as per Kirchoff's law all currents that left the + terminal of the supply will have to go back to its negative terminal. I would like to classify ground as Power Ground, Signal Ground, Analog Ground, Digital ground etc.
Let me explain what I meant by each of the above grounds and its significance as I see them:
Power Ground: All return points of high Power supply and its bypass capacitors and portions of circuit delivering high power should be preferably separated from low level analog and logic circuits to avoid potential drops in the ground line of low level circuits, to avoid noise in the system and difficult to trace spurious current feed back and instability, easpecially in high gain op-amp circuits. Now think of the returns of the bypass capacitors for emitter resistors and op-amp suppies, since these carry only small currents, they should be connected to the signal ground only. Further, if these capacitors are returned to the noisy power ground, it will be equivalent to injecting noise direcly to the emitter of transistor and in case of an op-amp power supply, the supply lead will show up the noise of the power ground with respect to the signal ground, the opposite of what we wanted.

Signal Ground:
This ground is where you should return all signal -ves, signal bypass negatives and Supply bypass capacitors of low power, high gain devices.
For instance in an audio amplifier, all grounds of preamplifier circuits including microphone return will go to signal ground, all grounds of power amplifier circuits including Speaker return will go to Power ground.
Analog Ground : Same as signal ground, but consists of all returns of low power analog circuits.
Digital ground: All returns of low power logic circuits.
Depending on the complexity of the board, you may have all the four types of grounds on a single board. But remember, if the signals on the board are not ISOLATED, ULTIMATELY ALL GROUNDS SHOULD be SHORTED at One point, since as per KIRCHOFF's law a current leaving one portion of the circuit SHOULD always return to it, however small the current may be.
Regards,
Laktronics
 
ac ground dc ground

Hi,

Mainly the noise levels are different in AC and DC GNDs.


If you need more information, contact me,

Regards,

N. Muralidhara

CRL-BEL
 

ac ground symbol

Hi, look at this, please. You will find some explanations about how to realize/separate analog and digital ground on a board.
 

dc ground symbol

How is the AC ground noise different than DC ground noise?

What do u mean by having different noises?
 

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