Common Emitter Amplifier Design

[NascentOxygen]

I increased R_L to 13.08K and now it's a lot closer to 4V_p.

How did it get to be too small? It is supposed to have been » R3 all along.

But I am a little confused. Shouldn't each value be able to be calculated in order to reach the requirement of an 8V peak-to-peak output.

Yes, and that is what the design procedure achieves (with most of the parameters given to you in the problem specifications).

In the end the only real assumption was the value of R_load which I just made really large.

That can be taken into account, too, when calculating AC gain.

I haven't finished finding the values of the capacitors yet though. But if I don't come to exactly 8V_pp symmetrical output then I would have had to gone wrong somewhere. (and just adding a resistor and experimentally finding a value that works is wrong)

If you need to adjust gain to a precise value, you have no choice but to set the value by experiment. The model is only approximate, and you haven't measured Q1's beta.

And what is the formula for finding the capacitor values?

Refer to the procedure I outlined earlier. (If in doubt, make then x10 larger.)

You now have to sweep the frequency over the range of interest, to make sure the gain extends over the full specified bandwidth.