Unit 3

Commom Source amplifier:

The circuit shown is a common-source amplifier with bypass capacitor, coupling capacitors, and load
resistance, and is analysed for its frequency response characteristics, how the gain varies with signal
frequency. The frequency response of an amplifier describes how its gain varies with frequency. It is
influenced by:

 Coupling capacitors
 Bypass capacitor
 Internal transistor capacitances, and
 Load resistance.

The gain is not constant across all frequencies. It exhibits three regions:

1. Low-Frequency Response
2. Mid-Frequency Response
3. High-Frequency Response

High-Frequency response of CS amplifier:

At high frequencies (above MHz range):

 Parasitic capacitances (transistor’s junction capacitance come into effect.

 Miller effect increases effective input capacitance, limiting bandwidth.
 Output impedance also interacts with these capacitances, reducing gain.

This causes the gain to drop again beyond the upper cut-off frequency fH. The equivalent circuit of CS
amplifier at high frequencies is shown below.
Problem:

Low-Frequency response of CS amplifier:

For CS MOSFET amplifier, Rsi = 100 kΩ, RG = 4.7 MΩ, RD =15 K, RL = 15 K, gm = 1
mA/V, r0 = 150 kΩ CgS = 1 pF and Cgd = 0.4 pF. Find the midband gain AM and the upper
3 dB frequency, fH.
Commom Gate amplifier:
The common-gate (CG) amplifier is a fundamental MOSFET configuration characterized by its gate terminal
being connected to an AC ground (common), with the input applied at the source and the output taken from
the drain. This configuration exhibits unique frequency response characteristics compared to common-source
(CS) or common-drain (CD) amplifiers, making it particularly useful in high-frequency applications like RF
amplification. Its major advantage is as the gate being grounded, which avoids the Miller multiplication of
CGD and allows for superior high-frequency performance and wider bandwidth.

.
Source follower:
The common-drain (CD) amplifier, also known as a source follower. It's primarily used as a voltage buffer due to its
high input impedance, low output impedance. At high frequencies, the parasitic capacitances of the MOSFET and any
external load capacitance become significant and limit the bandwidth of the source follower.
Neglecting channel-length modulation and body effect for simplicity and using the equivalent circuit shown
in Fig. 6.22(b), we sum the currents at the output node:
 (6.51)

Cascode amplifier:
 The cascode amplifier configuration consists of a common-emitter stage and a common-base stage.
Since there's no direct coupling from output to input, the cascode improves input-output isolation
(reducing reverse transmission). As a result, the Miller effect is eliminated, so the bandwidth is much
higher.
 The Miller effect occurs in amplifier designs using transistors or vacuum tubes. It describes how a
relatively small input capacitance can appear much larger at the input of an amplifier because of the
amplification process. This results in unwanted frequency response changes and instability in
amplifiers.
 Due to their ability to provide good gain and bandwidth characteristics, cascode amplifiers are
commonly used in radio frequency (RF) and other high-frequency applications.
Differential Amplifier:
Noise in amplifiers:
Noise is a random process. this statement means that the value of noise cannot be predicted at any time even
if the past values are known. If the instantaneous value of noise in the time domain cannot be predicted, how
can we incorporate noise in circuit analysis? This is accomplished by observing the noise for a long time and
using the measured results to construct a “statistical model” for the noise. While the instantaneous amplitude
of noise cannot be predicted, a statistical model provides knowledge about some other important properties of
the noise that prove useful and adequate in circuit analysis.
Which properties of noise can be predicted? In many cases, the average power of noise is predictable. For
example, if a microphone picking up the sound of a river is brought closer to the river, the resulting electrical
signal displays, on the average, larger excursions and hence higher power. The reader may wonder if a random
process can be so random that even its average power is unpredictable. Such processes do exist, but we are
fortunate that most sources of noise in circuits exhibit a constant average power.

The concept of average power proves essential in our analysis and must be defined carefully. Recall from
basic circuit theory that the average power delivered by a periodic voltage v(t) to a load resistance RL is
given by

Noise Spectrum:
The concept of average power becomes more versatile if defined with regard to the frequency content of noise.
The noise made by a group of men contains weaker high-frequency components than that made by a group of
women, a difference observable from the “spectrum” of each type of noise. Also called the “power spectral
density” (PSD), the spectrum shows how much power the signal carries at each frequency. More specifically,
the PSD, Sx ( f ), of a noise waveform x(t) is defined as the average power carried by x(t) in a one-hertz
bandwidth around f .

Types of Noise:

Thermal Noise:

Resistor Thermal Noise The random motion of electrons in a conductor introduces fluctuations in the voltage
measured across the conductor, even if the average current is zero. Thus, the spectrum of thermal noise is
proportional to the absolute temperature. As shown in Fig. 7.14, the thermal noise of a resistor R can be
modeled by a series voltage source, with the one-sided spectral density.

where k = 1.38 × 10−23 J/K is the Boltzmann constant. Note that Sv( f ) is expressed in V2/Hz.
Thus, we also write V2n= 4kT R,
Example:

Flicker Noise:

The interface between the gate oxide and the silicon substrate in a MOSFET entails an interesting
phenomenon. Since the silicon crystal reaches an end at this interface, many “dangling” bonds appear, giving
rise to extra energy states (Fig. 7.25). As charge carriers move at the interface, some are randomly trapped
and later released by such energy states, introducing “flicker” noise in the drain current. In addition to trapping,
several other mechanisms are believed to generate flicker noise [4].

Unlike thermal noise, the average power of flicker noise cannot be predicted easily. Depending on the
“cleanness” of the oxide-silicon interface, flicker noise may assume considerably different values and as such
varies from one CMOS technology to another. The flicker noise is more easily modeled as a voltage source in
series with the gate and, in the saturation region, roughly given by

As shown in Fig. 7.26, the noise spectral density is inversely proportional to the frequency. For example, the
trap-and-release phenomenon associated with the dangling bonds occurs more often at low frequencies. For
this reason, flicker noise is also called 1/ f noise. Note that (7.34) does not depend on the bias current or the
temperature.

The inverse dependence of (7.34) on WL suggests that to reduce 1/ f noise, the device area must be
increased.

In order to quantify the significance of 1/f noise with respect to thermal noise for a given device, we plot
both spectral densities on the same axes (Fig. 7.27). Called the 1/ f noise “corner frequency,” the intersection
point serves as a measure of what part of the band is mostly corrupted by flicker noise. In he above example,
the 1/ f noise corner, fC, of the output current is determined as

This result implies that fC generally depends on the device area and transconductance.

Noise in Single-Stage Amplifiers:

Common Source stage:
How to design a CS stage for low noise operation:
Common-Gate Stage:
An important drawback of the common-gate topology is that it directly refers the noise current produced by
the load to the input.
Source Followers:
Since source followers add noise to the input signal while providing a voltage gain of less than unity, they
are usually avoided in low-noise amplification.

Differential Pairs: