Lecture 17

Common Gate Amp.

We can now look at another amplifier configuration called the common gate. Here the gate is grounded, which we have seen before. A signal is passed to the FET by modulating the source bias (note where the signal is inserted). The output is still taken at the drain. You can see that the gate is now the common terminal between the input and output. We will learn later why one would want to construct such an odd configuration.

CG Equivalent Circuit
We will again reduce this circuit to the equivalent small-signal circuit. The FET is replaced by the Tmodel as shown The capacitors and power supplies are likewise removed Now note that we dont have the bypass capacitor as we did with the CS configuration. Why? We dont need it.
It was there to ensure continuity for the signal Here, the signal source is attached to the drain, thus we dont need to worry about continuity through the current bias source.

Analysis
We are again ignoring channel-length modulation because it will complicate the analysis too much From the model, we can see that the input resistance is just 1/gm. This comes from grounded gate combined with the current source at the drain. This circuit is unilateral. However, we find that the input resistance tends to be low, causing large signal strength losses. The way to avoid large losses is to keep the source resistance small.

vi = vsig

1 1 + g m Rsig

Rsig <<

1 gm

Analysis II
The output voltage will be: From this we can get the voltage gain: The overall voltage gain will be: The output resistance is RD There are several qualities to such an amplifier
This amplifier is non-inverting It has a very low input impedance Due to this low input impedance, the overall gain of this amplifier is lower that the CS amplifier

vo = g m (RD // RL )vi

Av = g m (RD // RL )
Gv = g m (RD // RL ) 1 + g m Rsig

So, overall it looks like a pretty dumb design. But there is a redeeming factor

CG, Useful?
So, what do we do with a low input impedance amplifier that doesnt have very good gain? How about make a unity gain current amplifier? How? The source is presented with a low impedance input, so little current is lost. The output has a high impedance, acting like a current source (which if you look at the T-model is not surprising) This is also known as a current follower and has applications in the cascode circuit. Another use for the CG amp. is in high frequency applications

Common-Drain
If we remove the drain resistor from the FET amplifier, we create what is known as the common drain configuration. Thinking in terms of smallsignal, the drain has now been grounded. Naturally this means we cannot get a signal out from the drain, because it is shorted to ground for AC signals. Instead we pull the output from the source terminal. Again, the usual and customary capacitors are present, with no need for a bypass around the current bias.

Effective Circuit
Once again, we will replace the FET with the T-model Here though, well implement the channel-length modulation because it does not complicate matters as much here The input resistance is RG With the gate connected only to the input signal, we can choose a large value for RG to avoid large signal losses.

Analysis
Looking at the resulting circuit we can see that ro is in parallel with RL. Here then we can calculate to output voltage by using the voltage divider rule: Resulting in a gain of: Normally ro>>1/gm meaning the output is very nearly unity Thus the voltage at the source is almost equal to the voltage at the gate. For this reason this configuration is most frequently called a source-follower
vo = vi RL // ro

(RL // r ) +
RL // ro

1 gm

Av =

(RL // r ) +

1 gm

Analysis
In many cases, the load resistance is much smaller than ro, meaning the gain can be further reduced to: The overall voltage gain is: The output resistance is: Looking at the circuit shows there there is a considerable amount of internal feedback, but this configuration is fortunately still unilateral. The obvious application for this circuit is as a unity gain amplifier. This configuration is often seen in the output stage of a full fledged amplifier
Av RL 1 RL + gm

Av =

RG RL // ro RG + Rsig (R // r ) + 1 L gm

Rout =

1 // ro gm

Depletion Load
We havent really looked at the depletion mode FETs, but they are useful. In a nutshell, their I-V curves look the same, but their response to gate voltage is opposite In the configuration shown below, we can get the device to act like a large resistor. (in Fact it actually makes use of r0!) This again can be used for an active load in a transistor amplifier.

Depletion load amp

The active load again replaces the drain resistor Unlike the other example, we do have to apply small signal approximations But on the other hand, we get much higher gain. OK, so why not just use a big RD?
The VDS of the amplifier FET would be reduced (less dynamic range) Another way to put it is such a load can have high current and high resistance But this circuit suffers from the body effect!

A much better way

We can kill two birds with one stone by using a pMOS current mirror as the drain load.
It accomplishes the DC biasing of the n-MOS It has a behavior similar to the depletion load (remember p acts opposite of n)

This is called the CMOS amplifier It is the currently favored design.

A = g mn (ron rop )