6.

012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-1

Lecture 25 - Frequency Response of

Amplifiers (III)

Other Amplifier Stages

December 8, 2005

Contents:

1. Frequency response of common-drain amplifier

2. Cascode amplifier

Reading assignment:

Howe and Sodini, Ch. 9, §9.3.3; Ch. 10, §§10.5, 10.7

Announcement:

Final exam: December 19, 1:30-4:30 PM, duPont; open

book, calculator required; entire subject under examina-
tion but emphasis on lectures #19-26.
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-2

Key questions

• Do all amplifier stages suffer from the Miller effect?

• Is there something unique about the common drain

stage in terms of frequency response?
• Can we make a transconductance amplifier with a
large bandwidth?
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-3

1. Frequency response of common-drain am-

plifier

VDD

signal source

RS

signal
vs + load
iSUP RL
vOUT

VGG -

VSS

Features:

• voltage gain
1
• high input resistance
• low output resistance

• ⇒ good voltage buffer

6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-4

High-frequency small-signal model:

Cgd
G D
+

vgs Cgs gmvgs gmbvbs ro

S -
RS
- Cdb
vbs Csb
+
vs +
- +
B
roc RL vout
-

vbs=0

Cgs

+ vgs - +
RS
+ Cgd gmvgs Cdb ro//roc//RL=RL' vout
vs
- -

gmRL
Av,LF = ≤1
1 + gmRL
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-5

Compute bandwidth by open-circuit time constant tech-

nique:

1. shut-off all independent sources,

2. compute Thevenin resistance RT i seen by each Ci with

all other C’s open,
3. compute open-circuit time constant for Ci as

τi = RT iCi

4. conservative estimate of bandwidth:

ωH

Στi

2 First, short vs:

Cgs

+ vgs - +

RS Cgd gmvgs Cdb RL' vout

-
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-6

2 Time constant associated with Cgs:

v
it + t -
1 2

+ vgs - +

RS gmvgs RL' vout

node 1:

vt + vout
it − =0
RS

node 2:
vout
gm vgs − it −  = 0
RL

also

vgs = vt

Solve for vout in 1 and plug into 2:

6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-7


vt RS + RL

RT gs = = 
it 1 + gm R
L

Time constant:


RS + RL

τgs = Cgs 
1 + gm R
L

2 Time constant associated with Cgd :

+ vgs -

it +
+
RS vt gmvgs RL' vout
-
-

RT gd = RS

τgd = Cgd RS
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-8

2 Time constant associated with Cdb :

+ vgs -
it
+
RS gmvgs RL' vt
-

it
+
gm RL' vt
-


1  R
L

RT db = //R
L
=

gm 1 + gmRL


RL

τdb = Cdb 
1 + gmRL

Notice:

RT db = Rout //RL
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-9

2 Bandwidth:

1 1
ωH
=  
τgs + τgd + τdb Cgs RS +RL + Cgd RS + Cdb RL 
1+gm R 1+gmR L L

2 If back is not connected to source:

VDD

signal source

RS
VSS
signal
load
vs +
iSUP vOUT RL
-
VGG

VSS

6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-10

Small-signal equivalent circuit:

Cgd
G D
+

vgs Cgs gmvgs gmbvbs ro

RS -
S - Cdb
+ +
vs vbs Csb roc RL vout
-
-
+
B

Cgs

+ vgs - +
RS -

+ Cgd gmvgs gmbvbs vbs Csb ro//roc//RL=RL' vout

vs
- + -

Cgs

+ vgs - +
RS
+ Cgd gmvgs Csb RL'//(1/gmb)=RL'' vout
vs
- -

gm RL”
Av,LF =
1 + gm RL”
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-11

Csb shows up at same location as Cdb before, then band-

width is:

ωH
RS +RL” RL ”
Cgs 1+g m RL ”
+ Cgd R S + Csb 1+gm RL”

Simplify:

• CD amp is about driving low RL from high RS ⇒

RS  RL”, and
1

ωH

RS ( 1+gCmgsRL” + Cgd ) + Csb 1+gRmLR” L”

• CD stage operates as voltage buffer with Av,LF

1 ⇒ gm RL”  1, and
1
ωH

Cgd RS + Cgmsb

Since Cgd and 1/gm are small, if RS is not too high, ωH

can be rather high (approach ωT ).
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-12

2 What happened to the Miller effect in CD amp?

1
ωH

RS ( 1+gCmgsRL” + Cgd ) + Csb 1+gRmLR” L”

Miller analysis of Cgs:

 gm RL” 1
Cgs = Cgs(1−Av ) = Cgs(1− ) = Cgs
1 + gmRL” 1 + gm RL”

agrees with above result.


Note, since Av → 1, Cgs → 0.

See in circuit:

iin C

+ +
+
vin Avvin vout
- -
-

CM = C(1 − Av )

if Av
1 ⇒ CM
0: bootstrapping
bootstrapping
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-13

2. Cascode amplifier

Common-source stage: excellent transconductance am

-
plifier, but bandwidth hurt by Miller effect.

What’s a circuit designer to do?

Consider CS-CG stage:

VDD VDD

iSUP1 iSUP2
signal source iOUT signal
RS load
vOUT1 VG2 VSS
RL
vs
iOUT1
VG1
IBIAS

VSS VSS

How does this address the problem?

• Rin2 very small ⇒ iOU T 1 can change a lot with vOU T 1
changing little ⇒ small voltage gain in CS stage ⇒
no Miller effect ⇒ high bandwidth
• CG stage also has high bandwidth

6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-14

Before analyzing CS-CG amp, notice that if we make

iSU P 1 = iSU P 2 = iSU P , amplifier drastically simplified:

VDD VDD

iSUP iSUP
signal source iOUT signal
RS load
vOUT1 VG2 VSS
RL
vs
iOUT1
VG1
IBIAS

VSS VSS

VDD

iSUP
iOUT signal
load
VG2 VSS
RL

signal RS
source

vs

VG1

VSS
 6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-15

VDD

iSUP
iOUT signal
load
VG2 VSS
RL

signal RS
source

vs

VG1

VSS

Small-signal equivalent circuit model:

(gm2+gmb2)vgs2

RS Cgd1

+ ro2
+ -

vs vgs1 Cgs1 gm1vgs1 Cdb1 ro1 vgs2 Cgs2+Csb2 Cgd2+Cdb2 roc//RL=RL'

-
+
-

Time constants associated with Cgs1 and Cgd2 +Cdb2 have

not changed.

Time constant associated with Cdb1 + Cgs2 + Csb2 small

(looking into Rin2
1/gm ).
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-16

Focus on time constant associated with Cgd1 :

vt
+ -
+
it
RS vgs1 gm1vgs1 gm2+gmb2
-

From Lecture 24:

1 gm1
τgd1 =[ + RS (1 + )]Cgd1
gm2 + gmb2 gm2 + gmb2

If transistors identical (gm1 = gm2 ):

τgd1
2RS Cgd1

Much smaller than in single stage CS tansconductance

amp:

 
τgd = [Rout + RS (1 + gm Rout )]Cgd

Cascode:
Casco de: excellent transconductance amplifier with high
bandwidth.
6.012 - Microelectronic Devices and Circuits - Fall 2005 Lecture 25-17

Key conclusions

• Common-drain amplifier:
– Voltage gain
1, Miller effect nearly completely
eliminates impact of Cgs (bootstrapping)
– if RS is not too high, CD amp has high bandwidth
• Cascode amplifier:
– effective sharing of current source
– Miller effect minimized by reducing voltage gain of
CS stage as a result of low input impedance of CG
stage
– transconductance amplifier with high bandwidth