Cascode Amplifier

It is a composite amplifier pair

It is used with large BW for RF
applications and video amplifiers
It consists of CE stage followed by
a CB stage
They are directly coupled to each
other
So it combines some of the features
of both amplifier configurations

Features of Cascode
amplifier
High Voltage gain (that of CB)
Large current gain(that of CE)
Moderate Input impedance
(that of CE)
Good isolation between I/P
&O/P

 Cascode amplifier can be

constructed with:
MOS devices
Common gate(CG) in cascade
with common source(CS)
BJT
CB is in cascade with CE
Basic idea is to get :
High input impedance
Large transconductance
Superior High freq response for wide BW
applications

 Cascode Amplifier using BJT

MOS - Cascode Amplifier

 Overall voltage gain of this

amplifier is given by
Av= AV1 AV2
Where AV1 Gain of CE
AV2 Gain of CB

Darlington emitter
follower
CC amplifier or emitter
follower is considered only
when I/P impedance is smaller
than 500K ohm
To achieve larger I/P
impedance we have to go for
Darlington connection

 It is cascaded connection of two CC

transistors
Or by connecting collectors of
two transistors and emitter of
the first Tr to base of second Tr
This provides 3 terminal device

Characteristics of Darlington
Emitter follower

It has voltage gain close to unity

High I/P impedance (2M ohm)
Low O/P impedance
No phase shift between I/P & O/P

 Circuit diagram is shown here

Approximate analysis
Assume that hoe. Re<<0.1 & hfeRe>>hie
We know that I/P resistance of 2nd stage
forms the effective load Z for Ist stage
But in general, with typical values of I/P
resistance, the condition hoe. Re<<0.1 is
not satisfied
Hence for calculating current gain etc
for first stage we cannot use
approximate model or expressions
We have to exact analysis

Calculation of overall voltage

and current gain

Advantages and
Disadvantages
Advantages:

high current gain

Simple circuit arrangement with a very
simple components
It has an excellent impedance
transformation capability
Hence it is used in Operational Amplifier
Disadvantages:
Leakage current of Ist transistor is
amplified with second Tr
So overall leakage current is high