698 Chapter 10 Frequency Response

Vo
Vsig (dB)
Low-frequency Midband High-frequency band
band
• All capacitances can be neglected • Gain falls off
• Gain falls off due to the internal
due to the effects capacitive effects
3 dB
of coupling and of the BJT or the
bypass MOSFET
capacitors
20 log AM (dB)

fL fH f (Hz)
(log scale)

Figure 10.1 Sketch of the magnitude of the gain of a discrete-circuit BJT or MOS amplifier versus frequency.
The graph delineates the three frequency bands relevant to frequency-response determination.

Figure 10.1 indicates that at lower frequencies, the magnitude of the amplifier gain falls
off. This occurs because the coupling and bypass capacitors no longer have low impedances.
Recall that we assumed that their impedances were small enough to act as short circuits.
Although this can be true at midband frequencies, as the frequency of the input signal is
lowered, the reactance 1/jωC of each of these capacitors becomes significant and, as will be
shown in Section 10.1, this results in a decrease in the overall voltage gain of the amplifier.
In the analysis of the low-frequency response of discrete-circuit amplifiers in Section 10.1
we will be particularly interested in the determination of the frequency fL , which defines the
lower end of the midband. It is usually defined as the frequency at which the gain drops by
3 dB below its value in midband. Integrated-circuit amplifiers do not utilize coupling and
bypass capacitors, and thus their midband extends down to zero frequency (dc), as shown in
Fig. 10.2.
Figures 10.1 and 10.2 indicate that the gain of the amplifier falls off at the high-frequency
end. This is due to internal capacitive effects in the BJT and in the MOSFET. We shall study
these effects in Section 10.2 and model them with capacitances that we will add to the hybrid-π
or T model of the BJT and the MOSFET. The resulting high-frequency device models will
be utilized in Section 10.3 in the analysis of the high-frequency response of the CS and CE
amplifiers, both discrete and integrated. We will be specifically interested in the determination
of the frequency fH , which defines the upper end of the midband. It is defined as the frequency
at which the gain drops by 3 dB below its midband value. Thus, the amplifier bandwidth is
defined by fL and fH (0 and fH for IC amplifiers):
BW = fH − fL (discrete-circuit amplifiers)
BW = fH (integrated-circuit amplifiers)
A figure of merit for the amplifier is its gain–bandwidth product, defined as
GB = |AM |BW
It will be seen that in amplifier design, it is usually possible to trade off gain for bandwidth.
 10.1 Low-Frequency Response of Discrete-Circuit Common-Source and Common-Emitter Amplifiers 699

Vo
! ! (dB)
Vsig

20 log !AM !
3 dB

0 fH f

Figure 10.2 Frequency response of a direct-coupled (dc) amplifier. Observe that the gain does not fall off
at low frequencies, and the midband gain AM extends down to zero frequency.

The remainder of this chapter will be concerned with the frequency-response analysis of
a variety of amplifier configurations of varying degrees of complexity. Of particular interest
to us are ways to extend the amplifier bandwidth (i.e., increase fH ) either by adding specific
circuit components, such as source and emitter-degeneration resistances, or by changing the
circuit configuration altogether.
Before embarking on the study of this chapter, the reader is urged to review Section 1.6,
which introduces the subject of amplifier frequency response and the extremely important
topic of single-time-constant (STC) circuits. More details on STC circuits can be found in
Appendix E. As well, Appendix F provides a review of important tools from circuit and system
theory: poles, zeros, and Bode plots.
Finally, a note on notation: Since we will be dealing with quantities that are functions
of frequency, or, equivalently, the Laplace variable s, we will be using capital letters with
lowercase subscripts for our symbols. This practice conforms with the symbol notation
introduced in Chapter 1.

10.1 Low-Frequency Response of Discrete-Circuit

Common-Source and Common-Emitter Amplifiers
In this section, we consider the effect of the coupling and bypass capacitors on the gain of
discrete-circuit common-source (CS) and common-emitter (CE) amplifiers. As mentioned
earlier, their effect manifests itself only at low frequencies (i.e., below the midband). We
consider first the CS amplifier, since the infinite input resistance at the gate of the MOSFET
makes the analysis of this circuit simpler than that of its CE counterpart.

10.1.1 The CS Amplifier

Figure 10.3(a) shows a discrete-circuit common-source amplifier utilizing the classical biasing
arrangement (Section 7.5.1). Two coupling capacitors, CC1 and CC2 , and a bypass capacitor
CS are employed. At midband frequencies, these large capacitances have negligibly small
700 Chapter 10 Frequency Response

VDD

RG1 RD CC2

Rsig CC1
!
RL Vo
Vsig ! RG2 RS
" CS "

(a)

Id CC2

Io !

CC1 RD RL Vo
Rsig Vg 0 Id = Is

"
Is 1/gm
Vsig ! RG1 RG2
"
RS CS
}
}

RG = RG1 " RG2 ZS = RS "CS

(b)

Figure 10.3 (a) Capacitatively coupled common-source amplifier. (b) The amplifier equivalent circuit at
low frequencies. Note that the T model is used for the MOSFET and ro is neglected.

impedances and can be assumed to be perfect short circuits for the purpose of calculating
the midband gain, as was done in Section 7.5.1. However, at low frequencies, the reactance
1/jωC of each of the three capacitances increases and the amplifier gain decreases, as we
shall now show.
To determine the amplifier gain Vo /Vsig at low frequencies, we utilize the amplifier
equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 10.3(b). This circuit is obtained by short-circuiting VDD and
replacing the MOSFET with its T model, which is the most convenient model to use when
an impedance, such as ZS , is present in the source lead. The transistor ro has been omitted
because including it would complicate the analysis considerably and, moreover, as mentioned
in Chapter 7, ro has a negligible effect on the performance of discrete-circuit amplifiers, as
can be verified using circuit simulation.
 10.1 Low-Frequency Response of Discrete-Circuit Common-Source and Common-Emitter Amplifiers 701

The gain Vo /Vsig of the amplifier can be obtained from the equivalent circuit in Fig. 10.3(b)
by starting at the source and working our way to the load, as
Vo Vg I V
= × d × o
Vsig Vsig Vg Id
where Vg is the voltage between gate and ground, and Id is the drain current. To find the fraction
of Vsig that appears at the transistor gate, Vg , we note that the input resistance at the gate is
infinite and thus the amplifier input resistance is RG = RG1 #RG2 . Using the voltage-divider
rule gives
RG
Vg = Vsig
1
RG + + Rsig
sCC1
which can be rearranged in the form
Vg RG s
= (10.1)
Vsig RG + Rsig 1
s+
CC1 (RG + Rsig )
Thus, we see that the effect of CC1 is to cause the expression for the signal transmission
from the signal source to the amplifier input to acquire a frequency-dependent factor. From
Section 1.6 we recognize this factor as the transfer function of a single-time-constant circuit
of the high-pass type, with a pole frequency ωP1 ,

ωP1 = 1/CC1 (Rsig + RG ) (10.2)

In addition to the pole, CC1 introduces a zero at s = 0 (dc). This is hardly surprising, since
CC1 is included in the amplifier circuit because it blocks dc. Figure 10.4 shows a sketch of
the magnitude of the frequency-dependent factor in the transfer function of Eq. (10.1) versus
frequency ω.
Continuing with the analysis, we next determine the drain current Id , which is equal to the
source current Is . The latter can be found by dividing Vg by the total impedance in the source

Magnitude
(dB)

0
–3
+20 dB#decade

vP1 v (log scale)

s ω
Figure 10.4 Sketch of the magnitude of the high-pass function , that is, ! versus
s + ωP1 ω + ωP1
2 2
frequency ω.