Electrical Sciences (EEE F111)

Lecture No – 35

Field Effect Transistor:

Small Signal Analysis

Dr. Manish Gupta

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
BITS-Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
MOSFET as Amplifier

• In general, amplifier circuit designed with BJT or FETs require ac

as well as dc voltage.

• The dc voltage is used to fix the operating point or Q-point.

• In amplifiers, operating point is crucial for the amplification action

• The ac voltage used in the amplifier circuit is small in magnitude.

• Since the input ac signal is small in magnitude, the amplifier

circuits are analyzed with small signal model or small signal ac
model

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Role of Q-point in Amplification Action
• The applied ac signal is small in magnitude
• If the Q-point is close to the cutoff region (fig. 1), the significant
amplification may not be observed
• Thus, the location of Q-point is crucial (red curve).

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Transconductance
Transconductance (gm): The property of a transistor which tells how
efficiently current through the transistor changes with changing gate
voltage

If the transistor is operating in the active region

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Transconductance

gm can also be written as

or

• Drain resistance or Output resistance (rd)

For MOSFET, the typical value is 10 K-Ohm

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A Step Towards Small Signal Model
• Vdc is selected such that the transistor
operates in the active region

• Let’s superimpose ac signal on the dc

voltage

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A Step Towards Small Signal Model

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MOSFET Amplifier

• Common Gate

• Common Source

• Common Drain

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Small Signal AC Model

If the output resistance is given by rd, the small signal model is shown
below

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Small Signal AC Models
Common Source Amplifier

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Small Signal AC Models

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Small Signal AC Models
Common Source Amplifier with Voltage Divider Biasing
VDD

RD
R1
ac output
C1 C2

vi
R2
Rs CS

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Small Signal AC Models
Step 1: AC equivalent circuit: DC Voltage source and capacitor
replaced by short circuited

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Small Signal AC Models
Step 2: Replacing MOSFET with its small signal model

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Small Signal AC Models
Voltage Gain (AV)

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Small Signal AC Models
Step 2: Input Impedance

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Small Signal AC Models
Output Impedance

Output impedance is same as Thevenin’s equivalent impedance and it

is obtain by making input source non operative

Once the vin is replaced by short, vgs = 0 V and dependent current

becomes zero (i.e. open circuited)

Thus, Zout = RD

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Small Signal AC Models
If ro is the resistance offered by the MOSFET, the small signal model
looks like

The analysis remains same

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Small Signal AC Models
Let’s remove the capacitor connected to the source terminal (i.e. CS)

AC equivalent circuit

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Small Signal AC Models

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Small Signal AC Models

(1)
Now,

and

Using (1)

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Small Signal AC Models

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Small Signal AC Models
Output Impedance

KVL on the input side

Since gm or RS ≠ 0

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Tutorial Problem 6
For the common-source amplifier given in the figure, when 𝐾 = 0.25 𝑚𝐴Τ𝑉 2 ,
𝑉𝑇𝑛 = 2 𝑉, 𝑅𝐷 = 1𝑘Ω and 𝑅𝑆 = 1𝑘Ω, 𝑉𝐷𝐷 = 20 𝑉 and 𝑅1 = 𝑅2 = 2 𝑀Ω, then
the MOSFET is biased in the active region at 𝐼𝐷𝑄 = 4𝑚𝐴 and 𝑉𝐺𝑆𝑄 = 6 𝑉. Use
the small-signal model to determine
A. 𝑣𝑑 Τ𝑣𝑔
B. 𝑅𝑖𝑛
C. The output resistance 𝑅0 that is seen through an external load that is
connected to the drain of the MOSFET.

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Tutorial Problem 7
Find the small signal gain of the circuit. Given 𝑉𝑇𝑛 = 1.5𝑉 and
𝐾𝑛 = 0.25 𝑚𝐴Τ𝑉 2 . 𝑅𝐿 = 10𝑘Ω

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Tutorial Problem 8 (Takeaway)
For the circuit given in the figure, 𝐾 = 0.25 𝑚𝐴Τ𝑉 2 and 𝑉𝑇𝑛 = 2 𝑉.
Given that 𝑅𝐷 = 1𝑘Ω and 𝑅𝑆 = 1𝑘Ω, 𝑉𝐷𝐷 = 20 𝑉 and 𝑉𝐺𝐺 = 10 𝑉,
find the transistor terminal currents and voltages and the transistor
region of operation.

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Thanks

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Example
Determine IDQ, VGSQ, and VDS for the network

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Solution

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Solution

From the curve it is clear

that the Vt = 5 V

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Solution

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