Noise and Distortion in Amplifiers

neglect the noise contributions of the devices connected to the gate of M2. sum of each mean squared contribution is equal to the mean squared output noise. low frequencies the gain of this amplifier is
Ct is the sum of the capacitances in parallel with ro1and ro2 RMS output noise=

low frequencies the gain of this amplifier is

Squared magnitude of the transfer function RMS input noise is

Distortion
The gain for this amplifier is

AC component is comparable to the DC component noticeable distortion results

The voltage gain for large inputs is dependent on the input signal amplitude
Characterizing an amplifier begins by applying a pure single tone sinusoid of the form The output of the amplifier is a series of tones at an integer multiple of the input tone The magnitude of the fundamental or wanted signal is a1Vp Ideally a2 through an are zero and the amplifier is free of distortion. The nth term harmonic distortion is given by The total harmonic distortion (THD) is

Class AB Amplifier
Efficiency of this amplifier is 25 percent

M1 can only sink current from the load capacitance and the current source I sources current to the load capacitance. The maximum rate at which the load capacitance can be charged is called the slew rate (SR) and is given by

The value of the batteries determines the class (A, B, or AB) of the amplifier. When the input goes positive, VGS2 will increase while VSG1 will decrease. This causes the current in M2 to increase and the current in Ml to decrease. The magnitude of the input voltage when Ml turns off is determined by VGGI. This configuration does not exhibit output slew-rate limitations due to the absence of a current source in series with the charging or discharging path. The output voltage swing is limited to a threshold voltage below VDD and above VSS.

The gate of M6 is biased with a DC voltage so that its DC drain current is equal to the DC current through M3. MOSFET M3 is simply a current source. The gate-source voltages of M4 and M5 are constant (because of the constant current provided by M3) and used as the biasing voltage needed to bias Ml and M2 on. This configuration is useful as an output buffer in an op-amp when the gate of M6 is connected to an active load used in a differential pair and the gate of M3 is connected to the same bias voltage as used in the diff-amp current source.

Class AB using Floating Current Sources

A class AB amplifier based on a floating current source is shown. The current source in this figure is used to set the DC current flowing in the MOSFETs. An increase in iin causes VSG4 to decrease (causing M4 to source less current) and VGS1 to increase (causing Ml to sink more current). The output voltage of this circuit can swing from VDD to VSS. Thus, this configuration finds extensive use in lowvoltage design.

Driving capacitive loads

A load resistor kills the gain of this amplifier. Assume that all n- and p-channel MOSFETs in this figure are the same size, say, 15/5 for the NMOS and 70/5 for the PMOS. If this is true, then the bias voltages generated by M13 through M16 force a current I to flow in all remaining MOSFETs

If output driver MOSFETs M7, M8, Mll, and MI2 are K times larger than M5, M6, M9, and MlO, then a current K.I flows in these output MOSFETs. Sizing the output transistors is useful if larger-current drive capability is needed. The open-loop gain of this amplifier is