Lecture 8_4

The Differential Amplifier with

Current-Source Loads
MOS Loads

 (a) Diode-connected load

 (b) Current-Source load
To obtain higher gain, the passive resistances can be replaced with current sources
Solution to low-gain problem: Cascoding

AV ,diff  g m1[( g m 3 ro 3 ro1 ) || ( g m 5 ro 5 ro 7 )]

Cascode Differential Amplifier
The gain of the differential amplifier
can be increased by utilizing the
cascode configuration

A CMOS differential amplifier with cascading

applied to the amplifying transistors and via
transistors and

and to the current-source transistors and via

transistors and The differential voltage gain can
be found from the differential half-circuit shown in
Fig.
Common-Mode Gain and Common-Mode Rejection
Ratio
(CMRR)
 Part 1: Effect due to
resistance of a non-ideal
current source
 is usually very large, this change in dc current in each of and is usually small and we shall neglect it, thus
assuming that the two transistors continue to operate at the bias current of

consider the more

realistic situation of
the current source
having a finite
output Resistance ,
the common-mode
gain will no longer
be zero
Thus the differential output voltage will remain free of
common-mode interference
Unfortunately, however, this will
not be the
The case if the
virtual ground circuit
that develops on the is not
common-source
perfectlyeffect
symmetrical
terminal results in a zero signal current through ; hence has no
on the value of .
Effect of Mismatch
It follows that a mismatch in the drain resistances causes the differential amplifier to have a
finite common-mode gain.

Thus, a portion of the interference or noise signal will appear as a component of

A measure of the effectiveness of the differential amplifier in amplifying differential-mode

signals and rejecting common-mode interference is the ratio of the magnitude of its differential
gain to the magnitude of its common-mode gain .

This ratio is termed common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR). Thus

𝑔𝑚 𝑅 𝐷
For the case of a MOS differential amplifier with
drain resistances that exhibit a mismatch ( 𝑅𝐷
2 𝑅 𝑆𝑆 )( ∆ 𝑅𝐷
𝑅𝐷 )