Frequency Considerations

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Elex 1 to Elex 2 Shift
Elex 1: coupling and bypass capacitors are replaced by short-circuit approximation

Elex 2: coupling and bypass capacitors has finite capacitive reactances affecting the low-
frequency response, plus

addition of parasitic capacitances affecting the high-frequency response

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Bypass & Coupling Capacitors (Relatively Large Capacitances)

Ideal: Always short (except at DC).

Real: Starts from infinite reactance (open)

then reactance decreases as frequency
increases.

Issue: it does not really become short at f >

0.

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Bypass & Coupling Capacitors (Relatively Large Capacitances)

Relatively Large Capacitance Resulting in

Low Capacitive Reactance Value
DC Analysis AC Analysis
(Low Freq) (High Freq)
not ok (still approx ok (low reactance
open at f > 0) approx short)

Problem here

Why are bypass and coupling capacitors relatively large? What is its impact?

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Stray and Parasitic Capacitors (Relatively Small Capacitances)
Cbc, Cce, Cbe are parasitic capacitances of the BJT
CWi and CWo are stray capacitances of the wire (signal-to-gnd)

Ideal: always open (not included in circuit).

Real: Starts from infinite reactance (open)

then reactance decreases as frequency
increases.

Issue: it does not really preserve its

“openness”.

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Stray and Parasitic Capacitors (Relatively Small Capacitances)

Relatively Small Capacitance Resulting in

High Capacitive Reactance Value
DC Analysis AC Analysis
(Low Freq) (High Freq)
ok (high reactance not ok (not totally
approx open) short due to high
reactance)

Problem here

Why are parasitic and stray capacitors relatively small? What is its impact?

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Typical Frequency Response - RC Coupled

bypass
capacitors not
becoming
short

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Typical Frequency Response - Direct Coupled

starts at max
gain due to
absence of
bypass
capacitor

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Typical Frequency Response - Transformer Coupled Coupled

inductive
peaking
(bandwidth
extension)
no induced
emf if stray
current is capacitance
DC of wires

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Bandwidth
bandwidth (BW) = fH - fL
fH and fL are frequency boundaries when the magnitude of gain is half of maximum value (at
midband frequency)

fH and fL are called corner, cutoff, band, break, half-power frequencies

also called, 3dB-frequency (why?)

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 dB vs Frequency Scales

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
Why is 90.5 the -3dB level?

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Magnitude vs Phase
In Elex 1, we treat the (-) sign of a voltage gain as a 180o phase difference.

Magnitude

Phase

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz
 Sample Multisim Simulation

Magnitude

Phase

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES - CDO ECE223 Engr. Villaruz