C2.

0 Single-Stage Amplifiers

蔡政翰, Jeng-Han Tsai

Amplifier
 Outline
‰ Common Source Stage
- Common Source Stage with Resistive Load
- CS Stage with Diode Connected Load
- CS Stage with Current-source Load
- CS Stage with Triode Load
- CS Stage with Source Degeneration
‰ Source Follower (Common Drain Stage)
‰ Common Gate Stage
‰ Cascade
‰ Cascode
- NMOS cascode amplifier with PMOS cascode load
- Folded cascode

Common source stage with resistive load

‰ A MOSFET converts its gate-source voltage to a small-signal drain current,
which can pass through a resistor to generate an output voltage.

‰ Schematic ‰ Input-output characteristic

‰ Large signal analysis

 Common source stage with resistive load
‰ Small signal analysis for the saturation region

‰ Large signal analysis with channel-length modulation in M1

gm ID

‰ Small signal analysis with channel-length modulation in M1

Common source stage with resistive load

‰ Equivalent circuit in deep triode region

Example: Sketch the drain current and transconductance of
M1 as a function of the input voltage

CS stage with diode connected load

‰ In CMOS technologies, it is difficult to fabricate resistors with tightly-
controlled value or a reasonable physical size. Consequently, it is desirable to
replace RD with a MOS transistor.
 CS stage with diode connected NMOS load
‰ Schematic Neglecting channel-length modulation for simplicity

Small-signal

large-signal

Consider channel-length modulation

CS stage with diode connected NMOS load

‰ Input/output characteristic
 CS stage with diode connected PMOS load
‰ Schematic
As the channel-length modulation is neglected

Small-signal

large-signal

CS stage with current-source load

‰ Large voltage gain requires large load impedance. With resistor or diode-
connected load increasing the load resistance limits the output voltage swing.
‰ A practical approach is to replace the load with a current source.
 CS stage with triode load
‰ A MOS device operating in deep triode region behaves as a resistor and can
serve as the load in a CS stage.

CS stage with source degeneration

‰ Schematic

‰ Small-signal equivalent circuit of a degenerated CS stage

 CS stage with source degeneration
‰ CS device without source degeneration, RS=0.

‰ CS device with source degeneration, RS≠0.

CS stage with source degeneration

‰ Output resistance of a degenerated CS stage

Iro=
 CS stage with source degeneration
‰ Gain of a degenerated CS stage

Source follower (Common drain stage)

‰ Schematic The input-output characteristic is

Differentiate both sides with respect to Vin

‰ Input/Output characteristic
 Source follower (Common drain stage)
‰ Small-signal equivalent circuit

‰ Voltage gain vs. input voltage

Source follower using a current source

‰ Source follower using a current source

‰ Output impedance
Source follower including body effect

Source follower driving load resistance

PMOS source follower with no body effect

Cascade of source follower and CS stage

‰ Schematic

‰ Comparison
 Common-gate stage
‰ Schematic

‰ Input/output characteristic

CG stage with finite output resistance and input

impedance of the signal source
CG stage (input resistance)

RD = 0, similar to the output resistance of a source follower

Replace RD with an ideal current source (RD=∞)

CG stage (output resistance)

 Cascode stage
‰ Schematic: CS+CG

‰ Input/output characteristic

Cascode stage
‰ Small-signal equivalent circuit (λ=0)
 Cascode stage (Output resistance)

M2 boosts the output impedance of M1 by a

factor of (gm2 + gmb2 )ro2

‰ Triple cascode
‰ Cascoding can be extended to three or more stacked
devices to achieve a higher output impedance, but the
required additional voltage headroom makes
such configurations less attractive.

Cascode stage with current-source load

‰ Schematic
 Cascode stage
‰ Increasing the output impedance by increasing the device length
or cascoding

gmro 2gmro (gmro)2

NMOS cascode amplifier with PMOS cascode load

‰ Schematic

‰ The maximum output swing is equal to

‰ Find the voltage gain

 Folded cascode
‰ Schematic

Folded cascode
‰ Schematic

‰ Input/output characteristic
 Folded cascode with cascode load
‰ Folded cascode with cascode load – to achieve high voltage gain.