EEM 328

ELECTRONICS LABORATORY
EXPERIMENT 7
JFET AMPLIFIERS

PURPOSE
This experiment will investigate the characteristics of the common-source and
common-drain amplifiers.

THEORY

In this lab, two JFET amplifier configurations will be investigated; the common
source, and the common-drain amplifier.

The basic common-source (CS) circuit is shown in Figure 1. In comparison to the

BJT common-emitter amplifier, the FET amplifier has much higher input
impedance, but a lower voltage gain.

The voltage gain of the circuit can be expressed as

Av - gmRD

Figure 1 Common source amplifier

 Figure 2 Junction Field Effect Transistor

Figure 2 shows the transistor terminals for your reference.

The common-drain (CD) amplifier is shown in Figure 3. The common-drain

configuration is often called a source follower as the voltage gain is nearly unity.
The common drain FET amplifier is similar to the common collector configuration
of the bipolar junction transistor.

Figure 3 Common Drain Amplifier

PRE-LAB

1) Compare BJT and JFET (in terms of characteristics, applications, merits and
demerits but not constructional details).

2) Design a Common-Source Amplifier circuit with absolute value of the voltage

gain Av=Vo/Vi is more than 3 for load resistance RL of 100 K. The output
resistance seen by the load should be less than 5 K and the input resistance seen
by the voltage source is more than 50 K. Verify your design using PSPICE.
PROCEDURE

1) Common-Source Amplifier

a) Connect the circuit as shown in Figure 1. Use the values that you have found in
the pre-lab.
b) Apply a sinusoidal signal with frequency 1 kHz, amplitude 0.1 Vp-p.
c) Capture both input and output waveforms.
d) Calculate the voltage gain.
e) Measure the operating point.

2) Common-Drain Amplifier

a) Connect the circuit as shown in Figure 3. Use RG=1 M , RS=RL=10 K, supply

VDD =10 V and VSS= -10 V.
b) Apply a sinusoidal signal with frequency 1 kHz, amplitude 1 Vp-p.
c) Capture both input and output waveforms.
d) Calculate the voltage gain.
e) Measure the operating point.