Chapter 11 Frequency Response

 11.1 Fundamental Concepts

 11.2 High-Frequency Models of Transistors
 11.3 Analysis Procedure
 11.4 Frequency Response of CE and CS Stages
 11.5 Frequency Response of CB and CG Stages
 11.6 Frequency Response of Followers
 11.7 Frequency Response of Cascode Stage
 11.8 Frequency Response of Differential Pairs
 11.9 Additional Examples

1
 Chapter Outline

CH 11 Frequency Response 2
 High Frequency Roll-off of Amplifier

 As frequency of operation increases, the gain of amplifier

decreases. This chapter analyzes this problem.

CH 11 Frequency Response 3
 Gain Roll-off: Simple Low-pass Filter

y
f(x)=x/(1+x)

0.5

x
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-0.5

 In this simple example, as frequency increases the

impedance of C1 decreases and the voltage divider consists
of C1 and R1 attenuates Vin to a greater extent at the output.

CH 11 Frequency Response 4
 Gain Roll-off: Common Source

The culprit

 1  Vout  gm RD Vout gm RD
Vout  gmVin  RD ||     
 CL s  Vin RD CL s 1 Vin RD2 CL2ω2 1

 The capacitive load, CL, is the culprit (Criminal) for gain roll-
off since at high frequency, it will “steal” away some signal
current and shunt it to ground.
CH 11 Frequency Response 5
 Example 4: Frequency Response of the CS Stage

Vout gm RD

Vin RD2 CL2 2 1

 At low frequency, the capacitor is effectively open and the

gain is flat. As frequency increases, the capacitor tends to
a short and the gain starts to decrease. A special
frequency is ω=1/(RDCL), where the gain drops by 3 dB.

 Why we use sinewave in our study?

CH 11 Frequency Response 6
 Example 6: Relationship between Frequency
Response and Step Response

H  s  j  
1  t 
Vout t   V0 1  exp  u t 
R12C122 1  R1C1 
 The relationship is such that as R1C1 increases, the
bandwidth drops and the step response becomes slower.

CH 11 Frequency Response 7
 Bode Plot

 s  s 
1 1 
S= j
 z1  z 2 
j=
H (s)  A0
break,
 s  s 
critical,
1 1 
cutoff freq   p1   p2 
  
 Constant terms such as A0 contribute a straight horizontal
line of magnitude 20 log10(A0) Each occurrence of this
 Each occurrence of zero at origin, causes a positively
sloped line passing through ω = 1 with a rise of 20 dB/dec
 Zeros not at the origin: 0 dB and when we hit a zero, ωzj, the
Bode magnitude rises with a slope of +20 dB/dec.
 Poles not at the origin: 0 dB and when we hit a pole, ωpj, the
Bode magnitude falls with a slope of -20 dB/dec
CH 11 Frequency Response 8
 Bode Plot

CH 11 Frequency Response 9
 Example 7: Bode Plot

1
 p1 
RDCL
 The circuit only has one pole (no zero) at 1/(RDCL), so the
slope drops from 0 to -20 dB/dec as we pass ωp1.

CH 11 Frequency Response 10
 Example 9: Pole Identification Example II

Association of Poles with Nodes:

if node j in the signal path exhibits a
small-signal resistance of Rj to
ground and a capacitance of Cj to
ground, then it contributes a pole of
1
magnitude to the transfer function.
𝑅𝑗 𝐶𝑗

1
 p1  1
 1   p2 
 RS || Cin RDCL
 gm 
CH 11 Frequency Response 11
 Circuit with Floating Capacitor

 The pole of a circuit is computed by finding the effective

resistance and capacitance from a node to GROUND.
 The circuit above creates a problem since neither terminal
of CF is grounded.

CH 11 Frequency Response 12
 Miller’s Theorem

ZF ZF
Z1  Z2 
1 Av 11/ Av
 If Av is the gain from node 1 to 2, then a floating impedance
ZF can be converted to two grounded impedances Z1 and Z2.

CH 11 Frequency Response 13
 Miller Multiplication

 With Miller’s theorem, we can separate the floating

capacitor. However, the input capacitor is larger than the
original floating capacitor. We call this Miller multiplication.

CH 11 Frequency Response 14
 Example10: Miller Theorem

1
1 out 
in   1 
RS 1 gm RD CF RD 1  CF
 gm RD 

CH 11 Frequency Response 15
 High-Pass Filter Response

Vout R1C1
 2 2 2
Vin R1 C1 1 1
 The voltage division between a resistor and a capacitor can
be configured such that the gain at low frequency is
reduced.

CH 11 Frequency Response 16
 Example 11: Audio Amplifier

Ci  79.6nF
Ri  100K
gm  1/ 200
CL  39.8nF

 In order to successfully pass audio band frequencies (20

Hz-20 KHz), large input and output capacitances are
needed.
CH 11 Frequency Response 17
 Capacitive Coupling vs. Direct Coupling

Capacitive Coupling Direct Coupling

 Capacitive coupling, also known as AC coupling, passes

AC signals from Y to X while blocking DC contents.
 This technique allows independent bias conditions between
stages. Direct coupling does not.

CH 11 Frequency Response 18
 Typical Frequency Response

Lower Corner Upper Corner

CH 11 Frequency Response 19
 High-Frequency Bipolar Model

C  Cb  Cje

 At high frequency, capacitive effects come into play. Cb

represents the base charge, whereas C and Cje are the
junction capacitances.
CH 11 Frequency Response 20
 High-Frequency Model of Integrated Bipolar
Transistor

 Since an integrated bipolar circuit is fabricated on top of a

substrate, another junction capacitance exists between the
collector and substrate, namely CCS.
CH 11 Frequency Response 21
 Example12: Capacitance Identification

CH 11 Frequency Response 22
 MOS Intrinsic Capacitances

 For a MOS, there exist oxide capacitance from gate to

channel, junction capacitances from source/drain to
substrate, and overlap capacitance from gate to
source/drain.
CH 11 Frequency Response 23
 Gate Oxide Capacitance Partition and Full Model

 The gate oxide capacitance is often partitioned between

source and drain. In saturation, C2 ~ Cgate, and C1 ~ 0. They
are in parallel with the overlap capacitance to form CGS and
CGD.
CH 11 Frequency Response 24
 Example 13: Capacitance Identification

CH 11 Frequency Response 25
 Transit Frequency

gm gm
2fT  2fT 
CGS C
 Transit frequency, fT, is defined as the frequency where the
current gain from input to output drops to 1.

CH 11 Frequency Response 26
 Analysis Summary

 The frequency response refers to the magnitude of the

transfer function.
 Bode’s approximation simplifies the plotting of the
frequency response if poles and zeros are known.
 In general, it is possible to associate a pole with each node
in the signal path.
 Miller’s theorem helps to decompose floating capacitors
into grounded elements.
 Bipolar and MOS devices exhibit various capacitances that
limit the speed of circuits.

CH 11 Frequency Response 27
 High Frequency Circuit Analysis Procedure

 Determine which capacitor impact the low-frequency region

of the response and calculate the low-frequency pole
(neglect transistor capacitance).
 Calculate the midband gain by replacing the capacitors with
short circuits (neglect transistor capacitance).
 Include transistor capacitances.
 Merge capacitors connected to AC grounds and omit those
that play no role in the circuit.
 Determine the high-frequency poles and zeros.
 Plot the frequency response using Bode’s rules or exact
analysis.

CH 11 Frequency Response 28
 Frequency Response of CS Stage
with Bypassed Degeneration

VX
s  R1 R2 Ci s Vout
s   gm RD RSCb s 1
Vin R1 R2 Ci s 1 VX RS Cb s  gm RS 1
 In order to increase the midband gain, a capacitor Cb is
placed in parallel with Rs.
 The pole frequency must be well below the lowest signal
frequency to avoid the effect of degeneration.
CH 11 Frequency Response 29
 Unified Model for CE and CS Stages

CH 11 Frequency Response 30
 Unified Model for CE and CS Stages

CH 11 Frequency Response 31
 Unified Model Using Miller’s Theorem

W =??, W =??
p,in p,out
CH 11 Frequency Response 32
 Example 15: CE Stage

RS  200
IC  1mA
  100
C  100 fF
C  20 fF
CCS  30 fF

p,in  2  516MHz
p,out  2  1.59GHz
 The input pole is the bottleneck for speed.
 gmRD= 78
CH 11 Frequency Response 33
 Direct Analysis of CE and CS Stages (1/2)

 2 KCLs

CH 11 Frequency Response 34
 Direct Analysis of CE and CS Stages (2/2)

CH 11 Frequency Response 35
 Direct Analysis of CE and CS Stages
Dominant Pole Approximation (1/3)

𝟏 𝒃
𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝝎𝒑𝟐 ≫ 𝝎𝒑𝟏 𝝎𝒑𝟏 = ; 𝝎𝒑𝟐 = ;
𝒃 𝒂

CH 11 Frequency Response 36
 Direct Analysis of CE and CS Stages
Dominant Pole Approximation (3/3)

gm
| z |
CXY
1
|  p1 |
1g mRL CXY RThev  RThevCin  RL CXY  Cout 
|  p2 |
1  g mRL CXY RThev  RThevCin  RL CXY  Cout 
RThevRL CinCXY  CoutCXY  CinCout 

 Direct analysis with dominant pole approximation yields

different pole locations and an extra zero.
CH 11 Frequency Response 37
 Example 17: CE and CS Direct Analysis
Dominant Pole Approximation (3/3)

1
 p1 
1 gm1 rO1 || rO2 C XY RS  RS Cin  rO1 || rO2 (CXY  Cout )
 p2 
1 gm1 rO1 || rO2 C XY RS  RS Cin  rO1 || rO2 (CXY  Cout )
RS rO1 || rO2 CinC XY CoutCXY  CinCout 
CH 11 Frequency Response 38
 Example 18: Comparison Between Different
Methods

RS  200
CGS  250 fF
CGD  80 fF
CDB  100 fF
gm  1501
 0
RL  2K
Miller’s Exact Dominant Pole

p,in  2  571MHz p,in  2  264MHz p,in  2  249MHz

p,out  2  428MHz p,out  2  4.53GHz p,out  2  4.79GHz
CH 11 Frequency Response 39
 Input Impedance of CE and CS Stages

1 1
Zin  || r Zin 
C  1 gmRC C s CGS  1 gm RD CGD s
CH 11 Frequency Response 40