High frequency model for MOSFET

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• Assumption for small-signal low frequency analysis:

• Steady-state charges on these capacitances are acquired instantaneously

• Finite time required to charge and discharge the various internal capacitances is not
accounted

• Small-signal model do not include any capacitances

• The use of these models would predict constant amplifier gains independent of frequency

• In fact, the gain of every MOSFET amplifier falls off at some high frequency

• MOSFET digital logic inverter exhibits a finite nonzero propagation delay

• To be able to predict these results, the MOSFET model must be augmented by including
internal capacitances
 MOSFET Internal capacitances
• There are two types of internal capacitances in MOSFET
• Gate capacitive effect
• The gate electrode (polysilicon) forms a parallel-plate capacitor with the
channel, with the oxide layer serving as the capacitor dielectric

• Cox – Oxide Capacitance

• Source-body and drain-body depletion-layer capacitances

• Capacitances of the reverse-biased pn junctions formed

• By the n+ source region (also called the source diffusion) and p-type
substrate

2/18/2021 • By the n+ drain region (the drain diffusion) and the substrate 25
Fig. Physical structure of enhancement-type NMOS transistor
• These two capacitive effects can be modeled by including capacitances in the
MOSFET model between its four terminals, G, D, S, and B (Body)

• There will be five capacitances in total: Cgs, Cgd, Cgb, Csb, and Cdb where the
subscripts indicate the location of the capacitances in the model
 Gate capacitive effect
• Gate capacitive effect is Modeled by three capacitances

• Cgs, Cgd, Cgb

• The values of these capacitances can be determined as follows:

1. When the MOSFET is operating in the triode region at small vDS

• Channel will be of uniform depth

• Gate-channel capacitance will be WLCox and can be modeled by dividing it

equally between the source and drain ends

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 Gate capacitive effect
2. When the MOSFET operates in saturation, the channel has a tapered shape
and is pinched off at or near the drain end

• Gate-to-channel capacitance in this case is approximately (2/3)WLCox

• Can be modeled by assigning this entire amount to Cgs, and a zero
amount to Cgd (because the channel is pinched off at the drain)

(Saturation region)

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 Gate capacitive effect
3. When the MOSFET operates in cut off, the channel disappears, and thus Cgs = Cgd = 0

• Gate-body model capacitance

(Cutoff region)

4. Additional small capacitive component

• This is the capacitance that results from the fact that the source and drain diffusions
extend slightly under the gate oxide

• If the overlap length is denoted Lov, the overlap capacitance Typically

Lov =0.05 to 0.1L
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 Junction capacitances
• Depletion-layer capacitances of the two reverse-biased junctions formed
between each of the source and the drain diffusions and the body

• For the source diffusion, source body capacitance

where Csb0 is the value of Csb at zero body-source bias

VSB is the magnitude of the reverse bias voltage

V0 is the junction built-in voltage

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• For the drain diffusion, the drain-body capacitance

where Cdb0 is the capacitance value at zero reverse-bias voltage

VDB is the magnitude of this reverse-bias voltage

• We have assumed that for both junctions, the grading coefficient m = 1/2
• Formulas for the junction capacitances in Eqns. (21) and (22) assume small signal
operation

• These formulas, however, can be modified to obtain approximate average values

for the capacitances when the transistor is operating under large-signal conditions
such as in logic circuits.

• Typical values for the various capacitances exhibited by an n-channel MOSFET in

a relatively modern (0.5 µm) CMOS process

• Cox = 3.45 fF/ µm2 • Cgd = 1.72 fF

• Cov = 1.72 fF • Csb = 6.1 fF
• Cgs = 24.7 fF (femtofarad- 10-15) • Cdb = 4.1 fF
 High frequency MOSFET model

• Small-signal model of the MOSFET, including the four capacitances Cgs, Cgd, Csb,
and Cdb

• This model can be used to predict the high-frequency response of MOSFET

amplifiers

• Quite complex for manual analysis - limited to computer simulation

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Fig. High-frequency equivalent circuit model for the MOSFET
• For the case when the source is connected to the body, the model simplifies
considerably

• In this model, Cgd, although small, plays a significant role in determining the high-
frequency response of amplifiers and thus must be kept in the model

Fig. Equivalent circuit for the case in which the source is connected to the body

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 High frequency MOSFET model

• Capacitance Cdb, can usually be neglected, resulting in significant simplification

of manual analysis

Fig. Equivalent circuit model with Cdb neglected

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 MOSFET Unity-Gain Frequency (fT)
• Figure of merit for the high-frequency operation of the MOSFET as an amplifier
is Unity gain frequency – fT – Transition Frequency

• Frequency at which the short-circuit current gain of the common-source

configuration becomes unity

• MOSFET hybrid-  model with the source as the common terminal between the
input and output ports

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 MOSFET Unity-Gain Frequency (fT)

• To determine the short-circuit current gain,

• Input is fed with a current-source signal

• Output terminals are short-circuited

• The current in the short circuit is given by

• Cgd is small, at the frequencies of interest, the second term in this equation can be
neglected

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• Vgs in terms of the input current Ii as

• Using eqn. (23) and (24), Short-circuit current gain

• For physical frequencies s = j, the magnitude of the current gain becomes unity
at the frequency fT = T/2

• Thus the unity-gain frequency is

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MOSFET Unity-Gain Frequency (fT)

• Since fT is proportional to gm and inversely proportional to the FET internal

capacitances, the higher the value of fT, the more effective the FET becomes as
an amplifier

• Typically, fT -ranges from about 100 MHz for the older technologies (e.g., a 5-m
CMOS process) to many GHz for newer high-speed technologies (e.g., a 0.13-
m CMOS process)

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