Leonil Ray H.
Agravante
LABORATORY NO. 4
Laboratory Exercise: Common Source
Amplifier with resistive load
1.1 Simple Current Source PMOS Load
A MOSFET behaves as a current
source when it is operating in the
saturation region. An NMOSFET
raws current current from a point
to ground (sinks “current”),
whereas a PMOSFET draws
current from VDD to a point
(“sources current”).
EFFECT OF RESISTOR TO
COMMMON SOURCE AMPLIFIER
 A drawback of CS amplifier is
that the drain resistor RD
simultaneously controls the
gain and drain bias point.
 If the drain resistance is
increased in an attempt to
increase in an attempt to
increase the gain, the drain
bias point is reduced and
hence the allowable signal
swing at the output is reduce.
NMOS CHARACTERIZATION
The primary use of analog circuits is
to amplify signals. The metric for
level of amplifications is called gain.
Gain is acquired by determining the
Linear relationship of the input
signal with output signal. In this
exercise, you will build a common-
source amplifier using an NMOS
transistor and resistor. After
building the amplifier, you will use
DC simulations to determine its bias
point, gain, transconductance and
output impedance. You will also
simulate the transient response of
the amplifier to verify its gain. At the
end of the exercise, you will size a
common-source amplifier given the
resistor load and required bias
point. You should be able to explain
the common factors that the affect
the sizing of a transistor for a
common-source amplifier.
PROCEDURES
NMOS Characterization
From your previous lab, you already
have the knowledge how to
characterize transistor. In this lab you
are going to characterize an NMOS
transistor so that it would work
properly as an amplifier.
 Plot the 𝑔𝑚 and 𝑟𝑜 with
W=25µm based on the
procedure that you have
learned in the previous lab.

Leonil Ray H. Agravante

 Measure 𝑔𝑚 at 𝑉𝑔𝑠 =
 495𝑚𝑉 using vertical
0.5𝑉 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑉𝐷𝑠 = 0.5𝑉
Marker.
gm= 14.105183µS
Find the value of your gain
 Measure 𝑟𝑜 at 𝑉𝐷𝑆 = Formula:
0.5𝑉 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑉𝐺𝑆 = 0.5𝑉. 1.3936938V− 789.69385mV
𝑨𝒗 =
𝟓𝟎𝟓𝒎𝑽 − 𝟒𝟗𝟓𝒎𝑽
ro= 70.895926KOhm
Av= 60.39

1.2 The load Resistor 𝑹𝑫

The role of the resistor is vital to Your output graph should be
the amplifier. If the value of 𝑅𝐷 like this.
changes the behavior of the
circuit also changes. To observe
its effect, open your schematic
from your library.

1.3 EFFECT OF VARYING 𝑅𝐷

 Plot 𝐼𝐷𝑆 𝑣𝑠 𝑉𝐷𝑆 with the Vary the value of your resistor:
Different input voltage: 𝑅𝐷 = 30𝑘Ω, 80𝑘Ω 𝑎𝑛𝑑 150𝑘Ω
𝑉𝐺𝑆495𝑚𝑉, 𝑉𝐺𝑠500𝑚𝑉, 𝑉𝐺𝑆 =
505𝑚𝑉 𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑊 = 2.5𝜇 Operating
RD Gain
 After you have displayed the Region
three curves, replace the 30kΩ Saturation Region
60.39
Instance Name of your VI to 80kΩ Saturation Region 61.23
any arbitrary variable for Saturation Region 54.39
150kΩ
example 𝑉𝐷𝑠 and also change
the Instance Name of your
V2 to 𝑉𝐺𝑠.  Does your transistor still
 Find the point of operates at the saturation
intersection of your region? Why?
𝑉𝐺𝑆 = 505𝑚𝑉 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑉𝐺𝑆 =  CONCLUSION

Leonil Ray H. Agravante