EEE 202

ELCTRONIC CIRCUIT II

BASIC MOSFET
AMPLIFERS WITH
ACTIVE LOAD
Dr. M Al Hakim
The basic gain cell in an IC amplifier is a common-source (CS) transistor loaded with a
constant-current source, as shown in the following figure. This circuit is similar to the CS
amplifier studied previously, except that here we have replaced the resistances Rd with
constant-current source. This is done for two easons: First, it is difficult in IC technology
to implement resistances with reasonably precise values; rather, it is much easier to use
current sources, which are implemented using transistors. Second, by using a constant-
current source we are in effect operating the CS amplifiers with a very high (ideally
infinite) load resistance;thus we can obtain a much higher gain. The circuit in the
following figure is said to be current-source loaded or active loaded.
Small-signal analysis of the current-source-loaded CS and CE amplifiers can be performed
by utilizing their equivalent-circuit models, shown in Fig. (b). Observe that since the
current-source load is assumed to be ideal, it is represented in the models by an infinite
resistance. Practical current sources have finite output resistance. For the time being,
however, note that the CS amplifier of Fig. (a) is in effect operating in an open-circuit
fashion. The only resistance between their output node and ground is the output
resistance of the transistor itself, ro. Thus the voltage gain obtained in these circuits is the
maximum possible for a CS amplifier. From Fig. (b) we obtain for the active-loaded CS
amplifier:
Recall from our study of the MOSFET gm that there are several possible expressions for
gm. Two of these are particularly useful for our purposes here:
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