Industrial Electronics (EPM 151)

Lecture 6
MOSFET Amplifier
Prof. Mostafa I. Marei

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 Obtaining a Voltage Amplifier
We learned that voltage controlled current source (VCCS) can serve as
transconductance amplifier.

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 Voltage Transfer Characteristic
Voltage transfer characteristics (VTC):– plot of out voltage versus input.

 vGS < Vt  cut off FET

 vOV = vGS – Vt < 0
 ID = 0
 vout = vDD
 Vt < vGS < vDS + Vt  saturation
 vOV = vGS – Vt > 0
 ID = ½ kn(vGS – Vt)2
=vOV  vDS > vOV
 vout = VDD – IDRD
 vDS + Vt < vGS < VDD  triode
 vOV = vGS – Vt > 0
 ID = kn(vGS – Vt –0.5 vDS)vDS
 vDS < vOV
 vout = VDD – IDRD

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 Voltage Transfer Characteristic

The following observations may be drawn:

 Cutoff MOSFET represents
transistor blocking, cutoff AMP
represents vout = 0
 As vGS increases…
 vDS (effectively) decreases
 iD increases
 vout decreases nonlinearly
=vOV
 gain (G) decreases

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 Biasing the MOSFET to Obtain Linear Amplification

• To linearize VTC, DC voltage vGS is selected

to obtain operation at point Q on
segment AB
• bias point / dc operating point (Q) – point
of linearization for MOSFET. Also known
as quiescent point.
• Note: VTC is linear near Q, we may
perform linear amplification of signal <<
VGSQ

biasing the MOSFET amplifier at point Q

located on segment AB of VTC
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 Biasing the MOSFET to Obtain Linear Amplification
Linear gain is achieved as follows
– Bias MOSFET with dc voltage VGS
– Superimpose amplifier input (vgs) upon VGS. vGS  t   VGS  vgs  t 
– Resultant vds should be linearly proportional to 
small-signal component vgs.
vds  t   vgs  t 

As long as vgs(t) is small,

its effect on vDS(t) will
be linear – facilitating
linear amplification.

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 Biasing the MOSFET to Obtain Linear Amplification
• Note if vgs is small, output vds will be nearly linearly proportional to it as Slope
will be constant.

• The voltage gain is negative and proportional to:

– load resistance (RD)
– transistor conductance parameter (kn)
– overdrive voltage (vOV) 7
 Determining the VTC via Graphical Analysis
• Rarely used in practice, as it is
difficult to draw vi-relationship.
• Based on observation that, for
each value of vGS, circuit will
operate at intersection of iD and
vDS.
• point A – where vGS = Vt
• point Q – where MOSFET may be
biased for amplifier operation
– vGS = VGS, vDS = VDS
• point B – where MOSFET leaves
saturation / enters triode
• point C – where MOSFET is deep
in triode region and vGS = VDD

Graphical construction to determine the voltage

transfer characteristic of the amplifier 8
 Determining the VTC via Graphical Analysis

Operation of the MOSFET as a switch: (a) Open, corresponding to point A in Slide 9; (b)
Closed, corresponding to point C in Slide 9. The closure resistance is approximately equal to
rDS because VDS is usually very small.

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 Small-Signal Operation and Models
• It was stated that linear amplification of MOSFET is achieved by:
– Operation in saturation region
– Utilization of small-input
• dc bias current ID defined as:

vgs = input voltage to be amplified

VGS = dc bias voltage
vDS = output voltage
Conceptual circuit utilized to study the
operation of the MOSFET as a small-signal
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amplifier.
 Small-Signal Operation and Models
• To find the effect of vgs on iD :

• Note that to minimize nonlinear distortion, vgs should be kept small.

½knvgs2 << kn(VGS-Vt)vgs  vgs << 2(VGS-Vt)  vgs << 2vOV

MOSFET transconductance
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 Small-Signal Operation and Models

There are three relationships for

determining gm ,depending on 3
parameters: Kn , VOV , ID

𝑔𝑚 = 𝑘𝑛 𝑉𝑂𝑉
𝑔𝑚 = 2𝑘𝑛 𝐼𝐷
2𝐼𝐷
𝑔𝑚 =
𝑉𝑂𝑉
Small-signal operation of the MOSFET amplifier.

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 Small-Signal Operation and Models
• The voltage gain (Av) is defined as follows:
- using KVL:

- Therefore:

- The voltage gain is :

Conceptual circuit utilized to study the

operation of the MOSFET as a small-signal
amplifier.

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 Small-Signal Operation and Models
• Output signal is shifted from input
by 180O.
• Input signal vgs << 2(VGS – Vt).
• Operation should remain in
MOSFET saturation region
– vDS > vGS – Vt (minimum)
– vDS < VDD (maximum)

Total instantaneous voltage vGS and vDS for

the given MOSFET Amplifier circuit

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 Small-Signal Equivalent Models
• FET behaves as VCCS:
– Accepts vgs between gate and source
– Provides current (iD) at drain
– Input resistance is high as iG = 0
– Output resistance is high

 resistor (ro) represents channel-length Small-signal models for the MOSFET: (a)
modulation and range from 10k to 1M. neglecting the dependence of iD on vDS in
 ro = VA / ID saturation (the channel-length modulation
effect) and (b) including the effect of
 Small signal parameters (gm, ro) depend on channel length modulation
dc bias point What is V ? 15
A
What is VA ? Channel-length modulation phenomenon
• Increasing vDS beyond vDSsat causes the channel pinch-off point to move slightly
away from the drain, thus reducing the effective channel length (by ΔL).

• This effect can be accounted for in the

expression for iD by including a factor (1 +λvDS)

• We observe that when the straight-line iD–vDS

characteristics are extrapolated, they intercept
the vDS axis at the point, vDS = −VA,
• λ and VA are device parameters.

Effect of vDS on iD in the saturation region. The MOSFET parameter VA depends on the process technology
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 Sheet 3 / Q7 : MOSFET Amplifier
Figure shows a MOSFET amplifier utilizing a drain-to-gate resistance RG for biasing
purposes. The input signal vi is coupled to the gate via a large capacitor, and the
output signal at the drain is coupled to the load resistance RL via another large
capacitor. The transistor has Vt = 1.5V, k’n(W/L) = 0.25mA/V2, and VA = 50V. Assume
the coupling capacitors to be sufficiently large so as to act as short circuits at the
signal-frequencies of interest. Determine
(a) small-signal voltage gain,
(b) input resistance, and the largest allowable input signal.

Note: capacitors block dc

signals completely, but have
no effect on small-signal

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 Sheet 3 / Q7 : MOSFET Amplifier
We first determine the dc operating point.
DC analysis: as shown in the figure
∵ 𝐼𝐺 = 0, the dc voltage drop across 𝑅𝐺 = zero 

𝑉𝐷𝑆 > 𝑉𝑂𝑉

2
𝑉𝐺𝑆 − 2.2𝑉𝐺𝑆 − 9.75 = 0  VGS = 4.4V or -2.2V, the negative solution is rejected 

Next we proceed with the small-signal analysis of the amplifier.

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 Sheet 3 / Q7 : MOSFET Amplifier
The values of the transistor small-signal parameters gm and ro can be determined by
using the dc bias quantities found above,

Simplify the circuit by combining the three parallel resistances 𝑟𝑜 , 𝑅𝐷 , 𝑅𝐿 and in a

single resistance 𝑅′𝐿 ,

 (1)  (2) 19
 Sheet 3 / Q7 : MOSFET Amplifier
Substituting for 𝑖𝑖 from Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) results in the
following expression for the voltage gain:

b) To obtain the input resistance, we substitute in Eq. (1) for 𝑣𝑜 = 𝐴𝑣 𝑣gs

= −g𝑚 𝑅𝐿′ 𝑣gs , then use 𝑅𝑖𝑛 = 𝑣𝑖 /𝑖𝑖 to obtain

which is still very large.

The largest allowable input signal is constrained by the need to keep the MOSFET in
saturation as follows:

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