ELCE 301

Electronic Circuits (ELCE 301)

Instructor: Dr. Mohammad Hashmi

Class Timings: Tue and Thu (12:00 – 13:15)

Tutorial: Mon (13:00 – 13:50)

Office Hours: Tue (05:00 – 06:00), Thu (05:00 – 06:00)

 ELCE 301

Lecture – 1 Date: 15.08.2023

• Review of Fundamentals
• Semiconductor Fundamentals
 Amplifiers ELCE 301

• The most fundamental signal-processing function, one that is employed in

some form in almost every electronic system.
• For now, we consider the amplifier as a circuit building-block;
• that is, we shall consider its external characteristics.

• Transducers provide signals that are said to be “weak,” that is, in the
microvolt (μV) or millivolt (mV) range and possessing little energy. → too
small for reliable processing, and processing is much easier if the signal
magnitude is made larger.
• The functional block that accomplishes this task is the signal amplifier.

• Linearity of amplifiers is extremely important.

• Thus when we feed the signal to an amplifier, we want the output signal
of the amplifier to be an exact replica of that at the input, except of
course for having larger magnitude.
• Any change in waveform is considered to be distortion and is
obviously undesirable.
 Amplifiers ELCE 301
vi and vo are the input and output
 A linear amplifier
signals, respectively, and A is a
is characterized by:
constant representing amplifier gain.

• The linear amplifiers are primarily intended to operate on very small input signals.
• Their purpose is to make the signal magnitude larger and therefore are
thought of as Voltage Amplifiers.
• The Preamplifier in the home stereo system is an example of a voltage
amplifier.
• Another type of amplifier, namely, the Power Amplifier.
• Such an amplifier may provide only a modest amount of voltage gain but
substantial current gain.
• The main amplifier in your mobile phone is a Power Amplifier.

Typical Symbol
 Voltage and Power Gain ELCE 301
Voltage Gain: A linear amplifier
accepts an input signal vI(t) and
provides at the output, across a load
resistance RL, an output signal vO(t)
that is a magnified replica of vI(t).

iO is the current that the amplifier delivers to the

load (RL), iO = vO /RL, and iI is the current the
amplifier draws from the signal source.
 Gains in Decibels ELCE 301
• The absolute values of the voltage and current gains are used because in some cases
Av or Ai will be a negative number → A negative gain Av simply means that there is
a 180° phase difference between input and output signals; it does not imply that the
amplifier is attenuating the signal.
• Amplifier gain is often defined with a logarithmic measure.

an amplifier whose voltage gain

is, say, –20 dB is in fact
attenuating the input signal by a
factor of 10 (i.e., Av = 0.1 V/V).
 Amplifier Power Supplies ELCE 301
• The power delivered to the load is greater than the power drawn from the signal source, then
the question arises as to the source of this additional power.
• The answer is found by observing that amplifiers need dc power supplies for their operation.
These dc sources supply the extra power delivered to the load as well as any power that might
be dissipated in the internal circuit of the amplifier (such power is converted to heat).
 Example – 1 ELCE 301
This amplifier operates from ±10𝑉 power supplies. It is fed with a sinusoidal voltage
having 1V peak and delivers a sinusoidal voltage output of 9V peak to a 1-kΩ load. The
amplifier draws a current of 9.5 mA from each of its two power supplies. The input
current of the amplifier is found to be sinusoidal with 0.1 mA peak.

Find: (a) the voltage gain, (b) the current gain,

(c) the power gain, (d) the power drawn from
the dc supplies, (e) the power dissipated in the
amplifier, and (f) the amplifier efficiency.
Example – 1 ELCE 301
 Symbol Conventions ELCE 301
• The waveform of a current iC(t) that is flowing
through a branch in a particular circuit.
• It consists of a dc component IC on which
is superimposed a sinusoidal component
ic(t) whose peak amplitude is Ic.
• Observe that at a time t, the total
instantaneous current iC(t) is the sum of the
dc current IC and the signal current ic(t).

Conventions:
• Total instantaneous quantities are denoted by a lowercase symbol with uppercase subscript(s) →
for example, iC(t), vDS(t).
• Direct-current (dc) quantities are denoted by an uppercase symbol with uppercase subscript(s)
→ IC, VDS.
• Incremental signal quantities are denoted by a lowercase symbol with lowercase subscript(s) →
ic(t), vds(t).
• If the signal is a sine wave, then its amplitude is denoted by an uppercase symbol with lowercase
subscript(s) → Ic, Vds.
 Amplifier Frequency Response ELCE 301
• An important characterization of an amplifier is done in terms of its response to
input sinusoids of different frequencies.
• Such a characterization of amplifier performance is known as the amplifier frequency
response.

a linear voltage amplifier fed at

its input with a sine-wave
signal of amplitude Vi and
frequency ω

• The signal measured at the amplifier output also is sinusoidal with exactly the same
frequency ω.

Important Point: Whenever a sine-wave signal is applied to a linear

circuit, the resulting output is sinusoidal with the same frequency as the input.
 Amplifier Frequency Response ELCE 301

Apparently, the output sinusoid have a

different amplitude and is shifted in phase
relative to the input.

• The ratio of the amplitude of the output sinusoid (Vo) to the amplitude of the input sinusoid
(Vi) is the magnitude of the amplifier gain (or transmission) at the test frequency ω.
• The angle φ is the phase of the amplifier transmission at the test frequency ω.
• If we denote the amplifier
transmission, or transfer function as it
is more commonly known, by T(ω), then:

 The response of the amplifier to a sinusoid of frequency ω is completely described by |T(ω)|

and ∠T(ω).
 To obtain the complete frequency response of the amplifier we simply change the frequency of
the input sinusoid and measure the new value for |T | and ∠T.
o The end result will be a table and/or graph of gain magnitude [|T(ω)|] versus
frequency and a table and/or graph of phase angle [∠T(ω)] versus frequency.
 Amplifier Frequency Response ELCE 301
• The two plots together constitute the frequency response of the amplifier; the first is known as
the magnitude or amplitude response, and the second is the phase response.
• Finally, it is a common practice to express the magnitude of transmission in decibels and thus
plot 20 log |T(ω)| versus frequency.

• The gain is almost constant over a

wide frequency range, roughly between
ω1 and ω2. Signals whose frequencies are
below ω1 or above ω2 will experience
lower gain, with the gain decreasing as
we move farther away from ω1 and ω2.

• The band of frequencies over which the gain of the amplifier is almost constant,
to within a certain number of decibels (usually 3 dB), is called the amplifier
bandwidth.
• Normally the amplifier is designed so that its bandwidth coincides with the spectrum
of the signals it is required to amplify → otherwise the amplifier would distort the
frequency spectrum of the input signal, with different components of the input
signal being amplified by different amounts.
 Semiconductors ELCE 301
• Semiconductors are materials whose conductivity lies between that of
conductors, such as copper, and insulators, such as glass.
• There are two kinds of semiconductors:
1. single-element semiconductors, such as germanium and silicon, which
are in group IV in the periodic table;
 Semiconductors ELCE 301
• There are two kinds of semiconductors:
2. compound semiconductors, such as gallium-arsenide, which are formed by
combining elements from groups III and V or groups II and VI.

• The most significant property of semiconductors is that their conductivity can be

varied over a very wide range through the introduction of controlled amounts of
impurity atoms into the semiconductor crystal in a process called doping.
 Intrinsic Semiconductors ELCE 301

• Of the two intrinsic semiconductors:

• germanium (Ge) was used in the fabrication of very early transistors
(late 1940s, early 1950s).
• It was quickly supplanted, however, with silicon (Si), on which today’s
integrated-circuit technology is almost entirely based.
• A silicon atom has four valence electrons → thus it requires another four
to complete its outermost shell.
 This is achieved by sharing one of its valence electrons with each of its
four neighboring atoms.
 Each pair of shared electrons forms a covalent bond.
 The result is that a crystal of pure or intrinsic silicon has a regular lattice
structure, where the atoms are held in their position by the covalent
bonds.
 Intrinsic Semiconductors ELCE 301
At T=0 K
• No charge carriers →
Covalent bonds are intact
• Valence band is filled with
electrons & Conduction
band is empty → the
intrinsic Si crystal acts as
an insulator

At T>0
• Electron-hole pairs (EHPs) are generated
• EHPs are the only charge carriers in intrinsic material
• Since EH are created in pairs – the electron concentration in
conduction band, n (electron/cm3) is equal to the concentration of
holes in the valence band, p (holes/cm3).
• Each of these intrinsic carrier concentrations is denoted by ni.
• Thus for intrinsic materials n=p=ni
 Silicon Lattice Structure ELCE 301
Free
At 0K, all electrons - - - electron - Vacancy left
are tightly shared - Si -- Si -- Si - - Si - by electron.
with neighbours  - - - -
no current flow - - - - -charge
Overall
on
- Si -- Si -- -+- Si - -
Si - is
Sisilicon
- - - - - -zero  this
- - - - - “hole” must
- Si -- Si - - Si - - Si - - Si - be positive
- - - -- - -
- - -
- Si -- Si -- Si -+- Si -
- - - -
-
- Si - Shares electrons with 4
- neighbouring atoms  8
Adding heat (even to room temperature) allows electrons in outer shell
some bonds to break, and electrons can flow
• A perfect semiconductor crystal with no impurities or lattice defects is
called an intrinsic semiconductor.
 Intrinsic Semiconductors ELCE 301

In general:
3
15 −3 −
where B is a material-dependent parameter that is for silicon 7.3 × 10 𝑐𝑚 𝐾 ; 2

Eg = a parameter known as the bandgap energy, is 1.12 electron volt (eV) for silicon
k = Boltzmann’s constant ( 8.62 × 10−5 eV/K). It is interesting to know that the
bandgap energy Eg is the minimum energy required to break a covalent bond and thus
generate an EHP.
• Value of ni at Room Temperature (T = 300K)

this seems a large value → to place it into context note that silicon has 5 ×
1022 atoms/cm3. Thus at room temperature only one in about 5 × 1012
atoms is ionized and contributing a free electron and a hole!

This relationship extends

It is useful for future purposes to express: 𝑝𝑛 = 𝑛𝑖2 to extrinsic or doped
silicon as well.