EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 1 Prof.

Liu, UC Berkeley
Lecture 10
OUTLINE
BJT Amplifiers (contd)
CB stage with biasing
Emitter follower (Common-collector amplifier)
Analysis of emitter follower core
Impact of source resistance
Impact of Early effect
Emitter follower with biasing
Reading: Chapter 5.3.3-5.4
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Alan Wu will hold an extra lab session tomorrow (9/28), 2-4PM
The post-lab assignment for Experiment #4 has been shortened!
2 pgs of notes (double-sided, 8.511) allowed for Midterm #1
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 2 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Biasing of CB Stage
( )
S E m E
E
C m
in
out
in
X
X
out
in
out
v
R R g R
R
R g
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
A
+ +
=
=
1
( )
in
S E m E
E
in
S in
in
X
v
R R g R
R
v
R R
R
v
+ +
=
+
=
1
R
E
is necessary to provide a path for the bias current
I
E
to flow, but it lowers the input impedance.
E m
E
E
m
E
m
E
m
in
R g
R
R
g
R
g
R
g
R
+
=
+

= =
1
1
1
||
1
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 3 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Reduction of Input Impedance Due to R
E

The reduction of input impedance due to i
1
is
undesirable because it shunts part of the input
current to ground instead of to Q
1
(and R
C
).
Choose R
E
>> 1/g
m
, i.e. I
C
R
E
>> V
T
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 4 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Creation of V
b

A resistive voltage divider lowers the gain.
To remedy this problem, a capacitor is inserted
between the base and ground to short out the
resistive voltage divider at the frequency of interest.
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 5 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Example of CB Stage with Bias
Design a CB stage for A
v
= 10 and R
in
= 50O.
R
in
= 50O 1/g
m
if R
E
>> 1/g
m

Choose R
E
= 500O

A
v
= g
m
R
C
= 10 R
C
= 500O
I
C
= g
m
V
T
= 0.52mA
V
BE
=V
T
ln(I
C
/I
S
)=0.899V

V
b
= I
E
R
E
+ V
BE
= 1.16V
Choose R
1
and R
2
to provide V
b

and I
1
>> I
B
, e.g. I
1
= 52A
C
B
is chosen so that (1/(|+1))(1/eC
B
) is small compared to
1/g
m
at the frequency of interest.


V
CC
= 2.5V
I
S
= 5x10
-16
A
| = 100
V
A
=
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 6 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower
(Common Collector Amplifier)
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 7 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower Core
When the input voltage (V
in
) is increased by AV
in
, the
collector current (and hence the emitter current)
increases, so that the output voltage (V
out
) is increased.
Note that V
in
and V
out
differ by V
BE
.
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 8 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Unity-Gain Emitter Follower
In integrated circuits, the follower is typically realized
as shown below.
The voltage gain is 1 because a constant collector current
(= I
1
) results in a constant V
BE
; hence AV
out
= AV
in
.
1 =
v
A
=
A
V
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 9 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Small-Signal Model of Emitter Follower
The voltage gain is less than 1 and positive.
( )
m
E
E
E
in
out
E
out
out in m
out in
E
out
m
out in
g
R
R
R
r
v
v
R
v
v v g
r
v v
R
v
v g
r
v
v v v
1 1
1
1
1
: emitter at KCL

+
~

+
+
=
= +

= +
=
|
t
t
t
t
t
t
=
A
V
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 10 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower as a Voltage Divider
=
A
V
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 11 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower with Source Resistance
1
1
+
+ +
=
|
S
m
E
E
in
out
R
g
R
R
v
v
=
A
V
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 12 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Input Impedance of Emitter Follower
The input impedance of an emitter follower is the
same as that of a CE stage with emitter degeneration
(whose input impedance does not depend on the
resistance between the collector and V
CC
).
E
x
x
in
R r
i
v
R ) 1 ( |
t
+ + =
=
A
V
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 13 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Effect of BJT Current Gain
There is a current gain of (|+1) from base to emitter.
Effectively, the load resistance seen from the base is
multiplied by (|+1).
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 14 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower as a Buffer
The emitter follower is suited for use as a buffer
between a CE stage and a small load resistance, to
alleviate the problem of gain degradation.
speaker 2 2 1
) 1 ( R r R
in
|
t
+ + =
( )
1 in C m v
R R g A =
( )
speaker
R R g A
C m v
=
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 15 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Output Impedance of Emitter Follower
An emitter follower effectively lowers the source
impedance by a factor of |+1, for improved driving
capability.
The follower is a good voltage buffer because it has
high input impedance and low output impedance.
E
s
m
out
R
R
g
R ||
1
1
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
+ =
|
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 16 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower with Early Effect
Since r
O
is in parallel with R
E
, its effect can be easily
incorporated into the equations for the voltage gain
and the input and output impedances.
( )( )
O E
m
s
out
O E in
m
S
O E
O E
v
r R
g
R
R
r R r R
g
R
r R
r R
A
|| ||
1
1
|| 1
1
1
||
||
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
+
=
+ + =
+
+
+
=
|
|
|
t
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 17 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Emitter Follower with Biasing
A biasing technique similar to that used for the CE
stage can be used for the emitter follower.
Note that V
B
can be biased to be close to V
CC
because
the collector is biased at V
CC.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 18 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Supply-Independent Biasing
By putting an independent current source at the
emitter, the bias point (I
C
, V
BE
) is fixed, regardless of
the supply voltage value.
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 19 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Summary of Amplifier Topologies
The three amplifier topologies studied thus far have
different properties and are used on different occasions.
CE and CB stages have voltage gain with magnitude
greater than one; the emitter followers voltage gain is
at most one.
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 20 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Amplifier Example #1
The keys to solving this problem are recognizing the
AC ground between R
1
and R
2
, and using a Thevenin
transformation of the input network.

S
E
m
S
C
in
out
R R
R
R
g
R R
R R
v
v
+

+ +
+
=
1
1
1
2
1
1
||
||
|
CE stage Small-signal
equivalent circuit
Simplified small-signal
equivalent circuit
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 21 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Amplifier Example #2
AC grounding/shorting and Thevenin transformation
are needed to transform this complex circuit into a
simple CE stage with emitter degeneration.
S
m
S
C
in
out
R R
R
R
g
R R
R
v
v
+

+ +
+
=
1
1
2
1
1
1
||
|
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 22 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Amplifier Example #3
First, identify R
eq
, which is the impedance seen at the
emitter of Q
2
in parallel with the infinite output
impedance of an ideal current source.
Second, use the equations for a degenerated CE
stage with R
E
replaced by R
eq
.
1
1
1
2
+
+ =
|
R
g
R
m
eq
1
1 1
1
2 1
1 2 1
+
+ +

=
+ + ~
|
t t
R
g g
R
A
R r r R
m m
C
v
in
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 23 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Amplifier Example #4
S
m
C
v
R
g
R R
A
+
=
1
||
1
Note that C
B
shorts out R
2
and provides a ground for
R
1
, at the frequency of interest.
R
1
appears in parallel with R
C
; the circuit simplifies to
a simple CB stage with source resistance.
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 10, Slide 24 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Note that the equivalent base resistance of Q
1
is the
parallel connection of R
E
and the impedance seen at
the emitter of Q
2
.
Amplifier Example #5
(

|
|
.
|

\
|
+
+
+
+ =
E
B
m m
in
R
R
g g
R ||
1
1
1
1 1
2 1
| |