Lecture 24

ANNOUNCEMENTS
• The last HW assignment (HW#12) will be due 12/6
• Prof. Liu will be away on Tuesday 12/4 (no office hour that day)

OUTLINE
• MOSFET Differential Amplifiers

Reading: Chapter 10.3-10.6

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 1 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Common-Mode (CM) Response
• Similarly to its BJT counterpart, a MOSFET differential pair
produces zero differential output as VCM changes.

I SS
V X  VY  VDD  RD
2

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 2 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Equilibrium Overdrive Voltage
• The equilibrium overdrive voltage is defined as VGS-VTH
when M1 and M2 each carry a current of ISS/2.

I SS
VGS  VTH  equil 
W
 n Cox
L

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 3 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Minimum CM Output Voltage
• In order to maintain M1 and M2 in saturation, the common-mode output voltage cannot fall
below VCM-VTH.
• This value usually limits voltage gain.

I SS
VDD  RD  VCM  VTH
2

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 4 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Differential Response

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 5 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Small-Signal Response
• For small input voltages (+V and -V), the gm values are
~equal, so the increase in ID1 and decrease in ID2 are ~equal in
magnitude. Thus, the voltage at node P is constant and can
be considered as AC ground.
I EE I EE
I D1   I I D2   I
2 2

VP  0
 I D1  g m V ; I D 2   g m V
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 6 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 Small-Signal Differential Gain
• Since the output signal changes by -2gmVRD when the input
signal changes by 2V, the small-signal voltage gain is –gmRD.
• Note that the voltage gain is the same as for a CS stage, but
that the power dissipation is doubled.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 7 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Large-Signal Analysis

  n Cox Vin1  V in 2 
1 W 4 I SS
  Vin1  Vin 2 
2
I D1  I D 2
2 L W
 n Cox
L
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 8 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
Maximum Differential Input Voltage
• There exists a finite differential input voltage that completely
steers the tail current from one transistor to the other. This
value is known as the maximum differential input voltage.

Vin1  Vin 2 max

 2  VGS  VTH  equil

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 9 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 MOSFET vs. BJT Differential Pairs
• In a MOSFET differential pair, there exists a finite differential
input voltage to completely switch the current from one
transistor to the other, whereas in a BJT differential pair that
voltage is infinite.

MOSFET Differential Pair BJT Differential Pair

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 10 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Effect of Doubling the Tail Current
• If ISS is doubled, the equilibrium overdrive voltage for each
transistor increases by 2 , thus Vin,max increases by 2as
well. Moreover, the differential output swing will double.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 11 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Effect of Doubling W/L
• If W/L is doubled, the equilibrium overdrive voltage is lowered
by 2 , thus Vin,max will be lowered by 2as well. The
differential output swing will be unchanged.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 12 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Small-Signal Analysis
• When the input differential signal is small compared to
4ISS/nCox(W/L), the output differential current is ~linearly
proportional to it:
1 W 4 I SS W
I D1  I D 2   n Cox  Vin1  Vin 2    n Cox I SS  Vin1  Vin 2 
2 L W L
 n Cox
L
• We can use the small-signal model to prove that the
change in tail node voltage (vP) is zero:
vin1  vin 2 g m1v1  g m 2 v2  0
 v1  vP   v2  vP   v1  v2

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 13 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Virtual Ground and Half Circuit
• Since the voltage at node P does not change for small input
signals, the half circuit can be used to calculate the voltage gain.

vP  0
Av   g m RD

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 14 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

MOSFET Diff. Pair Frequency Response
• Since the MOSFET differential pair can be analyzed using its
half-circuit, its transfer function, I/O impedances, locations of
poles/zeros are the same as that of the half circuit’s.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 15 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Example
1
 p, X 
RS [CGS 1  (1  g m1 / g m 3 )CGD1 ]
1
 p ,Y 
1   g m3  
CGS 3  CGD1 1    C DB1  CSB 3 
g m3  g m1  
1
 p ,out 
RD  CGD 3  C DB 3 

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 16 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Half Circuit Example 1
0 Half circuit for small-signal analysis

 1 
Av   g m1  || rO 3 || rO1 
 g m3 

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 17 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Half Circuit Example 2
Half circuit for small-signal analysis
 0

RDD 2
Av  
1 g m    RSS 2
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 18 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 MOSFET Cascode Differential Pair

Half circuit for small-signal analysis

Av   g m1rO 3 g m3 rO1

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 19 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

MOSFET Telescopic Cascode Amplifier
Half circuit for small-signal analysis

Av   g m1   g m3 rO 3 rO1  || ( g m5 rO 5 rO 7 )
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 20 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 CM to DM Conversion Gain, ACM-DM
• If finite tail impedance and asymmetry are both present, then
the differential output signal will contain a portion of the input
common-mode signal.
I D
VCM  VGS  2I D RSS   2I D RSS
gm
VCM
 I D 
1
 2 RSS
gm

Vout1   I D RD
Vout 2   I D  RD  RD 
Vout  Vout1  Vout 2   I D RD

Vout RD

VCM 1 / g m   2 RSS
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 21 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 MOS Diff. Pair with Active Load
• Similarly to its BJT counterpart, a MOSFET differential pair
can use an active load to enhance its single-ended output.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 22 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Asymmetric Differential Pair
• Because of the vast difference in magnitude of the resistances seen at
the drains of M1 and M2, the voltage swings at these two nodes are
different and therefore node P cannot be viewed as a virtual ground…

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 23 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

Thevenin Equivalent of the Input Pair

vThev   g mN roN (vin1  vin 2 )

RThev  2roN
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 24 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 Simplified Diff. Pair w/ Active Load

vout
 g mN (rON || rOP )
vin1  vin 2

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 24, Slide 25 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley