P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

Physics 123: Homework 2: Bipolar Transistors I

REV 11 ; September 21, 2012.

DUE Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, 5 p.m. MIT people are invited to email their HWs, as we said last week. Email scanned work to the TAs shared homework drop-box, harvardphysics123@gmail.com. (Note that this is only for homework submission; this is not the email to use for asking questions.) Total Points: 18 If a question bafes you, email the whole group of us (and add Anjuli to the pair of us we listed in the opening day handout. Anjuli is anjuliw@gmail.com). The fault may lie in the wording of the question, and were happy in any case to help you get un-stuck.

Contents
1 Measuring ZIN (3 points) 2 This waveform from That (2 points) 3 Current sources: passive and active (2 points) 3.1 Passive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Active (single-transistor version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Switchable Current Source (2 points) 5 Odd Summing Circuit (3 points) 6 High gain ampliers (2 points) 7 Temperature stability (2 points) 8 Differential Amplier (5 points, total) 8.1 Maximize Gain (2 points) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 Stable? (1 point) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 Tail of Diff amp (2 points) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 6 6 7

Revisions: remove repetition of one question, and correct total (9/12).

P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

Measuring ZIN (3 points)

Describe a procedure for measuring RIN and CIN for the device shown below. Note that your procedure should work even if the foot of the resistor shown to model RIN is not tied to ground. (This last requirement makes the problem harder than it otherwise might be).

Figure 1: Input impedance problem

P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

This waveform from That (2 points)

Show a skeleton circuit (which means just a circuit without component values) that would deliver output shown, given the input shown. You may invoke power supplies, if you like.

Figure 2: This from that...

P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

Current sources: passive and active (2 points)

Wed like to ask you to make a silly passive current source, along with a couple of active sources, so that you can appreciate whats handy about the transistor versions. Suppose that you want to make a current source (strictly, a sink) that will sink current from a load returned to a positive voltage supply of +10V. The circuit should hold the loads current constant at 5mA, 1%, as the voltage at the foot of the load varies between close to ground and +10V. Thus:

Figure 3: current sink

3.1

Passive

Sketch a circuit for a (ridiculous-) passive current source (no transistors), that would do this job. You may use a negative power supply.

3.2

Active (single-transistor version)

Sketch a circuit for a single-transistor current source that would do this jobexcept that it cannot work all the way to zero volts because we want you to use no negative supply. The passive version, with its negative supply, was able to operate right down to zero volts. In the transistor circuit, we will be satised if the the current sink works well down to around 1V.

Switchable Current Source (2 points)

Now add a feature to your active current source (sink) that would let it sink 5mA or 20mA, depending on the level presented on a line named SELECT, a line that is either 0V or +5V. Hint: youll need a transistor switch or two. If you use two switches, youll want to arrange things so that if one is on, the other is off; to that end, you can make an inverter out of a switch, to operate on the signal, SELECT: if you use a pullup resistor to +5, then the output will go LOW (to 0V) when the switch is ON, and vise versa. But it may be simpler to use one switch, in any case.

P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

Odd Summing Circuit (3 points)

Suppose you would like to sum the signals provided by two transducers, giving the two transducers equal full-scale weights. The summed output is to drive an A/D, and the range of that device denes the permitted output range for your summer. We will assume the transducers provide DC signals of just one polarity, as stated below. Here are the relevant specications:
A/D input range: 0 to +2.5V signal source A: signal range: 0 to +0.5V output impedance: 10M signal source B: signal range: 0 to -1mA (current sink) output impedance: 10M output voltage compliance: 0.1V

High gain ampliers (2 points)

How do these ampliers compare with respect to linearity or constancy of gain over the output swing? Explain your conclusion, briey. Assume that each amplier is fed by a properly-biased input.

Figure 4: High gain ampliers

For case b) we should provide some hints, because this circuit is very similar to a current mirror, a circuit we didnt require you to learn. This circuit, mirror-like, will sink a current through Q1 of about V+/2R. That same current will ow in Q2, if we dont disturb things; Q2 is said to mirror the current passed by Q1, because the two VBE s are the same. This is the scheme that sets up the biasing: puts Vout , quiescent, at about V+/2, as usual.

P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

Enough said?

Temperature stability (2 points)

Which of the circuits just above are (is?) protected against temperature effects, and how? Explain the mechanism or mechanisms.

Differential Amplier (5 points, total)

Some questions about the design of a differential amplier:

8.1

Maximize Gain (2 points)

Lab 5 begins with a diff amp of modest gain (collector resistor is 10k, emitter resistors are 100). Modify the circuit so as to maximize gain (without use of current sources). (Please draw the modied circuit.) What is the modied circuits differential gain? Common-mode gain?

8.2

Stable? (1 point)

When you have maximized gain, does your circuit remain temperature stable? (Explain your answer.)

P123 HW 2: Bipolar Transistors I

8.3

Tail of Diff amp (2 points)

In Lab 5, we suggest that you replace the 10k resistor in the tail with a current sink. Why? What is the argument that suggests a current sink will improve CMRR?

Would increasing the value of RTAIL say, to 100kimprove CMRR, relative to the circuit of g. 1 of lab 5? Explain your answer.

(hw2 sept12.tex;September 21, 2012)