4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

1/8

The Short-Circuit
Current Gain hfe
Consider the common emitter low-frequency small-signal model with its output
short-circuited.

B
+
-

ib ( )

vi ( )

ic ( )
+

vbe

gmvbe

vce
-

ro

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

2/8

Boring! Tell me something

I dont already know
In this case we find:

ic ( ) = gm vbe ( )
= gm r ib ( )
But we know that:

gm r =
Therefore:

IC VT IC
=
=
VT IB IB

ic ( )
=
ib ( )

Just as we expected!

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

3/8

When the input signal is changing rapidly

Now, contrast this with the results using the high frequency model:
- vce +

ib ( )
B
+
-

vi ( )

ic ( )

gmv

vbe

vce

ro

Evaluating this circuit, it is evident that the small-signal base current is:
1

+ j C + C
r

ib ( ) = v ( )

While the small-signal collector current is:

ic ( ) = v ( ) ( gm jC )

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

4/8

Heres something you did not know

Therefore, the ratio of small-signal collector current to small-signal base
current is:
r g j r C
ic ( )
= m
ib ( ) 1 + j r C + C

Typically, we find that gm  C , so that we find:

r gm
ic ( )

ib ( ) 1 + j r (C + C )
and again we know:

r gm =

IC VT IC
=
=
VT IB IB

Therefore:

ic ( )

ib ( ) 1 + j r (C + C )

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

5/8

Your BJT is frequency dependent!

We define this ratio as the small-signal BJT (short-circuit) current gain,
hfe ( ) :

hfe ( ) 

ic ( )

ib ( ) 1 + j r (C + C )

Note this function is a low-pass function, were we can define a 3dB break
frequency as:

=
Therefore:

hfe ( ) 

Jim Stiles

r (C + C )

ic ( )

ib ( ) 1 + j

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

6/8

This is how we define BJT bandwidth

2

Plotting the magnitude of hfe ( ) (i.e., hfe ( ) ) we find that:

2

h ( ) (dB)
fe

log 2
20 dB/decade

0 dB

log

We see that for frequencies less than the 3 dB break frequency, the value of
hfe ( ) is approximately equal to beta:

hfe ( )
Jim Stiles

<
The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

7/8

This should SO remind you of op-amps

Note then for frequencies greater than this break frequency:

hfe ( ) =

1+ j

>

Note then that hfe ( ) = 1 when = .

We can thus define this frequency as T , the unity-gain frequency:

T 
so that:

Jim Stiles

hfe ( = T ) = 1.0

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

4/18/2011

The Short Circuit Current Gain lecture

8/8

Dj vu; all over again

We can therefore state that:

hfe ( )

>

and also that:

hfe ( )

Jim Stiles

<

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS