HighFrequencyCircuitModel.PDFVIP

Whites, EE 320 Lecture 22 Page 1 of 12 Lecture 22: BJT Internal Capacitances. High Frequency Circuit Model. The BJT amplifiers we have examined so far are all low frequency amplifiers. For large valued DC blocking capacitors and for frequencies of tens to hundreds of kHz, the simple small- signal models we used will work well. As the frequency increases, though, there are multiple sources of effects that will limit the performance of these amplifiers including: 1. Internal capacitances of the BJT. These are due to charge storage effects at and near the two pn junctions. 2. Parasitic effects. These are due to packaging and transistor construction that create additional capacitances, lead inductances, and resistances. Additionally, the performance of many BJT amplifiers we’ve already examined will be sharply curtailed by DC blocking capacitors that have finite value (i.e., less than infinity). For these reasons, all real transistor amplifiers operate effectively only over a limited (but hopefully large) range of signal frequencies. ? 2016 Keith W. Whites Whites, EE 320 Lecture 22 Page 2 of 12 Referring to Fig. 5.71(b), our analysis of small-signal BJT amplifiers up to this point has focused on the “Midband” frequency region. This frequency band is bounded by the frequencies fL and fH, which are the -3-dB gain frequencies, or half-power frequencies. (Fig. 10.1) The roll off in gain near fL and lower is due to effects of the DC blocking capacitors CC1 and CC2, and the bypass capacitor CE. It’s not possible to eliminate this effect, though fL can be moved about by choosing different values for these capacitors. But large capacitors take up lots of space and can be expensive. Whites, EE 320 Lecture 22 Pag