Methods of improving CMRR

Higher the value of CMRR better the performance of differential amplifier. Effect of RE To improve the CMRR, the common mode gain Ac must be reduced. The common mode gain Ac approaches to zero as RE tends to infinity. So RE ,Ac and CMRR.

Practical problems
But practically RE cannot selected high. Large RE needs higher biasing voltage to set the operating Q point of the transistors. This will increase overall chip area. Practically we have to use another method to increase RE without any limitations. 1. constant current bias method 2. use of current mirror circuit

Differential amplifier with constant current source

Without physically increasing the value of RE is replaced by a transistor operated at a constant current. This will give high RE without affecting the Q point values of the differential amplifier. Circuit analysis:

Constant current source

The transistor used is Q3 and the values of R1, R2 and R3 are selected so as to give the same operating point values for the two transistors Q1 and Q2. Analysis: VEE, R1,R2, R3 and VBE are constants.

Temperature compensation
In practice VBE is not constant but changes with respect to temperature. From junction of emitters of Q1 and Q2 such a thermal compensation is provided by replacing R2 with the two diodes D1 and D2 as shown in the fig. As the temperature increases, the transistor current (ie) collector current IC3 increases. At the same time the diode current also increases. Due to the increase in diode current ID, the base current of Q3 decreases. This compensates for the increase in IC3 Circuit analysis

Temp compensation analysis

(i) For a given value of RE, IE3 depends on the voltage drop across the diodes (ii) but drop across the diodes is a function of current ID, which is a part of I determined by R3. (iii) thus the value of IE3 can be varied by changing R3.

Constant current bias using Zener

The zener diode is often used in practice in place of the two diodes. Then problem of temperature dependent characteristics of the transistor can be solved by using zener diode. This is because zeners are available over a wide range of voltages and can have a matching temperature coefficient of voltage to those of transistors. Circuit analysis

problem
Calculate the constant current I in the circuit shown in fig.

 Current mirror circuit: The circuit in which the output current is forced to equal the input current is called as current mirror circuit. In current mirror circuit the output current is the mirror image of input current. Circuit analysis

Wilson current source circuit

Another widely used current source using current mirror technique is wilson current source. High output resistance is the feature of wilson current source. The high output resistance is achieved due to the negative feed back through Q3.It also provides base currents cancellation making I2 nearly equal to Iref. Circuit analysis:

Widlar current source

In operational amplifier low input current is required. Hence input stage is biased at very low current, typically at a collector current of the order of 5A. Currents of such low magnitude can be obtained with a modified circuit called widlar current source. Circuit analysis.

problem
1. For a widlar current source shown in fig. design the value of RE to get IC2. Assume VBE=0.7v. Neglect the base current.

problem
2. In widlar current source, reference current is 1mA and RE is selected as 5k. Determine approximate value of IC2 neglecting the base currents. (select the values as 12,20,22A)

Multiple current source

Multiple current source circuit can be obtained from basic current mirror circuit. This circuit can be used to supply more than one load. The circuit is shown in fig. Circuit analysis All the transistors are identical in characteristics. Hence all have same base currents.

Practical approach
In practice the transistors are merged (or) fabricated as a single device. So the general relationship, the current in each transistor is proportional to the area of the emitter. This current source is used in digital to analog converters. Problem Determine the currents I1,I2,I3 if the areas of Q1, Q2, Q3 are 0.5A,0.25A and 0.125A resp where A is the area of Q

 The various advantages of current mirror circuit are, 1. provides very high emitter resistance RE. 2. Requires less components that constant current bias 3. simple to design 4. easy to fabricate 5. With properly matched transistors, collector current thermal stability is achieved. Thus constant current bias can be easily replaced by current mirror circuit to improve CMRR in op-amps.

Advantages

Use of swamping resistors

To achieve high input resistance, external resistances RE are connected in series with each emitter of each transistor of a differential amplifier. Such resistances are called swamping resistors. fig; The effects of swamping resistances are 1. increase the input resistance Minimize the changes due to temp changes Reduce differential gain Increase the linearity.

problem
The specifications for the dual input balanced output differential amplifier are given below: RC=4.7k, RE=4.7k, RS=70, hie=1.47k, VCC=12v, VEE=-12v, hfe=75, VBE=0.7v i) Determine operating point values, differential voltage gain, common mode gain, input resistance, output resistance. ii) If the swamping resistances each of 100 is inserted in the circuit, calculate the above parameters, considering the effect of swamping resistance. Observation: the differential gain reducing and Ri increasing with the addition of swamping resistance.

Voltage references
Is a circuit basically used to provide a constant d.c voltage which acts as a reference or standard for other circuits and is independent of changes in the parameters like temperature, input line voltage, load current etc., The important co-efficient of voltage reference circuit is temperature. The temperature co-efficient of the output voltage is the measure of the ability to maintain the standard output voltage under varying temperature conditions. For a good voltage reference circuit, TC must be as low as possible.

Band gap voltage references

The zener diodes and avalanche diodes are having break down voltages of 6V to 7V. So we need supply voltages in the order of 10V. Hence it is not possible to use these diodes for less supply voltages as 5V or less. In such cases we need band gap voltage reference circuits. Using this, negative TC of VBE is compensated by positive TC of thermal voltage VT and can get small reference voltage of 1.2V.

Circuit analysis
VGO-band gap reference voltage at absolute zero temperature. 1.21V for si, 0.785V for Ge. Applications: Due to good temperature and noise characteristics with low supply voltage it is used in voltage regulators and DA, AD converters, VF. F-V converters, power supply also. The IC LM385 used as band gap reference circuit.

problem
Design a basic band gap reference circuit with the parameters as TC (Vref)=0, IC1=IC3=0.2mA, IC2=1/5 IC1 and IS=2*10-5A for the transistors. Assume room temperature of 27C.