Transistor Circuits

This course extends the analysis of electronic circuits to circuits containing non-linear components as key building blocks for realizing essential functions such a switching and amplification. Noise is introduced as a fundamental limitation to signal quality, motivating the need for signal amplification. The physics of diodes and MOSFETs is explained at an intuitive level, and their characteristic equations are introduced. Large-signal operation is presented as an approach to realize digital logic, with the CMOS inverter as basic building block. Biasing and small-signal operation are presented as approaches to obtain linearised behavior from non-linear circuits, and are applied to single-MOSFETs amplifiers (common-source, common-gate, common-drain stages). Amplifiers with feedback are introduced as a means of realizing ideal transfer functions. Finally, opamp-based amplifiers and single-MOSFET amplifiers are shown to be practical approximation of these ideal amplifiers.