Applications of FET

1. Low Noise Amplifier

Noise is an undesirable disturbance super-imposed on a useful signal. Noise interferes with the
information contained in the signal; the greater the noise, the less the information. For instance,
the noise in radio-receivers develops crackling and hissing which sometimes completely masks
the voice or music. Similarly, the noise in TV receivers produces small white or black spots on
the picture; a severe
noise may wipe out the picture. Noise is independent of the signal strength because it exists
even when the signal is off.

Every electronic device produces a certain amount of noise but FET is a device which causes
very little noise. This is especially important near the front-end of the receivers and other
electronic equipment because the subsequent stages amplify front-end noise along with the
signal. If FET is used at the front-end, we get less amplified noise (disturbance) at the final
output.

2. Buffer Amplifier

A buffer amplifier is a stage of amplification that isolates the preceding stage from the following
stage. Source follower (common drain) is. used as a buffer amplifier. Because of the high input
impedance and low output impedance, a FET acts an excellent buffer amplifier, as shown in the
figure. Owing to high input impedance almost all the output voltage of the preceding stage
appears at the input of the buffer amplifier and owing to low output impedance all the output
voltage from the buffer amplifier reaches the input of the following stage, even there may be a
small load resistance.
3. Cascode Amplifier
Circuit diagram for a cascode amplifier using FET is shown in figure. A common source
amplifier drives a common gate amplifier in it.

Cascode amplifier circuit

The cascode amplifier has the same voltage gain as a common source (CS) amplifier. The main
advantage of the cascode connection is its low input capacitance which is considerably less
than the input capacitance of a CS amplifier. It has high input resistance which is also a
desirable feature.
4. Analog Switch
FET as an analog switch is shown in figure. When no gate voltage is applied to the
FET i.e. VGS = 0, FET becomes saturated and it behaves like a small resistance usually of the
value of less than 100 ohm and, therefore, output voltage becomes equal to

VOUT = {RDS/ (RD + RDS (ON))}* Vin

JFET-analog-switch

Since RD is very large in comparison to RDS 0N), so Vout can be taken equal to zero.

When a negative voltage equal to VGS (OFF) is applied to the gate, the FET operates in the cut-off
region and it acts like a very high resistance usually of some mega ohms. Hence output voltage
becomes nearly equal to input voltage.

5. Chopper
A direct-coupled amplifier can be built by leaving out the coupling and bypass capacitors and
connecting the output of each stage directly to the input of next stage. Thus direct current is
coupled, as well as alternating current. The major drawback of this method is an occurrence of
drift, a slow shift in the final output voltage produced by supply transistor, and temperature
variations.

The drift problem can be overcome by employing a chopper amplifier as illustrated in the figure.
 Chopper Amplifier

(a). Here input dc voltage is chopped by a switching circuit. The output of the chopper is a
square wave ac signal having peak value equal to that of input dc voltage, VDC. This ac signal
can be amplified by a conventional ac amplifier without any problem of drift. Amplified output
can then be ‘peak detected’ to recover the amplified dc signal.

A square wave is applied to the gate of a FET analog switch to make it operate like a chopper,
as illustrated in the other figure. The gate square wave is negative-going swing from 0 V to at
least VGS (off)- This alternately saturates and cuts-off the JFET. This output voltage is a square
wave varying from +VDC to zero volt alternately.

If the input signal is a low-frequency ac signal, it gets chopped into the ac waveform as shown in
last figure (c). This chopped signal can now be amplified by an ac amplifier that is drift free. The
amplified signal can then be peak-detected to recover the original input low-frequency ac signal.
Thus both dc and low-frequency ac signals can be amplified by using a chopper amplifier.

6. Multiplexer

FET multiplexer

An analog multiplexer, a circuit that steers one of the input signals to the output line, is shown in
the figure. In this circuit, each JFET acts as a single-pole-single-throw switch. When the control
signals (Vv V2 and V3) are more negative than VGS(0FF) all input signals are blocked. By making
any control voltage equal to zero, one of the inputs can be transmitted to the output. For
instance, when Vx is zero, the signal obtained at the output will be sinusoidal. Similarly, when
V2 is zero, the signal obtained at the output will be triangular and when V3 is zero, the output
signal will be square-wave one. Normally, only one of the control signals is zero.

7. Current Limiter

JFET current limiting circuit is shown in the figure. Almost all the supply voltage,
therefore, appears across the load. When the load current tries to increase to an
excessive level (may be due to short-circuit or any other reason), the excessive load
current forces the JFET into the active region, where it limits the current to 8 mA. The
JFET now acts as a current source and prevents excessive load current.

A manufacturer can tie the gate to the source and package the JFET as a two terminal device.
This is how constant-current diodes are made. Such diodes are also called current-regulator
diodes.
8. Phase Shift Oscillators

FET-phase shift oscillator

JFET can incorporate the amplifying action as well as feedback action. It, therefore, acts well as
a phase shift oscillator. The high input impedance of FET is especially very valuable in phase-
shift oscillators in order to minimize the loading effect. A typical phase shift oscillator employing
N-channel JFET is shown in the figure.
APPLICATIONS OF JFET
1. The junction field effect transistor (JFET) is used as a constant current source.
2. The JFET is used as a buffer amplifier.
3. The JFET is used as an electronic switch.
4. The JFET is used as a phase shift oscillator.
5. The JFET is used as high impedance wide band amplifier.
6. The JFET is used as a voltage variable resistor (VVR) or voltage development
resistor (VDR).
7. The JFET is used as a chopper.