ECE/CS 5720/6720 Super Trivia Game Show Hosted by Prof. Cameron Charles March 4, 2008
Question Categories Devices Layout Building Blocks Opamps Important Information March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 2
Category: Devices Q: How does the junction capacitance of a PN junction change with increasing reverse bias? A: It decreases. Q: Why? March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 3
Category: Devices Q: Which terminal is the source on this NMOS device? A: Terminal 1. Q: If V T = 0.5 V, what operating region is this NMOS device in? A: Triode. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 4
Category: Pop Culture Q: How does one say Hello in Kazahki? A: Jagshemash! March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 5
Category: Devices Q: Which terminal is the source on this PMOS device? A: Terminal 2. Q: If V T = 0.5 V, what operating region is this PMOS device in? A: Saturation. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 6
Category: Devices Q: What large signal device parameter is influenced by the Body Effect? A: The threshold voltage. Q: Does it go up or down? A: Up. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 7
Category: Pop Culture Q: Who is this? A: K-Fed. Q: What did his moniker change to after Britney dumped him? A: Fed-ex. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 8
Category: Devices Q: Explain the mechanism behind Channel Length Modulation. A: The channel gets shorter, increasing W/L and increasing I D. Q: What would r ds be for a transistor with no Channel Length Modulation? A: Infinite. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 9
Category: Devices Q: Which is the largest among the different small signal device capacitances? A: C GS (the gate-source capacitance). Q: In which operating region is this capacitance at a maximum? A: Saturation. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 10
Category: Politics Q: Which of these men is the current Prime Minister of Canada? A: On the right. Q: What is his name? A: Stephen Harper. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 11
Category: Layout Q: What does λ represent in our design rules? A: 2 λ = minimum gate length. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 12
Category: Layout Q: What does DRC stand for? A: Design Rule Check. Q: What does LVS stand for? A: Layout Versus Schematic. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 13
Category: Personal Life Q: What did you do last weekend? A: Studied for the 5720/6720 midterm. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 14
Category: Building Blocks Q: What is the output resistance of a standard current mirror? A: r ds. Q: How about a cascode current mirror? A: g m (r ds2 ). March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 15
Category: Building Blocks Q: In what situation would you use a common-source amplifier? A: When you want high gain and can tolerate a high output impedance. Q: How about a common-drain amplifier? A: When you need a low output impedance. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 16
Category: Grammer and Syntax Q: Which of these phrases uses correct grammer: I m doing well. I m doing good. A: The first one. Q: Why? A: well is an adverb, good is an adjective. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 17
Category: Building Blocks Q: What is the approximate input impedance of a common-gate amplifier? A: 1/g m. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 18
Category: Building Blocks Q: How can we increase the linear range of a differential pair? A: Reduce the input devices g m. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 19
Category: Cycling Q: Who holds the record for most Tour de France victories? A: Lance Armstrong. Q: Was he correct in dumping Sheryl Crow? A: No, that was a huge blunder. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 20
Category: Building Blocks Q: What is the definition of Common Mode Rejection Ratio? A: Differential gain divided by commonmode gain. Q: Would we like it to be high or low? A: High. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 21
Category: Opamps Q: In what situations do we need the third stage (output buffer) in the opamp discussed in class? A: When driving a low impedance load. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 22
Category: Pop Culture Q: Who is this guy? A: McLovin! (from SuperBad) March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 23
Category: Opamps Q: How does the Miller Effect help us when compensating an opamp? A: It allows us to use a smaller physical capacitor and also performs pole splitting. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 24
Category: Opamps Q: How does systematic offset voltage arise in an opamp? A: When the transistors in the second stage are biased to have different drain currents. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 25
Category: Feats of Strength Q: Which of these canyons is the hardest to ride up on a bike: Emigration Big Cottonwood Little Cottonwood Millcreek A: Little Cottonwood Canyon: 9.6 miles and 3300 vertical feet of suffering! March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 26
Category: Opamps Q: What is the slew rate of an opamp? A: The maximum rate at which the output voltage can change. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 27
Category: Opamps Q: Which zeros are worse for stability: RHP or LHP, and why? A: RHP, since they reduce both the gain and the phase. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 28
Category: Politics Q: Who is the current President of France? A: Nicolas Sarkozy. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 29
Category: Opamps Q: Why do we include R C in our opamp compensation? A: To move the RHP zero into the LHP and increase the phase margin. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 30
Category: Opamps Q: What are corner simulations, and when would you run them? A: Simulations to make sure that your design will work across all transistor speeds, run them when finalizing your design before fabrication. March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 31
Category: Personal Life Q: What is the best part of your day on Tuesdays and Thursdays? A: Attending Dr. Charles scintillating lectures. Q: What the heck does scintillating mean? A: to sparkle intellectually; brilliant and witty March 4, 2008 Cameron Charles Slide 32