IEEE T R A N S A C T I O S S O S AUDIO

VOL.

XU-13, NO. 5

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

Voltage Controlled Attenuators Using Field Effect Transistors

GOSLING
Abstract-A FET operated so that channel pinch-off is avoided behaves like a voltage controlled variable resistor. This paper considers a voltagedivider attenuator using the devicein this way. Attenuation (in decibels) varies almost linearly with control voltage over a range. Distortion may be less than 0.01 percent, temperature effects are usually negligible, and the network can operate satisfactorily up to a few megahertz. Circuits of this kind demand a FET having special characteristics.

+PINCH

O F ;

REGION.

field effect transistor is normallyoperated Tvith the conducting channel pinched off. In this way a high value of drain impedance, and hence of amplification factor, is attained. The device ma)- also be used, however, as a voltage controlled variable resistance, in which case the drain-to-gate voltage is restricted sufficiently to avoid pinching off the conducting channel. Typical drain characteristics of a field effect transistor (Type C.82) are shown in Fig. 1, and an enlarged plot of the region near the origin where the channel is not pinched off is showninFig. 2. This is sometimesreferred to as the triode region of the device characteristics, although as n-ill be seen it bears very little resemblance to the characteristics of thermionic a triode. The relationship between drain current and voltage is almost linear, provided that the gate-tochannel junction remains reverse-biased, and also that the channel pinch-off conditions are not too closely approached. There is no voltage offset; that is to say, the drain-to-source voltage is zero when the drain current is zero. Thus, over a limited range of voltage and current, the field effect transistor is equivalent to an ohmic resistor betn-een drain and source terminals, the magnitude of which is determined by the potential difference between gate and source. Used in this 11-ay as a voltage controlled resistor, the device has no exact parallel in any other circuit element and thus leads to a whole family of new circuit applicationssome of whichhavebeenreviewedbyGosling [ l ] . The purpose of this paper is to describe the prsperties and design of one circuit of this class, namely, a voltage controlled attenuator. Such an attenuator can OUTPUT be realized in many forms, including a bridge network with the field effect transistor as one branch or ernbodying the device in the feedback network of an amplifier, but the simplest is t h a t in which the transistor forms one arm of a resistive potential divider (Fig. 3), and i t is this form which will be considered here. The field effect
&/lanuscript received May 27, 1965. The author is with University College of Swansea, S.E. il-ales.
112

IXTRODL-CTION

H E N USED as a n amplifier the

Fig. 2.

Draincharacteristics near the origill.

INPUT

Fig. 3 .

CONTROL VOLTAGE.

Ioltag-e divider attenuator, using a FRT.

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> 0.7 (at which value the drain-source resistance has transistor cannot be regarded simply as a pure resistance, increased only by a factorof slightly over six, relative to since a capacitance also shunts the drain-to-source terminals; however, the effect of this capacitor is usually its value a t zero gate-source voltage) the relationship of (1) diverges sharply from the exponential approximaappreciableonly a t t h e higheraudiofrequenciesand initially. Therefore, i t will be convenient to ignore it, tion. For the present application i t would be desirable for postponing consideration of high-frequency effects until the sharp rise in resistance as l i ~ S / W otends to unity, the other properties of the network have been inwhich is duetothepinching off of theconducting vestigated. channel, to be less marked, thus extending the range of All attenuators degrade the signal-to-noise ratio someuseableresistancevariation.Transistors of thistype what, due to thermal noisegenerated in the resistors making up the network. This effect is also present in the may be produced by adopting a modified device geomfield effect transistor, used as a variable resistor. Hom- etry; one such structure, based on an alloyed junction. 5. Transistors of this type are comever, there is a further source of noise in the transistor, is showninFig. mercially available, and other structures, utilizing difnamely, a component which has a power spectral density function which obeys a 1/f law. This noise source, which ferent fabrication techniques, which would yield comparable properties, are also possible. is probably associated with surface effects, typically Thevariation of RDs withgate-sourcevoltageobbecomes of significant magnitude, relative to Johnson served experimentally for a number of different comnoise,belowabout 200 Hzand will thereforebeimportant in many audio applications. As will be shown, mercial units is shown in Fig. 6. All the units are etched junction n-channel types, and all have similar attenuators using field effect transistors can operate a t alloy pinch-off voltages. (The pinch-off voltage is usually quite high signal voltage levels and, consequently, can defined, in the case of devices having a relatively yield satisfactory signal-to-noise ratios despite the will excess noise generated. The importance of l/f noise de- gradual pinch-off, as the gate-source voltage that reduce the drain current to 0.01 of its zero bias value, pends very much on the value of the lower cutoff frethe drain being maintained at a positive potential quency of the system and on the particular transistor of the pinch-off voltage.) I t is used. Insulated gate (IhIOST) transistors a t present larger than the magnitude available have markedly inferior characteristics in this apparent that the lam of dependence of RDs upon gatesource voltage may be reasonably well-represented by respect. an expression of the form DEPENDENCE OF ATTEKUATIOK ON CONTROL VOLTAGE RDS= ROexp (XVGS) (2) In order to determine the law of variation of attenuation with control voltage, it is necessary to consider the where R o , X are constants. Transistors of thesamenominal pinch-off voltage relationship of gate-source voltage to drain-source rehave approximately the same value of X b u t will vary sistance for the transistor. Such a relationship can be markedlyin Ro. Even with the modified geometry of deduced from the theory of the field effecttransistor thistype of transistora pinch-offeffect is observed, proposed by Shockley [2]. According to this approach, which assumes that the a n d a t large gate-source voltages, a more rapid than exponential variation of drain-source resistance is obtransistor is constructed in the form of a rectangular served. However, (2) remains a good approximation prismoidalconductingchannelbetweenplaneparallel formorethanadecaderesistancechange,andeven gateelectrodes,thedrain-sourceresistance(assuming negligibledrain-sourcevoltage) follows the law beyond the resistance, deviates much more gently from theexponentialapproximationthaninthecase of a Ro transistor obeying (1). A resistance plot for a typical RDS= (1) transistor having a gradual pinch-off, of etched-alloyed {l - ($)li2) type described, is shown in Fig. 7 over a wider range than in Fig. 6. The results shown in both these figures were obtained using an ac bridge to measure the resiswhere Ro, L V O are constants. tance(atafrequency w = lo4 rad/s)takingcareto Devices having a geometry similar to that assumed can be manufactured by a variety of processes-for ex- keep the ac voltage between source and drain less than ample,double diffusion-and showarelationship be- 0.3 volt rms. Since the source-drain channel is not pertween R D S and V G S in approximate agreement with (1). fectly ohmic, the applied voltage is kept small so t h a t They are not, however, very useful in variable resistance the true slope resistancea t t h e origin may be measured. applications, since as V G Sapproaches Wo, the rate of T h e consequences of the nonohmic nature of the conductingchannelareinvestigatedfurtherlater in this variation of RDs with control voltage becomes very rapid. Thus, the usefulrange of RDs islimited to no paper. Thedependence of RDs on VGs is stillbetterrepmore than about a 10: 1 ratio. The effect can be seen resented by an expression of the form clearly if thedrain-sourceresistance is plottedona logarithmicscaleagainstgate-sourcevoltage(Fig.4). RDS= R o exp (XIVGS A Z V G S ~ (31 The broken line on the same graph represents an exponential relationship. I t will be seen that for I/Q~/WO where Ro,XI, X2 are constants.

114
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I

IEEE TRASSACTIONS O N AUDIO

I
1000

SEPTEMBEI/OCTOBlI;I1

I
I 1
/!

# TYPE

c a ~

,
i

# TYPE ocaoo

Fig, 1. The relationship of Ru.3 to m T i, as predicted by Shockley's model. (The broken line represents an exponential relationship.)

AXIS

OF SYMMETRY
I

IC

6
vG 5

IO

12

14

ALUMINIUM

Fig. 6.
N TYPE SILICON

Experi~nentallyobserved Ro.y/T'os dependence for commercial etched-alloyed FETs.

TRANSISTOR TYPE C 82.

ETCHED ANNULUS

''p""

Fig. 5.

Etched-alloyed FET structure.

Theincreasedcomplexity of therelationship, hen.ever, results in less convenient expressions for the properties of attenuator netxvorks and is scarcely justified in vie\\- of the good agreement bekeen predictions of attenuator performance based on (2) and experirnentalll-observedresults. LAs anexample,consider the simple attenuator of Fig. 3. The attenuation is given by
Eout __ - , I =

Ro exp (XVGS)

p.
'I,,

R'

+ exp ( X V G S )

( 4 )
V~~(VOLTS)

or

Fig. 7. Comparison of R D , dependence ~ on V G S for an etched alloyed transistor with the exponential approximatioll.

where

expressed in decibels as

This relationship is plotted in Fig. 8 for the case where If the attenuator is precededand followed by amRoiRl is chosen so t h a t L = - 20 d B n-hen VGs = 0, and plifiers of zero outputimpedanceandinfiniteinput impedance, respectively, the attenuation of the output also taking - X = 0.135, in accordance with the best linear signal due to the insertion of the netn-ork may then be approximation to the curve of Fig. 7 . Experimentally

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GOSLIPZG: V O L C T O A N G T E ROLLED
I
TRANSISTOR TYPE

ATTENUATORS WITH FET'S

115

C 82.

ent valuesof attenuation at zero gate bias, are compared in Fig. 9. For lower values of series resistor the convex upwards curvature is morenoticeable,while at intermediate values the curvatureis to some extentoffset by thefasterthanexponentialincrease in thetransistor resistance, resulting in a relatively linear scale. Where the series resistor has a still larger value, resulting in evenhigherinitialattenuation,thecurvatureisconcaveupwards;since, in thiscase,theeffect of more rapid variation of drain resistance dominates. The utility of a voltage controlled attenuator, such as thosehavingalineardecibelattenuationtocontrol voltage characteristic, would be particularly marked in audio-frequency equipment where it mill yield a linear subjective loudness to control voltage relationship over substantial range. I t should also proveof value in carrier amplifiers designed to have a logarithmic response. krTENUATORCHARACTERISTICS

vGs (VOLTS)
Fig. 8. Comparison of measured ( x ) and calculated attenuation for thenetwork of Fig. 3, thelatterassuminganexponentialdependence of RDSon VGS.

A n important characteristic of a variable attenuator is the range of maximum to minimum attenuation which maybeachieved.Gosling [ 3 ] hasrelatedthis ratio to the maximum-to-minimum resistance ratio availablefromthevariableelement,the field effect transistor. If the numerically largest available voltage attenuation [defined as in (4) ] is 24,,., and the least is A m i n , then
__ =
Amin

A,,,,

(m - 1)Arnin

( 7 )_

ATTENUATION
(dB.?

where m is the ratio of maximum to minimum drainsource resistance which may be employed. Clearly, if
(m - 1).41nin

<< 1

(8)

theratioapproaches closely toitsmaximumvalue, namely m. The actual value of m which may be utilized is typically of the order of 50 for an attenuator intended to operate over the audio-frequency range. The value of minimum source-drain resistance is determined by the dimensions and construction of the transistor, whereas 0 - 2 -4 -6 -8 1 0 -12 -14 -16 -18 - 2 0 vcr (VOLTS) maximumuseableresistancedependsprimarilyupon themaximumfrequency a t lvhich theattenuator is Fig. 9. Attenuator characteristics fordifferent values of zero-bias attenuation. required to retain its accuracy, since the resistive path between source and drain is also shunted by a capaciobserved points for an actual attenuator n-ith R1chosen tor. 'This point will be discussed further subsequently. The rate of change of attenuation \\-ith control voltfor an initial attenuation of 20 dB are superimposed. age applied to the gate electrode may be obtained by I t will benotedthattheexperimentallyobserved variation of attenuation expressed in decibels is more differentiation of (4). Differentiating first n-ith respect linearly related to control voltage than the approxinlate to G theory predicts. The convex upwards curvature of the exp (a) =-____characteristic a t high control voltages is partially offset f 1 exp (a) bythemorerapidvariation of drainresistancewith control voltage a t higher values \\-here pinch-off is hence approached. The characteristics of three different 1 attenuators using the same transistor but different -1-A values of fixed series resistor, and hence yielding differ-

)!2(

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SEPTE:1IBER./OCTORF:I~
.. .

and thus since Thus

,I
=

-.
-

{I

exp exp (a))*

+ exp (a)
~

~-

(10)

[ 1 exp .i ______ (1 exp

+ (@)Iz + exp (a)

l + A - A2

(@I) 2

By using (4) to substitute an expressionin A for exp (@)

Thus the sensitivity-to-control voltage diminishes as the gate is driven toward pinch-off (negatively for an N channel device), but a t Ion- values of A tends to X, which i t mill approach closely, provided that the minimum value of A is small. For the transistors used in the attenuator characteristics shown in Fig. 9 a rate of variation of attenuation Ivith control voltage, applied to the gate, of about one decibel per volt is obtained, and this is affected hardly a t all by the value of fixed series resistor chosen, and hence the value of AI,.,in, The value of the characteristic gradient would be affected, however, if transistors having a different X were substituted. The value of X should vary directly with the resistivityof the material used t o fabricate the transistor and inversely as the crosssectional dimension of the channel. However, values of X much larger than that of the transistor characteristics in Fig. 6 are of limited use, since pinch-off voltage is inversely proportional to X, a n d , as \\-ill be shown subsequently, units of reasonably large pinch-off voltage are desirable in order that the attenuator may handle signals of reasonable magnitude without excessive distortion. As an alternative, a more rapid attenuation characteristic may be obtained by using two or more attenuator sections in cascade. If the sections are separated by suitable buffer amplifiers, such as field effect transistors in the common drain configuration, the overall attenuation is just the product of the attenuation of the individual sections. IVhen sections are cascaded directly without the use of intervening amplifiers, there is some loading of each section by that following, nhich results in additional attenuation; however, the effect is often small. Consider the case of two cascaded identical sections. If there nere no loading, the attenuation of the t1l-o sections would be, from (4)

1 4== A_--___.
The worst loading effects occur \\-hen A has its maximum value, that is, when the transistor is operating w i t h maximum gate bias. Thus, the maximum discrepancy between loaded and unloaded case is given b y

if-)

r T z x i z ; *

.
(11)

For A,,, less than 0.14 ( - 1 7 dB, approximately) thc error due to neglecting loading effects is less than one decibel.Whereloadingcannotbeneglected, (10) can be used to calculate actual attenuation for specific values of a. Since the effect of loading is very small indeed near AIni1,,the initial slope of the attenuation characteristic is verynearlydoublewhen a tn-o-sectionattenuator is used and is proportionately greater for larger numbers of sections. The maximum attenuation available is also increased; in decibel measure it is very close to the Suni of the maximum attenuation of the individual sections. Hon-ever, the ratio of maximum-to-minimum attenuationfor a multisectionnetworkdoesnotincrease 1)). quite so large a factor, due to t.he effect of loading a t A,,,,. The discrepancy can be calculated for tnw equal sections using (1 1).
DISTORTIOS

Allowing for loading effects, the actual attenuation be

x141

hence

T h e field effect transistor, even \\.hen the drain voltage is restricted to avoid pinch-off, is not a truly ohmic device and, in consequence, there is some harmonic distortion of the attenuated signal. However, tn-o circunstancescancausethedistortion to increaseconsiderably. The first, which occurs principally when the reversebiasapplied t o the gate is small,ariseswhen the drain potential moves sufficiently negatively (in the case of an Nchannel device),so that the gate potential difference is in the sense of forward rather than reverse bias and of such a magnitude that appreciable conduction occurs through the gate-to-channel junction. The apparent resistance measured at the drain then drops sharply \\-ith a consequent large increase i n attenuation by the network. Since the conduction occurs a t one peak of the wave form, it results in substantial harmonic distortion, particularly, second-harmonic. The effect is noticeable for quite small signals when the gate-to-

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C V G O O O N F A L S T E T L R T A T IO N E G S W L G N E L I : U T E A H D TORS

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source voltage is zero (Fig. 10). For small applied signal INWT SIGNAL voltage, there is little distortion, and what there is, is principally second-harmonic. However, as the signal level is increased, the point is reached where significant gate conduction occurs, and there is then a very sharp I increase in second-harmonic distortion and also in higherharmonics. As mightbeexpectedforasilicon TO device, the effect becomes noticeable when the forward FUNDAMENTAL. bias on the gate-to-channel junction is of the order of half a volt. The other cause of excess distortion arises a t t h e o t h e r extreme of bias conditions, when the drain-to-gate potential difference becomes sufficiently large for pinch-off O 05 10 20 4.0 INPUT SIGNAL (v RMS) effects t o occur. The etched junction transistors, however,withwhosepropertiesthispaperhasprimarily Fig. 10. Distortionarisingfromgateconduction. been concerned, have a relatively gentle pinch-off effect, as evidenced by the absence of an extremely sharp rise 6 I HARMONICS AS % OF OUTPUT indrain-sourceresistanceasthe pinch-off voltageis I I reached. Thus, distortion due to this cause is not likely to be very marked. It is further reduced by the fact that pinch-off effects occur primarily when the gate is strongly negatively biased. Under these conditions the resistance of the transistor may be of the same order as HARMONIC POWER the series resistor ( E ) ; and there will be little attenuation of the signal, so that the nonohmic nature of the I 1. 3 r d REACHES MAX OF 0 I drain-source channel will introduce only very slight dis! tortion. Experimentally, it is thus difficult to demon0 .2 .4 .6 .B 1 . 0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 strate pinch-off distortionwithattenuatorsbasedon V~~(VOLTS) transistors of this type, even when a large reverse bias is 11. Distortionarisingfromgateconduction (at low V O Sand ) applied to the gate. By contrast, field effect transistors Fig.pinch-off (at high V u s ) . The high values of distortion result from the use of a transistor designed primarily for amplifier and switchmadebydouble diffusion anddesignedprimarilyfor ing applications. amplifier and switching applications, pinch off sharply a t relatively low voltages and show marked pinch-off distortion. The distortion characteristics of this type of range of operating conditions arising from this effect set transistor used in a voltage divider attenuator network appropriately l0~7er, while the boundary due to forward are shown in Fig. 11. Design of attenuators using sharp biased gate effects is unaltered, and as a consequence, the pinch-off effect transistors must take into account the workingrange is morerestricted.Since X isgreater, possibility of both gate conduction and pinch-off distor- however, themagnitude of controlvoltageneeded is tion, whereas for the remote pinch-off types (etched reduced. Transistors with pinch-off voltage in the range alloy structures), if gate conduction is avoided the of 5 t o 25 volts appear to have the greatest utility in overall distortion will usually be very low. circuitsoperating at the voltage levelsnormallyenAs a result, i t is possible to establish a boundary on countered with both field effect and bipolar transistors. the characteristic of the field effecttransistoroutside A t zero-gate bias, corresponding to maximum attenuwhich the drain voltage must not be allowed to move on ation, the tolerable rms signal is not zero. It is necessary peaks of waveforms. When operated within this bound- to take account of the possibility that the gate may, in ary, the distortion introduced by the field effect transis- fact, be allowed to go slightly positive relative to the tor attenuator is very small indeed, and typically, the drain (N-channel device). As will be seen from Fig. 10, total harmonic power may be kept to less than 0.01 per- the signal at the drain may be of the order of 0.35 volt cent of the signal power at the output terminals in the rms (about 0.5 volt peak) without substantial increase case of networksusingremotepinch-offtransistors. in distortion even a t zero applied gate voltage. Since In this respect, the circuit has a marked advantageOver this is the rms voltagea t t h e d r a i n of the transistor and other voltage controlled attenuators which have been since the zero bias case corresponds to maximum attenproposed a t various times using the characteristics of uation, quite a substantial signal at the input terminal diodes or of bipolar transistors to achieve the required (of the order of 0.35/AnIi,, rms volts) can be accepted. control. However, where a higher limit on permissible input sigDevices having a lower pinch-off voltage will, as nal is required, arrangements must be made to restrict shown in Fig. 11, have the boundary on the permissible the positive-going excursion of the control voltage a p -

O/o

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plied to the gate, or alternatively, a direct bias voltage maybeaddedinseriesn-iththeinputacvoltage of such a polarity that a positive bias is applied to the drain. This will offset negative signal excursions, but is not a very satisfactory solution, since a t low attenuation settings, a very much larger fraction of the applied direct-voltage bias n-ill appear a t t h e d r a i n , a n d t h u s onset of pinch-off effects on positive signal excursions 11-ill occur a t significantlJ7 lon-er signal levels. The insulated gate field effect transistors, such as the metaloxidesemiconductortype (AIOST), have negligible gate currents, \\-hatever the polarity of the gate bias up to the point a t n-hich the gate insulation fails. In the case of transistors of this type, therefore, only the pinch-off effect boundary is significant. HoTvever, only insulated gate transistorsTvhich have sharp pinchoff a t voltages not high enough to be useful in the present application are general117 available a t present.

If R1is assumed not to be temperature dependent, then

(Yk)
*
-

= - __ 1

dRo XRo dT

T h e coefficient X is not significantly temperature depend e n t ; hence

1 dRo
~

1
~~

dR~s

R~ d~
thus
(!g)A4

R~~

aT

= a

= - cy

_~_ .

(12)

TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
Temperature effectsin field effecttransistorshave been described by Sevin [4] and Cobbold and Trofimem koff [j],amongothers. TKOeffects are sig-nificantin thepresentcase:a riseinelectron-latticeinteraction n-ith rising temperature causes a fall in carrier mobility and hence in the conductivity of the drain-source channel; while the contact potential across the gate-channel junction falls. Since the potential tending to deplete the channel is equal to the sum of externallJ- applied gate bias and the contact potential across the junction, the latter effect tends to reduce the channel resistance and is,hence,inoppositesense,totheeffect of mobility change. T o consider the latter first, the variation of resistivity of the channel may be taken into account by defining a temperature coefficient of resistivity,
cy =

- _-.

~RDS

RDS dT

This coefficient of resistivity is found to be only n-ealtly temperature-dependent and is of the order of 3 percent per degree C. The change in control voltage applied to the transistor gate Tvhich is needed t o offset the effect on the attenuator of a change in temperature may be calculated, noting that

hence, since

I n thecase of transistorhavingarelativelylarge pinch-off voltage, taking X as 0.135 volt (the value used to plot Fig. 8) and CY a s 4 percent per degree C, the gate voltage must be reduced in magnitude by 37 millivolts for every degree C: rise in the temperature of the transistor. The rate of change of contact potential of a IN junction in silicon a t room temperature is about 2 . 2 n d l i volts per degree C, and it may thus be seen t h a t t h e temperature coefficient of the device is dominated tq, the effect of mobility variations, and that, in this case, contactpotentialeffectsarealmostnegligible.Inthe case of transistors having a lower pinch-off voltage (and thus a higher value of X), the temperature coefficient of gatevoltageforconstantattenuation is smaller,and hence, the effect of contact potential variations more marked. Assuming a typical value of, say, 1 d B per volt control characteristic for the attenuation network, the temperature coefficient of gate voltage (at constant attenuation) calculated above n-ould correspond to a temperature coefficient of attenuation (at fixed gate voltage) of 0.037 d B per degree C for a transistor having X =0.135. For higher values of X, the temperature coefficient of gate voltage would, as indicated, be smaller, but due to the generally sharper control characteristic of the network, the rate of change of attenuation n-ith temperature may be little less. In very many applications, this degree of temperature dependence n-ould be negligible. If the fixed resistor in series with the field effect device (X1) has a temperature coefficient similar to that of the transistor, the apparent temperature coefficient of the attenuator is reduced; and indeed, if the two coefficients \\-ere identical and the resistor and transistor were at the same temperature, then the attenuator would be temperature independent. Such a state of affairs nlight be approached if both resistor and transistor \\-ere fornled adjacent in the same nlonolithic microcircuit, but normall),, a modest reduction in temperature sensitivity must be accepted, The fixed resistor may be a silicon resistor, wire-wound in a metal (such as nickel) which

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has a suitable temperature coefficient, or a second effect transistor, operated with a fixed bias. HIGH-FREQUEKCY EFFECTS

field

of KO or of interelectrode capacitances. Such transistors (fabricated by double diffusion) are available, but usually have a rather low pinch-off voltage, limiting the signal handling capacity of the attenuator. IMPEDANCE LEVELS OF ATTENUATORS

Signal-frequencyvoltagescannotbeallowedtoappear at the gate of the transistor, otherwise the attenuation of the network will be modified by feedback effects. Thus, the gate terminal can be taken to be at a low impedance to the source terminal so far as signalfrequency currents are concerned. Thus, both the gatedrain and the gate-source capacitances effectively shunt the output terminals of the attenuator. The sum of these two is typically from five to ten picofarads with devices of thetypedescribed,although, of course,theyare of the both strongly dependent on the dimensions device. The time constant at the output of the attenuator is thus seen to be (assuming that the network is driven by a signal source of negligible interval impedance):

I t is frequently a requirement of the design of variable attenuators using passive elements that the input and output impedance of the network shall be constant, regardless of the attenuation setting. This condition is of the attenuator netobviously not met in the case worksdescribedhere. I t wouldbepossible to design more complicated networks, containing additional transistors, which have this property; however, this would require very close control over the variation of transistor drain to source resistance with control voltage, such as is not at present possible with existing production techniques. A simpler solution, therefore, is both to precede andfollow the attenuator network with suitablebufferamplifiers,suchascommon-draincon7- = ( C G D CDS)RA nected field effect transistor stages, designed to give the required input and output resistances. and, hence, the angular frequency a t which the output The attenuators described in this paper are of relafrom the attenuator has dropped by three decibels may tively high impedance, mainly because the transistors be shown to be which are most suitable to circuits of this type, by vir1 1 tue of their remote pinch-off characteristics, operate best over a resistance range from a few kilohms to the order of onemegohm.Althoughtransistorshavinga where A. is the attenuation at very low frequency. channel resistance lower by as much as one and a half This expression might be taken to imply that the cut- orders of magnitude are available, they have sharp off frequency is lowest when the gateof the transistor is pinch-off characteristics, typically a t two or three volts at its most extreme negative bias, giving the maximum gate bias, and are, thus, not well-suited to the present value of A . However, the gate-drain capacitanceis volt- application. Thus, for this reason also, the use of the age dependent, decreasing with increasing gate reverse relatively high impedance attenuator networks folbias, and this offsets the fall in w,, due to increasing A . lowed byimpedancetransformingbufferamplifiers if Sincethelawrelating C C D and V c a depends on the necessary, seems preferable to any attempt to design nature of the junction (whether abrupt or gradual) and lom-impedance attenuators directly. since the effect on wco is modified by COS,the effect preCOKCLVSIOXS sents certain complexities in computation, but in general, does not cancel out variation in attenuation due to Field effect transistors can be made (and indeed, are change of A to any marked extent, and the least value commerciallyavailable)whichshowadependence of of wco does, indeed, correspond to the maximum value drain-source resistance on gate-source voltage which is of A . As an example of the typical values of cutoff fre- much closer to exponential than to that predicted by the quency which may be obtained with currently available simple Shockley theory, and in particular, which do not transistors, the attenuator whosecharacteristicshave show the sharp increase of resistance predicted by the been plotted in Fig. 7 has a value of R1 of 90 kQ, a n d a t theory(andfoundexperimentallyintransistors of a maximum gain, the output has fallen by 3 d B a t347 kHz geometry close tothatassumedbyShockley)asthe signal frequency. Higher cutoff frequencies could be ob- gate voltage approaches the pinch-off value. Such tained with the same transistor by the use of a lower transistors may be described as remote pinch-off value of R1with, however, an increase in the value of types, by analogy with the remote cutoff (or variable Amin and, hence, a reduction in the available range of mu) thermionic tetrode, which has characteristics, attenuation. For example,if K were reduced by a factor similar, in certain respects to those of the transistor. of ten, the cutoff frequency would increase by a slightly Field effect transistors of the remote pinch-off type smaller factor (since maximum gain would increase have superior properties for application in certain somewhat). classes of circuit-among them, the attenuator circuit, in Substantiallyhigherworkingfrequenciesmightbe the form of a simple voltage divider described in this attained with transistors having appreciably lower value paper. Among the advantages resulting from their use

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.kc-13, s o . 5

SEPTERIB~:R/OClOHE~~

are the virtual elimination of signal distortion due to ACKXOWLEDGMENT pinch-off effects and an approximately linear relationhluch of the experimental n-ork on which this paper is ship between the decibel attenuation of the network and based \vas carried out by M . X. Hijazi and A. N.Morthecontrolvoltage.Thus,theattenuatorsare well- gan. The author n-ould also like to acknowledge the assuited to use in speech and music circuits without sig- sistance of SemitronLtd.,whofabricatedtransistors nificant impairment of signal quality and give a n a p - having the required characteristics for the present purproximately linear relationship between the control voltpose. age applied and the subjective loudness of the signal REFERENCES over an appreciable range. [ l ] W , Gosling, Circuit applications of FETs, Part 111, Xpplications The attenuators can beused a t low radio frequencies below pinch-off, British Communications and Electronics, vol. 11, x\-ithout substantialerror,orhigherfrequenciespropp. 856-858, December 1964. 1 ; . Shocklev. A uniDolar field effect transistor. Proc. I R E . vided that some degradation of performance in other 121 1 vol. 40, pp. i365-1376: November 1952. respects can be accepted. The effect of temperature is [3] n. Gosling, Field Effect Transistor Applications. Sew York: 1964, ch. 5. such that the control voltage need only be changed by a [4] IViley, L. J.,,Sevin,Behaviour of FET characteristicswithtemperasmall fraction of a volt per degree to balance thermal ture, Tech. Rept., Texas Instruments Inc., 1963. R. S.C. Cobbold and F. N. Trofimenkoff. Theorv and aoulicaeffects, and a still lower temperature dependence can be 151 tion of the FET, Part I , Theory anddccharacteristics,! Proc. achieved by the use of compensation methods. IEE., vol. 111, pp. 1981-1992, January 1964.
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I .

A Magnetic Tape Wear

Absfract-This papercoversthedesign of magnetic tape wear simulators for high-resolution (wide-band) tape and general instrumentation type tape. Validation was performed by comparing tape wear on each simulator to tape wear on tape transports of each type (wide-band and general purpose). Tape wear on the simulators as well as on transports was judged by the degradation in the dropout characteristics. Recommendations were presented for specification tape wear requirements based upon simulator use.

Simulator

conducting an investigation in the field of magnetictaperecordingdirectedtowardbasicimprovement of therecordingmedium,Theknowledge gained in the investigation is being used by the Bureau of Ships in the development of new magnetic tapes and tape recorders meeting the needs of the military and civiliangovernmentagencies as well as for updating existing specifications. In addition, the results of these studies serve as a basis for other Laboratory studies of specialized applications and to update IRIG/T\VG Recorder/Reproducer Standards (106-60). The proManuscript received June 17, 1965, published in the.1965 IEEE International Convention Record, vol. 13, pt. 11. The opmions or assertions contained in this paper are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Naval Service a t large. S. Naval Applied Science Laboratory, The authors are with theU. Brooklyn, N. Y .

IXTRODUCTION HE U. S. NAVAL Applied Science Laboratory is

gram describedin thispaper isconcerned\\-ith tape wear, which is considered to be a prime problem area i n instrumentation or data recording. In the initial stage of this investigation, pilot. experiments usingseveralabrasiontechniquesonalimited number of tape samples yielded variations in ranking and indicated a lack of correlation with tape wear based upon claims of various tape manufacturers [ 11. I t was, therefore, deemed necessary to obtain tape wear rankings under actual use with typical instrumentation tape transports.The use of realistic rankings under controlled laboratory experiments would enable better judgment as to the adequacy of a particular abrasive method or other technique for use in rating tapes with respect to wear. By employing two widely used taperecorders,an Ampex FR-100 and a Mincom CM-107, with generalpurpose instrumentation tapes ( ; inch wide) and highresolution tapes (+-inch wide), respectively, relative tape wear rankings of various tape types were obtained [ l ] , [2]. The rankings were based upon the degradation of the dropout characteristics, an important performance characteristicininstrumentationanddatarecording. Dropouts were measured during the initial recording, and then on subsequent replays by methodology currently described Interim in Federal Specification

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