Hello ,
What is the main importance of a source follower?

 

School work?

 

A source follower is an amplification circuit that outputs the same voltage level as the input voltage level.

 

Not a school work....but had a curiosity....

 

A source follower can take in a high impedance signal and output it at a lower impedance, increased current. This is very good way to enable a signal to drive other parts without getting loaded down and getting a worse signal to noise ratio. There will be a DC voltage difference from using any transistor with a voltage, gate to source, required to turn it on. However, a jfet operated at its inherent idle current (Idss) can give you exactly the same signal out, including the DC component.

 

The high impedance of a FET makes it ideal as a voltage amplifier. It can be used to interface with inputs of low impedance and inputs of relatively high impedance without loading the source and therefore without losing voltage gain.

 

It's like a buffer op amp.

Let's say you have 12 volt source, and you need to power some device of an unknown impedance, for example a motor, but the motor needs 3 volts, not 12.

You make a voltage divider with a 1k resistor and 3k resistor and the voltage across the 1k resistor gives you 3 volts. But if you try connecting that 3 volt output to the motor, it will mess everything up because now the motor is in parallel with the 1k resistor.

The source follower fixes this problem. The source follower just transfers the voltage from the 1k resistor to the motor without messing up your original circuit, so the motor gets its 3 volts.

 

Puzzled by your post because I did not try to reply to the thread! Just browsing this and several others following a search using ‘follower’ on my iPad with Safari. Perhaps it’s due to my using ‘Open in background’, something I’ve not tried before?

 

Note the date 2014...