EE231: Electronics-1

Lecture 13-15
Chapter-3
Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
 Transistor – A brief History
• The invention of Transistor was the beginning of a
technological revolution in the field of electronics
• Invented in 1947 by Dr. William Shockley, Dr. John
Bardeen, Dr. Walter H. Brattain
– All three went on to win a Nobel prize in 1956 for this
contribution
• In comparison to vacuum tube triode (a three terminal
device), transistor offered
– Smaller size
– Lightweight
– No warm up period required as was in the case of vacuum
tubes
 Transistor types & uses
• Two basic transistors are
– BJT – Bipolar junction transistor
– FET – Field effect Transistor
• BJT is used in two broad areas
– As a linear amplifier to boost or amplify an electrical
signal
– As an electronic switch
• Amplifiers are devices that increase the voltage,
current or power level
– Such devices have at least three terminals with one
controlling the flow between two other terminals
 Transistor Construction
• A three layer or three terminal
device consisting of
– Two n and one p type material
sandwiched in between the two
n type materials
• NPN transistor
– Or two p and one n type material
sandwiched in between the two
p type materials
• PNP transistor
• The three terminals are labeled
as
– E – emitter
– B – base
– C – collector
• Two junctions are present in
every BJT device
• The emitter layer is heavily
doped
• The base is lightly doped and
very thin compared to emitter
and collector regions
• The collector is moderately
doped
• The outer layers have widths
much greater than the
sandwiched p- or sandwiched n-
type material
 Schematic Symbol of Transistor
• The arrow head on emitter points towards
the conventional direction of the current flow
 Transistor Operation
• The emitter-base junction is forward biased with collector open
– Smaller depletion region at Base-Emitter junction
• The collector-base junction is reverse biased
– Larger depletion region at Base-Collector junction with emitter open
• Applying both bias voltages sets
one pn junction in forward bias
mode and other in reverse bias
mode
• Majority carriers from emitter
diffusing in to thin and lightly
doped base do not find enough
electrons to combine with
– Hence base current IB is small in
quantity
– And offers high resistance due to its
low conductivity (lightly doped)
– IB is typically in microamperes
• The negative polarity at collector
will start pulling the excess of holes
that diffuse from emitter in to base
– Thus, major portion of emitter
current goes into collector
– IC and IE is typically in the orders of
milliamperes
• Applying KCL to the transistor
 IE = I C + IB
• However collector current has two components
– Minority current component called leakage current (ICO)
that existed even when emitter was open
– Majority current component which is contributed by the
current coming from emitter
 IC = ICmajority + ICOminority
• The leakage current is temperature sensitive and will
vary with temperature
– Typical range for leakage current is micro or nanoamperes
 Transistor Configurations
• Transistor is used in three different configurations
when it comes to amplification actions
1. Common-Base Configuration
2. Common-Emitter Configuration
3. Common-Collector Configuration
• In all of these configurations, during normal or
linear mode of operation,
– Base-emitter junction will always be forward biased
– Base-collector junction will always be reverse biased
 Common-Base Configuration
• Base is common to both input and output or
we can say base is the terminal that is
grounded

Input Characteristics
 Common-Base: Collector
Characteristics Curves
• 3 regions of interest
• Cut-off region
– Both junctions are reverse biased
or emitter is open
– Only current that flows is a small
leakage current from collector to
base called ICO or ICBO (collector
to base current with emitter
Open)
• Saturation region
– Both junctions are forward biased
in this region
– IC is not under control of IE but
VCB
• Active Region (CB reverse biased) • Transistor is mostly used in active
– VCB has negligible effect on region for amplification purposes
magnitude of IC • Cut-off and saturation regions are
– IE controls the value of IC used for switching applications
– Any increase in IE causes a
significant increase in IC
 Parameters Controlling IC
Saturation Region Active Region

Control of IE on IC X 
Control of VCB on IC  X
• The input characteristics of a transistor closely
resembles that of a forward biased diode
• Once the transistor is in the ON state then for
all analysis purposes we can consider VBE to
be 0.7 V

Piecewise-linear Simplified equivalent model

equivalent
 Alpha (α)
• Ratio of collector to emitter current

• Typical range is from 0.90 to 0.998

• Total current is

• For an AC input, the point of operation moves up and down of

characteristic curves
– The AC alpha is called common-base, short circuit amplification factor
αdc = αac for most
applications
 Transistor Amplifying Action
• The AC input resistance measured from common-base input
characteristics is quite small
– 10 to 100Ω
• The output resistance is measured by the collector characteristic
curves
– This will always be a very high value
– 50kΩ to 1MΩ
• The difference in the input and out put resistance is due to forward
bias (low-resistance) at input and reverse bias (high-resistance) at
output
• Common base can amplify a voltage from 50 to 300 times
• The current amplification for common-base BJT is always less than 1
as α = IC /IE is always less than 1
– Hence, no current amplification in common-base configuration
 Common-Emitter Configuration
• Emitter is common to both input
(base-emitter) and output
(collector-emitter) or emitter is the
terminal that has been grounded

VCE effect on IB is
negligible and IB
depends on VBE
IB = IE – IC
VCC↑ ⇒ VCE↑ ⇒ IC↑
⇒ IB↓ but negligibly.

Input Characteristics
 Common-Emitter Collector
Characteristic Curves
• In normal operation or active region
– Base-emitter junction is forward biased
– Base-collector junction is reverse
biased
• Collector is at a higher positive potential
than base
– This reverse biases the base-collector junction
– Once again
• IE = IC + IB
• Curves are not straight or horizontal
as in they were in the case of common
base
– VCE↑ ⇒ push on the holes increases
⇒ IC↑
 Saturation Region
• Both junctions are forward biased
– VCE increases as supply voltage VCC is
increased
• Any increase in IB will not cause a
corresponding increase in IC
• IC will only increase with an increase in
VCE
VCE – VBE – VCB = 0
• Base to collector current starts to flow
which is opposite of IC VCB = VCE – VBE
• Hence, some of the base current does not
get into emitter and does not get
amplified but rather gets wasted in
collector
• Hence IB acts to saturate the current
amplification and IC can only increase
with an increase in VCE
• Active Region
– As soon as VCE crosses 0.7 V or becomes
greater than VBE, base-collector junction is
reverse biased
– Region to the right of saturation and
above cut-off
• Base-emitter junction is forward biased VCE – VBE – VCB = 0
• Base-collector junction is reverse biased
– Curves are not horizontal VCB = VCE – VBE
– Both VCE and IB will effect the magnitude
of IC
– The KVL equation suggests that for a given
value of VBE, if VCB increases than VCE also
increases
– This region is mostly used for voltage,
current and power amplification
 VCE = VCB + VBE
 Collector-base resistance is high, hence VCE
will also be high
 Note that in common emitter, output is taken
from collector to emitter
• rc = base-collector resistance
• rb = base-emitter resistance
 rc >> rb
• Gain = Vout/Vin = ICrc/IErb
• IC ≈ IE
– Gain = rc/rb = high resistance divided by low resistance
– Gain = high
– Hence Vout >> Vin
– If a resistance is attached in series with the collector and KVL is applied in
output loop then we shall notice that
• The amplified output produced by a common-emitter is always inverted
and 180 degree out of phase with the input
 Cut-Off Region (High voltage & low
current)
• IB = 0
• A current flows from collector to emitter i.e,
ICEO (collector to emitter current with base
open)
• This has a magnitude greater than cut-off
current in common-base mode
– This can be proved by developing a mathematical
relation between ICEO and ICBO
 Parameters Controlling IC
Saturation Region Active Region

Control of IB on IC X 
Control of VCE on IC  
• Once the transistor is in the ON state then for
all analysis purposes we can consider VBE to
be 0.7 V for any value of IB
 Beta (β)
• In the DC models, the levels for IC and IB are
related by a quantity called beta
• Mathematically
– βdc = IC / IB = DC current gain
– IC and IB are determined at a particular point on
characteristic curves
– β typically ranges from 50 to over 400
– Hence, for a device with a β of 200, the collector
current is 200 times the magnitude of base current
• On data sheets, βdc is usually included as hFE
• For AC inputs, the AC beta is defined as
– βac = ∆IC / ∆IB with VCE = constant
• Formal name for βac is common-emitter forward
current amplification factor
– Normally referred to as hfe data sheets

βac = βdc every where

Important Mathematical Relations
• β = IC/IB
• α = IC/IE
• β = α/(1- α)
• α = β/(β+1)
• ICEO ≈ βICBO
• IE = (β + 1)IB
 Common-Collector Configuration
• Same characteristics as that of common-emitter
• Output characteristics for a common-collector
are a plot of IE versus VCE for a range of values of
IB
• Circuit configuration is almost the same as that
of a common-emitter but output is taken from
the load connected to emitter
• Collector is common to both input and output as
it is directly connected to ground
– Hence connected to both input and output
• Signal sees high impedance at input
• Output impedance is low (Base-emitter junction)
– Hence no voltage amplification
– Output voltage is taken across emitter and is
almost a replica of input voltage
– Output voltage replicates any change that
occurs in input voltage
• For this reason a common collector amplifier is
also called an emitter follower, since it follows
the input voltage
• IE is the output current controlled by a small
base current
– IE is the largest of all the currents in a transistor
– Therefore, common-collector provides the
greatest amplification in terms of current
 Limits of Operation
• For each transistor a certain
region of operation on
characteristic curves will ensure
that maximum ratings are not
being exceeded
• The figure shows characteristic
for a particular transistor with
 ICmax = 50mA
 VCEO or VCEmax = 20V
 Breakdown of C-B junction beyond
VCE max
• VCEsat specifies the minimum
VCE that can be applied without
falling into non-linear region of
saturation
• Maximum dissipation level is defined as
– PCmax = VCEIC
• For example, in the curves shown,
collector power dissipation was
specified at 300mW
• The curve for power dissipation can be
plotted as
– At any point on the characteristics, the
product of VCE and IC must be equal to
300mW

At ICmax

Joining these 3 points can give

you a rough estimate of actual
curve. More points mean more
At VCEmax
accurate curve. Shaded area on
the characteristics should be
avoided
ICE in midrange of
25mA
• Cutoff region should also be avoided if output
signal is to have minimum distortion
• In cutoff IC = ICEO
• If characteristics curves are not available then
one must make sure that the following ranges
are strictly followed

• For common-base characteristics, maximum

power curve is defined as