On December 23, 1947, however, the electronics industry was to

experience the advent of a completely new direction of interest

and development. It was on the afternoon of this day that Dr. S.
William Shockley, Walter H. Brattain, and John Bardeen
demonstrated the amplifying action of the first transistor at the
Bell Telephone Laboratories
The advantages of this three-terminal
solid-state device:

• smaller and light weight

• no heater requirement or heater loss
• rugged construction
• more efficient since less power was absorbed by the device
• instantly available for use
• requiring no warm-up period
• lower operating voltages
• emitter layer is heavily doped,
• base and collector lightly doped
• The outer layers have widths much greater than the sandwiched p- or n-type
• material.
• doping of the sandwiched layer is also considerably less than that of the outer
layers (typically, 1:10 or less).
Simplified block diagrams and circuit symbols of (a) npn and (b) pnp
bipolar transistors.
One p–n junction of a transistor is reverse-biased, whereas the other
is forward biased
One p–n junction of a transistor is reverse-biased, whereas the other
is forward biased
Majority and minority carrier flow of a pnp transistor

Since the sandwiched n-type material is very thin and has a low conductivity, a very small
number of these carriers will take this path of high resistance to the base terminal
• The magnitude of the base current is typically on the order of microamperes, as compared to milli-
amperes for the emitter and collector currents

• The larger number of these majority carriers will diffuse across the reverse-biased junction into the p-
type material connected to the collector terminal
 Applying Kirchhoff’s current law to
the transistor of as if it were a single
node, we obtain

• The collector current comprises two components—current due to the conduction of majority and the
minority carriers

• The minority-current component is called the leakage current and is given the symbol 𝑰𝑪𝑶 (𝑰𝑪 current with
emitter terminal Open)

• 𝑰𝑪 is measured in milli-amperes
• and 𝑰𝑪𝑶 is measured in microamperes or nano-amperes and temperature sensitive
 Mode of operation of a BJT

MODE E-B JUNCTION C-B JUNCTION USE

Forward- Active Forward biased Reverse biased Normal amplifier
(most often used)
Cut-off Reverse biased Reverse biased Open switch
Saturation Forward biased Forward biased Closed switch
Reverse-Active Reverse biased Forward biased Low gain amplifier
(rarely used)
Common Base configuration
The input set for the common-base amplifier relates an input current (𝑰𝑬 ) to an input
voltage (𝑽𝑩𝑬 ) for various levels of output voltage (𝑽𝑪𝑩 ): Input Characteristics
The output set relates an output current (𝑰𝑪 ) to an output
voltage (𝑽𝑪𝑩 ) for various levels of input current (𝑰𝑬 )
 In the active region the base–emitter junction is forward-biased, whereas the collector–
base junction is reverse-biased.
emitter current increases above
zero, the collector current
increases to a magnitude
essentially equal to that of the
emitter current as determined
by the basic transistor-current
relations.

Almost negligible effect of 𝑽𝑪𝑩

on the collector current for the
active region

Relationship between 𝐈𝐄 and 𝐈𝐂

in the active region is given by
The cutoff region is defined as that region where the collector current is 0 A, thus
in the cutoff region the base–emitter and collector–base junctions of a transistor
are both reverse-biased

The saturation region is defined as that region of the characteristics to the left
of 𝑉𝐶𝐵 = 0 𝑉.

Note the exponential increase in collector current as the voltage VCB increases
toward 0 V.

In the saturation region the base–emitter and collector–base junctions are

forward-biased
In the active region Emitter base junction is forward biased and the
collector base junction is reverse biased
• In the dc mode the levels of 𝑰𝑪 and 𝑰𝑬 due to the majority carriers are related by a
quantity called alpha
𝑰𝑪
𝜶𝒅𝒄 =
𝑰𝑬
• where 𝑰𝑪 and 𝑰𝑬 are the levels of current at the point of operation. Characteristics
suggests 𝜶𝒅𝒄 = 𝟏
• For practical devices 𝜶𝒅𝒄 ~0.90 to 0.998
𝑰𝑪 = 𝜶 𝑰𝑬 + 𝑰𝑪𝑩𝑶 (holds good in active region)

• For 𝑰𝑬 = 𝟎; 𝑰𝑪 = 𝑰𝑪𝑩𝑶 (Reverse saturation current )

This current is too small , overlaps with horizontal axis

• When 𝑰𝑬 increses, collector current in creases in the manner

𝑰𝑪 = 𝜶 𝑰𝑬 where 𝑰𝑪𝑩𝑶 is small
COMMON-EMITTER CONFIGURATION
Base characteristics or In-put characteristics

• The input characteristics are a plot of the input current (𝑰𝑩 ) versus the input voltage
(𝑽𝑩𝑬 ) for a range of values of output voltage (𝑽𝑪𝑬 )
Collector characteristics or Out-put characteristics

• the magnitude of 𝑰𝑩 is in
microamperes, compared to milli-
amperes of 𝑰𝑪

• The curves of 𝑰𝑩 are not as horizontal

as those obtained for 𝑰𝑬
in the common-base configuration,
indicating that the collector-to-emitter
voltage will influence the magnitude of
the collector current.

• Output characteristics are a plot of the output current (𝑰𝑪 ) versus output voltage
(𝑽𝑪𝑬 ) for a range of values of input current (𝑰𝑩 )
• Output characteristics are a plot of the output current (𝑰𝑪 ) versus output voltage
(𝑽𝑪𝑬 ) for a range of values of input current (𝑰𝑩 )

• the magnitude of 𝑰𝑩 is in microamperes, compared to milli-amperes of 𝑰𝑪

• The curves of 𝑰𝑩 are not as horizontal as those obtained for 𝑰𝑬 in the common-base
configuration, indicating that the collector-to-emitter voltage will influence the
magnitude of the collector current.
• The active region of the common-emitter configuration can be employed for voltage,
current, or power amplification

• In the active region of a common-emitter amplifier, the base–emitter junction is forward-

biased, whereas the collector–base junction is reverse-biased

• The cutoff region for the common-emitter configuration is not as well defined as for the
common-base configuration
 If 𝑰𝑩 = 𝟎 and substitute a typical value of 𝜶 = 𝟎. 𝟗𝟗𝟔, the resulting collector
current is the following:

If 𝑰𝑪𝑩𝑶 = 𝟏𝒎𝑨, the resulting collector current with 𝑰𝑩 = 𝟎 would be 𝟐𝟓𝟎 × 𝟏𝝁𝑨 =
𝟎. 𝟐𝟓 𝒎𝑨 (as reflected in the characteristics)

For linear (least distortion) amplification purposes, cutoff for the common-emitter configuration will
be defined by 𝑰𝑪 = 𝑰𝑪𝑬𝑶
In the dc mode (large signal) the levels of 𝑰𝑪 and 𝑰𝑩 are related by a quantity
called beta and defined by the following equation

• For practical devices the level of 𝛽 typically ranges from about 50 to over 400,
with most in the midrange.

• The parameter 𝛽 reveals the relative magnitude of one current with respect to
the other.

• For a device with a 𝛽 of 200, the collector current is 200 times the magnitude of
the base current.
COMMON-COLLECTOR CONFIGURATION
Common-collector configuration
used for impedance-matching
purposes
• For all practical purposes, the output characteristics of the common-collector configuration
are the same as for the common-emitter configuration.

• For the common-collector configuration the output characteristics are a plot of 𝑰𝑬 versus
𝑽𝑪𝑬 for a range of values of 𝑰𝑩 .

• The input current, therefore, is the same for both the common-emitter and common-
collector characteristics.

• The horizontal voltage axis for the common-collector configuration is obtained by simply
changing the sign of the collector-to-emitter voltage of the common-emitter characteristics.

• Finally, there is an almost unnoticeable change in the vertical scale of 𝑰𝑪 of the common-
emitter characteristics if 𝑰𝑪 is replaced by 𝑰𝑬 for the common-collector characteristics
Relationship between 𝜷 and 𝜶
Relationship between 𝜷 and 𝜶