EST 130 Basics of Electrical &Electronics Engineering

Module IV

Bipolar Junction Transistors

 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR (BJT)

 BJT is a two junction device with either a P-type semiconductor

sandwiched between two N-type semiconductor materials (NPN
transistor) or an N-type semiconductor sandwiched between two
P-type semiconductor materials (PNP transistor).
 It can be considered as two diodes connected back-to-back.
 There are three regions – Emitter, Base and Collector.

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BJT Contd….

 The middle region is called the BASE (transport region), the

other regions are EMITTER (region which emits charge carriers)
& COLLECTOR (region which collects charge carriers).
 Base region is the thinner one and is the least doped region.
Base separates the emitter and collector regions.
 Emitter has moderate size and is the region with highest
doping. The function of emitter is to emit or inject electrons
(holes in the case of PNP transistor) into the base.
 Collector is doped moderately and is having the largest size.
The collector collects the carriers that are coming from the
base.
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BJT Contd….

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 BJT Contd….
The emitter and collector junctions can be biased in four
different ways

Sl. Conditio Emitter jn. Collector jn. Region of

No. n operatio
n
1 FR Forward Reverse Active
Biased Biased

2 FF Forward Forward Saturatio

Biased Biased n

3 RR Reverse Reverse Cutoff

Biased Biased

4 RF Reverse Forward Inverted

Biased Biased

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 Transistor action
NPN transistor

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 NPN transistor contd…
 For a transistor to work in active region, the emitter
base region is forward biased and the collector base
region is reversed. In the diagram VBE forward biases
the emitter junction and VCB reverse biases the
collector junction. The forward bias voltage VBE is
small as compared to the reverse bias voltage VCC.

 The negative voltage applied at the emitter region

repel the electrons towards the base region. They
cross the emitter base junction and reaches the base
region. Similarly the holes present in the base region
reaches the emitter. This causes emitter current IE

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 NPN transistor contd…
 Few of the electrons reaching the base region recombine
with the holes present in the region. This may cause a
reduction in the number of carriers in the base region. But
these carriers are compensated by the base current. Again
the base region is very thin and lightly doped, it has a few
holes to recombine with the electrons. The base current
(IB)is very small compared to the emitter current (IE).
 The reversed bias of the collector region applies high
attractive force on the electrons and a large number of
these carriers will diffuse across the reverse bias junction
and reach the collector. This carriers contribute the
collector current αIE.
 Minority carriers (holes) present in the collector will also
contribute to the collector current by crossing towards the
base region (ICBO).

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NPN transistor contd…
 Thus the voltage between two terminals controls
the current through the third terminal which is
the basic principle of BJT.

 Applying Kirchoff's current law to the transistor as if it

were a single node IE = IC + IB

 The collector current comprises two components - The

majority carrier current and minority carrier current.
The minority carrier current is also called leakage
current - ICBO and the majority carrier component is the
fraction of emitter current reaching the collector(αIE) .
IC = αIE + ICBO

where α is the common base current gain α < 1

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 NPN transistor contd…
 If we neglect the leakage current

IC = αIE

ie.,

 In a transistor, signal is transferred from low resistance

region (forward biased junction) to a high resistance
region (reverse biased junction) which constitutes
terms transfer resistor and hence the name transistor.

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Configurations of BJT

•Common Base configuration

•Common Emitter configuration
•Common Collector configuration

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Common Base (CB) configuration
 In CB configuration, the base is made common to both input and
the output.

 The signal is applied between the base and emitter and

the output is developed between the collector and base.
 Transistor works in the active region.
VBE forward biases the emitter base junction
VCB reverse biases the collector junction.
For CB configuration: IE = IC + IB ........................(1)

IC = αIE + ICBO ...............(2)

Prof. Ajitha S S, Dept.of ECE,

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 Common Base Current
Gain
 Current gain is the ratio of output current to
input current
Common Base dc current gain

α is close to unity
ie., Collector current of a transistor is almost equal to
the emitter current

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Common Emitter (CE) configuration
 In CE configuration, the emitter
is made common to both input
and output.
 The signal is applied between
the base and the emitter and the
output is developed between the
collector and emitter.
 Transistor works in the active
region.
VBE forward biases the emitter base
junction.
VCE reverse biases the collector junction.

 DC current gain

 β range typically from 20 to 500

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Common Collector(CC) configuration

 Collector terminal is
common to both input
and output.
 Input is applied
between base and
collector and output is
taken between emitter
and collector.
 Also known as emitter
follower.
 CC current gain

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Relation between α, β
andγ

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 Relation between α, β and γ
contd…
Relation between γ and β

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 Relation between α, β and γ
contd…

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 Current relations in different
transistor configurations

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 Early Effect or Base-width Modulation

 This is named after James

M. Early
 When the reverse bias
voltage applied across
the collector-base
junction width of the
depletion region
increases.
 The number of charge
carriers moving away
•Since the doping concentration of base region is much
from the collector and
lesser than that of collector region, the penetration of
base sides are equal.
depletion region into base is much deeper than in the
collector region. This reduces the effective base width.

•This modulation of effective base width by collector

voltage is called base-width modulation or Early
effect. Prof. Ajitha S S, Dept.of ECE,
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 Early Effect or Base-width Modulation

Base narrowing has two consequences that affect the current:

 There is a lesser chance of recombination within the narrow
base region.
The charge gradient is increased across the base, and
consequently, the current of minority carriers injected across
the collector-base junction increases, which net current is
called ICBO

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 Transistor Input-Output Characteristics

Common Emitter
Configuration

Experimental set-up:

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 Transistor CE Characteristics contd…

Input characteristics:
 It is the graph plotted between
the input voltage VBE and the input
current IB for constant values of
output voltage VCE.
 Base current is small upto certain
value of input voltage. The voltage
at which the base current starts
increasing sharply is called knee
voltage or cut-in voltage (0.7V for
Si and 0.3V for Ge)
 As VCE is increased the curve shifts
downwards due to the increase in
depletion width of base region.

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 Transistor Input Characteristics

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 Transistor Output Characteristics

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Output Characteristics contd….
 It is the graph plotted between the output voltage V CE
and the output current Ic for constant values of output
current IB.
 It has three regions of operation, cut-off region, active
region and saturation region.
 In cut-off region both emitter-base junction and
collector-base are reverse biased.
 In the active region IB is kept constant for each curve
and Ic increases slowly as VCE increases. Here E-B
junction is forward biased and C-B junction is reverse
biased.

We know that current gain

That is β increases with VCE in active region of

operation.
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Output Characteristics contd…
 When VCE falls below a few tenth of a volt, IC
decreases rapidly as VCE decreases. At this point
the collector-base junction also becomes forward
biased. The transistor is working in saturation
region. Here Ic no longer depends on input
current IB.
 It the active region the collector current Ic is β
times greater than the base current. Thus, small
input current IB causes larger output current Ic.
 When IB is zero collector current is equal to the
collector-emitter leakage current ICEO
 In the active region Ic increases slowly as VCE
increases.

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Output Characteristics contd….

Prof. Ajitha S S, Dept.of ECE,

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 Early Effect contd…

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