02A Lesson Proper for Week 8

History
During the period 1904-1947, the vacuum tube was undoubtedly the electronic
device of interest and development. In 1904, the vacuum-tube diode was introduced by
J.A. Fleming. Shortly thereafter, in 1906, Lee De Frost added a third element, called the
control grid, to the vacuum diode, resulting to the first amplifier, the triode. In the following
years, radio and television provided great stimulation to the tube industry. In the early 1930s
the fourth element tetrode and five-element pentode gained prominence in the electron tube
industry. In the years to follow, the industry became one primary importance ad rapid
advances were made in design, manufacturing techniques, high-power and high-frequency
applications and miniaturization.

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 say that Walter H. Brattain and John Bardeen demonstrated the amplifying action of the
first transistor at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. The advantage of this three terminal
solid-state device over the tube was immediately obvious. It was smaller and lightweight;
had no heater requirement or heater loss; had rugged construction was more efficient since
less power was absorbed by the device itself; it was instantly available for use, requiring no
warm-up period; and low operating voltage were possible.

TRANSISTORS
a transistor is a three terminal device that regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a
switch or a gate for signals. The transistor is a three-layer semiconductor device consisting
of either two n- and one p-type layers of material or two p- and one n-type layers of
material. The former is called an npn transistor, while the latter is called a pnp transistor.

The abbreviation BJT, from bipolar junction transistor, is often applied to this three terminal
device. The term bipolar reflects the fact that holes and electrons participate in the injection
process into the oppositely polarized material.

Why do we need Transistors?

Suppose that you have a FM receiver which grabs the signal you want. The received signal
will be obviously week due to the disturbances if would face during its journey. Now if this
signal is read as it is, you cannot get a fair output. Hence we need to amplify the signal.
Amplification means increasing the signal strength. The transistor also acts as a switch to
choose between available options. It also regulates the incoming current and voltage of the
signals.

CONSTRUCTION OF A TRANSISTOR
The transistor is a three terminal solid state device which is formed by connecting two
diodes back to back. Hence is has two PN junctions. Three terminal are drawn two types of
transistors. They are the PNP and NPN which means an N type material between two P
type and the other and the other type is P type material between two N type respectively.
Emitter

• The left side of the above shown structure can be understood as the Emitter.
• The this has a moderate size and is heavily doped as its main function is to supply a
majority of the carriers, i.e. either electrons or holes

Base

• The middle material in transistor construction is the base

• This is thin and lightly doped.
• Its main function is to pass the majority of carriers from the emitter to the collector

Collector

• The right side of the material is called the collector

• The name implies its function of collecting the carriers.
• This is a bit larger in size than the emitter and the base. It moderately doped.

The arrow-head in the above figures indicates the emitter of a transistor. As the collector of
a transistor has to dissipate much greater power, it is made large. Due to the specific
function of emitter and collector, they are not interchangeable. Hence the terminals are
always to kept in mind while using a transistor.

In a practical transistor, there is a notch present near the emitter lead for identification. The
PNP and NPN transistor can be differentiated using a Multimeter. The following figure
shows how different practical transistor look like.
Transistor Biasing
The transistor has two junctions, the Emitter-base junction and the Collector-base
junction. Biasing is controlling the operation of the circuit by providing power supply. The
function of both the PN junctions is controlled by providing bias to the circuit through some
dc supply. The figure the follows shows how a transistor is biased.

Referring the figure above, it is understood that

• The N-type materials is provided with negative supply and the P-type materials is
given positive supply to make the circuit Forward bias.
• The N-type materials is provided positive supply and the P-type material is given a
negative supply to make the circuit Reverse bias.

By applying the power, the emitter base junction is always forward biased as the emitter
resistance is very small. The collector base junction is reversed biased and its
resistance is a bit higher. A small forward bias is sufficient at the emitter junction whereas a
high reverse bias has to be applied at the collector junction.

The direction of current indicated in the circuit above, also called the Conventional
Current, is the movement of hole current which is opposite to the electron current.

TRANSISTOR CONFIGURATION
A transistor has three terminals the emitter, base and the collector. Using these three
terminals the transistor can be connected in circuit with one terminal common to both input
and output in three different possible configurations. The three types of configurations are
Common Base, Common Emitter and Common Collector configuration.
Common Base (CB) Configuration
The name itself implies that the Base terminal is taken as common terminal for both input
and the output of the transistor. The common base connection for both NPN and PNP
transistors is as shown in the following figure.

Characteristics of CB configuration

• This configuration provides voltage gain but no current gain

• VCB constant, with a small increase in the Emitter-base voltage VEB, Emitter current IE
gets increased.
• Emitter current IE is independent of the collector voltage VCB
• Collector Voltage VB can affect the collector current IC only when at low voltages,
when the VEB is kept constant.

Common Emitter (CE) Configuration

The name itself implies that the Emitter terminal is taken as the common terminal for both
input and output of the transistor. The common emitter connection for both NPN and the
PNP transistor is shown in the following figure.

Characteristics of a CE configuration

• This configuration provides good current gain and voltage gain

• Keeping the VCE constant, with small increase in VBE t he base current IB increases
rapidly than the CB configuration.
• As the input resistance is very low value, a small value of VBE is enough to produce a
large current flow of the base current IB
• As the output resistance of CE circuit is less that of the CB circuit.
 • this configuration is usually used for bias stabilization methods and audio frequency
application.

Common Collector (CC) Configuration

The name itself implies the Collector terminal is take as common terminal for both input
and output of the transistor. The common collector connection for both NPN and PNP
transistor is as shown in the following figure.

Characteristics of a CE configuration

• This configuration provides good current gain and voltage gain

• Keeping the VCE constant, with small increase in VBE t he base current IB increases
rapidly than the CB configuration.
• As the input resistance is very low value, a small value of VBE is enough to produce a
large current flow of the base current IB
• As the output resistance of CE circuit is less that of the CB circuit.
• this configuration is usually used for bias stabilization methods and audio frequency
application.

Common Collector (CC) Configuration

The name itself implies the Collector terminal is take as common terminal for both input
and output of the transistor. The common collector connection for both NPN and PNP
transistor is as shown in the following figure.

Characteristics of CC Configuration

• this configuration provides current gain but no voltage gain

• in CC configuration, the input resistance is high and the output resistance is low/
• the voltage gain provided by this circuit is less than 1
• this circuit is mostly used for impedance matching . This means, to drive a low
impedance load form high impedance source.

TRANSISTOR REGIONS OF OPERATION

The DC supply is provide for the operation of a transistor. This DC supply is
given to the two PN junctions of a transistor which influences the actions of the emitter and
the collector junction. The junctions are forwarded biased and reverse biased based on our
requirement. Forward biased is the condition where a positive voltage is applied to the p-
type and the negative voltage is applied the n-type materials. Reversed biased is the
condition where a positive voltage is applied to the n-type and negative voltage is applied to
the p-type material.

Transistor Biasing
The supply of suitable external dc voltage is called biasing. Either forward or
reverse biasing is done to the emitter and collector junctions of the transistor. These biasing
methods make the transistor circuit to work in four kinds of regions such as the Active
region, saturation region , cutoff region and Inverse active region(seldom used). This is
understood by looking at the following table.

Active Region
This is the region in which the transistor has many applications. This is also called as
Linear region. A transistor while in this region, acts better as an amplifier.

This region lies between saturation and cutoff. The transistor operates in active region
when the emitter junction is forward biased and collector junction is reversed biased. In the
active state, collector current is β times the base current, i.e.,

IC = β IB
where

IC = collector current
β = current amplification factor
IB = base current
Saturation Region
this is the region in which transistor tends to behave as a closed switch. The transistor has
the effect of its collector and the base being shorted. The collector and base current are
maximum in this mode of operation. The figure below shows a transistor working in
saturation region.

The transistor operations in saturation region when both the emitter and the collector
junctions are forward biased. As it is understood that, in the saturation region the transistor
tends to behave as a closed switch, we can say that
IC= IE
Where IC= collector current and IE = emitter current

Cutoff Region
This is the region in which transistor tends to behave as an open switch. The transistor has
the effect of its collector and base being opened. The collector, emitter and base currents
are all zero in this mode of operation. The following shows a transistor working in cutoff
region.

The transistor operates in cutoff region when both the emitter and collector junctions are
reverse biased. As in cutoff region, the collector current, emitter current and base current
are nil, we can write as IC = IE = IB = 0

Where IC= collector current and IE = emitter current

Cutoff Region
This is the region in which transistor tends to behave as an open switch. The transistor has
the effect of its collector and base being opened. The collector, emitter and base currents
are all zero in this mode of operation. The following shows a transistor working in cutoff
region.

The transistor operates in cutoff region when both the emitter and collector junctions are
reverse biased. As in cutoff region, the collector current, emitter current and base current
are nil, we can write as IC = IE = IB = 0
 Where IC = collector current, IE = emitter current, IB = base current.
Biasing
In the figure below shows a bias arrangement for both npn and pnp BJTs for operation as
an amplifier. Notice that in both cases the base-emitter (BE) junction is forward-biased and
the base-collector (BC) junction is reverse-biased. This condition is called forward-reverse
bias.

BJT CHARACTERISTICS AND PARAMETERS

Two important parameters, βDC (dc current gain) and αDC are introduced and used to analyze
a BJT circuit

DC Beta (βDC) and DC Alpha (αDC)

The dc current gain of a transistor is the ratio of the dc collector current (IC) to the dc base
current (IB) and is designated dc beta (βDC).

Typical values of βDC range from less than 20 to 200 or higher. βDC is usually designated
as an equivalent hybrid (h) parameter, hFE, on transistor datasheets. All you need to know
now is that

The ratio of the dc collector current (IC) to the dc emitter current (IE) is the dc alpha (αDC).
The alpha is a less-used parameter than beta in transistor circuits.

Typically, values of αDC range from 0.95 to 0.99 or greater, but αDC is always less than 1. The
reason is that IC is always slightly less than IE by the amount of IB. For example, if IE = 100
mA and IB = 1 mA, then IC = 99 mA and aDC = 0.99.
EXAMPLE 1

BJT Circuit Analysis

Consider the basic transistor bias circuit configuration. Three transistor dc currents and
three dc voltages can be identified.

IB: dc base current

IE: dc emitter current
IC: dc collector current
VBE: dc voltage at base with respect to emitter
VCB: dc voltage at collector with respect to base
VCE: dc voltage at collector with respect to emitter

The base-bias voltage source, VBB, forward-biases the base-emitter junction, and the
collector-bias voltage source, VCC, reverse-biases the base-collector junction. When the
base-emitter junction is forward-biased, it is like a forward-biased diode and has a nominal
forward voltage drop of

Although in an actual transistor VBE can be as high as 0.9 V and is dependent on current,
we will use 0.7 V throughout this text in order to simplify the analysis of the basic concepts.

Since the emitter is at ground (0 V), by Kirchhoff’s voltage law, the voltage
across RB is

VRB = VBB – VBE

Also, by Ohm’s law,

VRB = IBRB

Substituting for yields

IBRB = VBB - VB

Solving for IB,

The voltage at the collector with respect to the grounded emitter is

VCE = VCC – VRC

Since the drop across RC is

VRC = ICRC
 the voltage at the collector with respect to the emitter can be written as

VCE = VCC - ICRC

Where IC =βDCIB.
The voltage across the reverse-biased collector-base junction is
VCB =VCE - VBE
EXAMPLE 2
Determine IB, IC, IE, VBE, VCE, and VCB in the circuit shown. The transistor has
a βDC = 150.

Maximum Transistor Ratings

A BJT, like any other electronic device, has limitations on its operation. These limitations
are stated in the form of maximum ratings and are normally specified on the manufacturer’s
datasheet. Typically, maximum ratings are given for collector-to-base voltage, collector-to-
emitter voltage, emitter-to-base voltage, collector current, and power dissipation.
The product of VCE and IC must not exceed the maximum power dissipation.
Both VCE and IC cannot be maximum at the same time. If VCE is maximum, IC can be
calculated as
If IC is maximum, VCE can be calculated by rearranging the previous equation as follows:

EXAMPLE 3
A certain transistor is to be operated with VCE 6 V. If its maximum power rating is 250 mW,
what is the most collector current that it can handle?

This is the maximum current for this particular value of VCE. The transistor can handle
more collector current if VCE is reduced, as long as PD(max) and IC(max) are not exceeded.

EXAMPLE 4
The transistor in Figure below has the following maximum ratings: PD(max) 800
mW, VCE(max) 15 V, and IC(max) 100 mA. Determine the maximum value to which VCC can
be adjusted without exceeding a rating. Which rating would be exceeded first?
Solution: