Bipolar Junction

Transistors
 Introduction

Co-inventors of the first transistor at Bell

Laboratories (1947): Dr. William The first transistor (Courtesy Bell Telephone Laboratories)
Shockley (seated); Dr. John Bardeen
(left); Dr. Walter H. Brattain. (Courtesy of
AT&T
Archives.)
 Transistor Structures
 The bipolar junction transistor (BJT) has three separately doped regions and contains two
pn junctions.
 Bipolar transistor is a 3-terminal device: Emitter (E), Base (B) and Collector (C)

PNP NPN

 Current in the transistor is due to the flow of both electrons and holes, hence the name bipolar.

 Important applications of transistor are: as an amplifier, as an oscillator and as a switch

 Modes of Operation

Bias Mode E-B Junction C-B Junction

Active Forward Reverse

Saturation Forward Forward

Cutoff Reverse Reverse
 BJT Operation

p+ p

 The emitter is (much) heavier doped than the base and the base is again heavier doped than the collector.
 The base width of the base region is much shorter than the diffusion length of the minority carriers.
 Therefore, the two pn-junctions affect each other.
 BJT Operation in Active Mode
 Since the base emitter junction is under forward bias
holes are injected via the emitter and electrons are
injected via the base.
 At the same time the base collector junction is reverse
biased and the current flow should be small.
 However, as the width of the base region is very short
the holes injected in the emitter diffuse through the
base so that they reach the collector.
 The emitter is called emitter because holes are emitted,
which are collected by the collector (BJT in the active
mode). Most of the emitted holes reach the collector
region.

 If the base-region would be much longer than the diffusion length of the minority carriers in the base region of the
two pn-junctions would behave like two separate diodes. The operation of the diodes would be independent of each
other.
 Current Components in PNP

ICB0 is a thermally generated current in the depletion region of the base and the collector. In the active
mode the base collector diode is under reverse bias conditions. Therefore, the electrons are flowing
from the p- to the n-region. The current ICB0 corresponds to the leakage current of the base collector
diode.
Different Configuration of BJT
Common Emitter Configuration

Common Collector Configuration

BJT Configurations
 Common Base Current Gain
The common base circuit is the most basic transistor circuit. The base is used as a terminal for the input and
the output loop. Therefore, the circuit is called the common base circuit.

 The common base current gain is defined as the current reaching the collector versus the injected
emitter current.
 The current gain for a common base circuit is very close to 1.
 Therefore, the common base is not used as a current amplifier. The common base circuit is typically used
as a voltage amplifier (the common base circuit has a large voltage gain). The common-base current gain
is given by
 Common Emitter Current Gain
 The common emitter gain is defined as the current reaching the collector versus the base current.
 The current gain is typically much larger than 1.

The common emitter current gain can be expressed in terms of the base current gain.
 Transistor I-V Characteristics (Static)

Input Characteristics
 Input characteristics are like a
normal forward biased diode.
 As VCB increased IE also increased
due to Early Effect (increased
reverse biased at CB junction
causes reduction in effective base
width) .
Output Characteristics

 As the CB junction is reverse biased, the

current IC depends totally on IE.
 When IE=0, IC=ICB0 is the current caused
by the minority carriers crossing the pn-
junction.
 ICB0 is leakage current called as collector
base current with emitter open.
 When IE is increased, IC is increased
correspondingly.
Common Emitter Configuration Input Characteristics
Output Characteristics
• Plot IC as f(VCE, IB)
• Cutoff region (off)
• both BE and BC reverse biased
• Active region
• BE Forward biased
• BC Reverse biased
• Saturation region (on)
• both BE and BC forward biased
 Transistor Load line analysis

In transistor circuit analysis it is necessary to determine collector

current for various VCE voltage.
One method is we can determine the collector current at any desired
VCE voltage, from the output characteristics.
More conveniently we can use load line analysis to determine
operating point.
 Load Line Analysis and Operating Point
Consider common emitter npn transistor
There is no input signal.
Apply KVL in the output ckt

 The zero signal values of Ic and VCE are known

as the Operating point.
 It is called operating point because variation of
IC takes place about this point.
 It is also called Quiescent point or Q-point.
 Transistor DC Biasing
Transistor Regions Operation:
1. Active region operation:
Base–emitter junction forward-biased Base–collector
junction reverse-biased
2. Cutoff-region operation:
Base–emitter junction reverse-biased Base–collector
junction reverse-biased
3.Saturation-region operation:

ECE-312 , Lec#3 , Oct

Base–emitter junction forward-biased Base–collector
junction forward-biased

Transistors need to be DC biased in such a way to establish

the operating point on the characteristics in the active
region for amplification of the applied signal.

2014
1. Fixed Bias Circuit
2. Emitter Bias Circuit 4
3. Voltage Divider
4. Collector Feedback Bias
 Fixed Bias Circuit

• Fixed-bias circuit. • DC equivalent ct.

DC Analysis:
 Fixed Bias Circuit……..
• Load Line Analysis
 Fixed Bias Circuit……..
• Transistor Saturation
• Saturation regions:
(a) Actual
(b) approximate.

• Determining ICsat

• Determining ICsat for the fixed-bias configuration.

 Emitter Bias Circuit
BJT bias circuit with emitter resistor. DC equivalent ckt
 Bias Stability
Bias stabilization: While designing the biasing circuit, care should be taken so that the
operating point will not shift into an undesirable region (i.e into cut-off or saturation region)
Factors to be considered while designing the basing circuit: Ico, VBE, and β
Stability Factors
 Emitter Bias Circuit……..
Improved Bias Stability: The addition of the emitter resistor to the dc bias of the BJT provides improved
stability, that is, the dc bias currents and voltages remain closer to where they were set by the circuit when
outside conditions, such as temperature and transistor beta, change.

Role of RE
Suppose Ic  due to temperature effect
Then IE , VE ,
VBE = VB-VE
i.e VB , IB , Ic 
Voltage Divider Bias Circuit
• Exact Analysis

ECE-312 , Lec#3 , Oct

DC components.

2014
 Examples

ECE-312 , Lec#3 , Oct © Ahmad El-Banna

2014
 © Ahmad El-Banna
Collector Feedback Configuration

• Base–Emitter Loop

• Collector–Emitter Loop