Bipolar Transistor

In the diode tutorials we saw that simple diodes are

made up from two pieces of semiconductor
material to form a simple pn-junction and we also
learnt about their properties and characteristics.

If we now join together two individual signal diodes

back-to-back, this will give us two PN-junctions
connected together in series that share a common P
or N terminal. The fusion of these two diodes
produces a three layer, two junction, three terminal
device forming the basis of a Bipolar Junction
Transistor, or BJT for short.
Transistors are three terminal active devices made
from different semiconductor materials that can act
as either an insulator or a conductor by the
application of a small signal voltage. The transistor’s
ability to change between these two states enables
it to have two basic functions: “switching” (digital
electronics) or “amplification” (analogue
electronics). Then bipolar transistors have the ability
to operate within three different regions:

Active Region – the transistor operates as an

amplifier and Ic = β.Ib
Saturation – the transistor is “Fully-ON”
operating as a switch and Ic = I(saturation)
Cut-off – the transistor is “Fully-OFF”
operating as a switch and Ic = 0
The word Transistor is a combination of the two
words Transfer Varistor which describes their mode
of operation way back in their early days of
electronics development. There are two basic types
of bipolar transistor construction, PNP and NPN,
which basically describes the physical arrangement
of the P-type and N-type semiconductor materials
from which they are made.

The Bipolar Transistor basic construction consists of

two PN-junctions producing three connecting
terminals with each terminal being given a name to
identify it from the other two. These three terminals
are known and labelled as the Emitter ( E ), the Base
( B ) and the Collector ( C ) respectively.

Bipolar Transistors are current regulating devices

that control the amount of current flowing through
them in proportion to the amount of biasing voltage
applied to their base terminal acting like a current-
controlled switch. The principle of operation of the
two transistor types PNP and NPN, is exactly the
same the only difference being in their biasing and
the polarity of the power supply for each type.

Bipolar Transistor Construction

The construction and circuit symbols for both the

PNP and NPN bipolar transistor are given above
with the arrow in the circuit symbol always showing
the direction of “conventional current flow”
between the base terminal and its emitter terminal.
The direction of the arrow always points from the
positive P-type region to the negative N-type region
for both transistor types, exactly the same as for the
standard diode symbol.

Bipolar Transistor
Configurations

As the Bipolar Transistor is a three terminal device,

there are basically three possible ways to connect it
within an electronic circuit with one terminal being
common to both the input and output. Each
method of connection responding differently to its
input signal within a circuit as the static
characteristics of the transistor vary with each
circuit arrangement.
 Common Base Configuration – has Voltage
Gain but no Current Gain.
Common Emitter Configuration – has both
Current and Voltage Gain.
Common Collector Configuration – has
Current Gain but no Voltage Gain.

The Common Base (CB)

Configuration

As its name suggests, in the Common Base or

grounded base configuration, the BASE connection
is common to both the input signal AND the output
signal. The input signal is applied between the
transistors base and the emitter terminals, while the
corresponding output signal is taken from between
the base and the collector terminals as shown. The
base terminal is grounded or can be connected to
some fixed reference voltage point.

The input current flowing into the emitter is quite

large as its the sum of both the base current and
collector current respectively therefore, the
collector current output is less than the emitter
current input resulting in a current gain for this type
of circuit of “1” (unity) or less, in other words the
common base configuration “attenuates” the input
signal.
The Common Base Transistor
Circuit

This type of amplifier configuration is a non-

inverting voltage amplifier circuit, in that the signal
voltages Vin and Vout are “in-phase”. This type of
transistor arrangement is not very common due to
its unusually high voltage gain characteristics. Its
input characteristics represent that of a forward
biased diode while the output characteristics
represent that of an illuminated photo-diode.

Also this type of bipolar transistor configuration has

a high ratio of output to input resistance or more
importantly “load” resistance ( RL ) to “input”
resistance ( Rin ) giving it a value of “Resistance
Gain”. Then the voltage gain ( Av ) for a common
base configuration is therefore given as:

Common Base Voltage Gain

Where: Ic/Ie is the current gain, alpha ( α ) and

RL/Rin is the resistance gain.

The common base circuit is generally only used in

single stage amplifier circuits such as microphone
pre-amplifier or radio frequency ( Rf ) amplifiers due
to its very good high frequency response.
The Common Emitter (CE)
Configuration

In the Common Emitter or grounded emitter

configuration, the input signal is applied between
the base and the emitter, while the output is taken
from between the collector and the emitter as
shown. This type of configuration is the most
commonly used circuit for transistor based
amplifiers and which represents the “normal”
method of bipolar transistor connection.

The common emitter amplifier configuration

produces the highest current and power gain of all
the three bipolar transistor configurations. This is
mainly because the input impedance is LOW as it is
connected to a forward biased PN-junction, while
the output impedance is HIGH as it is taken from a
reverse biased PN-junction.

The Common Emitter Amplifier

Circuit

In this type of configuration, the current flowing out

of the transistor must be equal to the currents
flowing into the transistor as the emitter current is
given as Ie = Ic + Ib.

As the load resistance ( RL ) is connected in series

with the collector, the current gain of the common
emitter transistor configuration is quite large as it is
the ratio of Ic/Ib. A transistors current gain is given
the Greek symbol of Beta, ( β ).

As the emitter current for a common emitter

configuration is defined as Ie = Ic + Ib, the ratio of
Ic/Ie is called Alpha, given the Greek symbol of α.
Note: that the value of Alpha will always be less
than unity.

Since the electrical relationship between these

three currents, Ib, Ic and Ie is determined by the
physical construction of the transistor itself, any
small change in the base current ( Ib ), will result in
a much larger change in the collector current ( Ic ).

Then, small changes in current flowing in the base

will thus control the current in the emitter-collector
circuit. Typically, Beta has a value between 20 and
200 for most general purpose transistors. So if a
transistor has a Beta value of say 100, then one
electron will flow from the base terminal for every
100 electrons flowing between the emitter-collector
terminal.

By combining the expressions for both Alpha, α and

Beta, β the mathematical relationship between
these parameters and therefore the current gain of
the transistor can be given as:

Where: “Ic” is the current flowing into the collector

terminal, “Ib” is the current flowing into the base
terminal and “Ie” is the current flowing out of the
emitter terminal.
Then to summarise a little. This type of bipolar
transistor configuration has a greater input
impedance, current and power gain than that of the
common base configuration but its voltage gain is
much lower. The common emitter configuration is
an inverting amplifier circuit. This means that the
resulting output signal is 180o “out-of-phase” with
the input voltage signal.

The Common Collector (CC)

Configuration

In the Common Collector or grounded collector

configuration, the collector is now common through
the supply. The input signal is connected directly to
the base, while the output is taken from the emitter
load as shown. This type of configuration is
commonly known as a Voltage Follower or Emitter
Follower circuit.

The common collector, or emitter follower

configuration is very useful for impedance matching
applications because of the very high input
impedance, in the region of hundreds of thousands
of Ohms while having a relatively low output
impedance.

The Common Collector

Transistor Circuit
The common emitter configuration has a current
gain approximately equal to the β value of the
transistor itself. In the common collector
configuration the load resistance is situated in series
with the emitter so its current is equal to that of the
emitter current.

As the emitter current is the combination of the

collector AND the base current combined, the load
resistance in this type of transistor configuration
also has both the collector current and the input
current of the base flowing through it. Then the
current gain of the circuit is given as:
The Common Collector Current
Gain

This type of bipolar transistor configuration is a non-

inverting circuit in that the signal voltages of Vin and
Vout are “in-phase”. It has a voltage gain that is
always less than “1” (unity). The load resistance of
the common collector transistor receives both the
base and collector currents giving a large current
gain (as with the common emitter configuration)
therefore, providing good current amplification with
very little voltage gain.
We can now summarise the various relationships
between the transistors individual DC currents
flowing through each leg and its DC current gains
given above in the following table.

Relationship between DC Currents and Gains

Bipolar Transistor Summary

Then to summarise, the behaviour of the bipolar

transistor in each one of the above circuit
configurations is very different and produces
different circuit characteristics with regards to input
impedance, output impedance and gain whether
this is voltage gain, current gain or power gain and
this is summarised in the table below.

Bipolar Transistor
Configurations
with the generalised characteristics of the different
transistor configurations given in the following table

Characteristic Common Common Common

Base Emitter Collector
Input Low Medium High
Impedance
Output Very High High Low
Impedance
Phase Angle 0° 180° 0°
Voltage Gain High Medium Low
Current Gain Low Medium High
Power Gain Low Very High Medium
In the next tutorial about Bipolar Transistors, we will
look at the NPN Transistor in more detail when used
in the common emitter configuration as an amplifier
as this is the most widely used configuration due to
its flexibility and high gain. We will also plot the
output characteristics curves commonly associated
with amplifier circuits as a function of the collector
current to the base current