BMEN 3120 Transistor Circuits

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

Lab 4

Ami Shah
9/29/2015

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INTRODUCTION

In this lab, transistors were used which are semiconductors to amplify and get electric
signals. They have at least three terminals to connect to the circuit and the voltage/
current applied to one side differs from the other side. In this lab we look at how BJTs
and FETs work and their potential for application use.

THEORY

A junction between an n type and p type semiconductor in a diode forms a depletion

region. This region is created because charge from the n type combine with the majority
p type side. When the device is running in forward bias, the bias is put on the ptype
material which repels holes, while the negative bias on n type material repels electrons.
This then causes majority charge carriers on any side of the junction and reduces the
width of depletion. When the voltage is increased, the depletion region becomes thin and
the electric field can’t repel the charge carrier.

Relating to this lab, a BJT is similar to two diodes placed next to each other. The center is
narrow, while the outside is more doped. NPN BJTs have transistors where the flow of
electrons is dominant, while PNP BJTs have the flow of holes being dominant. For this
reason, NPN and PNP transistors are very similar except for the signs of current and
voltage being opposite. NPN transistors are more commonly used because they have a
faster response time. For example, in forward active mode (figure 1) the base emitter is
forward biased letting electrons flow from the emitter to the base. Since the base region
is narrow, when the positive bias is applied, most of the electrons flow from the emitter
to the base. Regardless of the base junction being reverse biased, the minority carriers
allow the flow of large amounts of current. The amount of current that passes from the
emitter to the collector has a huge dependency on the base current and collector emitter
voltage. BJTs are overall able to act as amplifiers and current- controlled switches.

Figure 1: NPN BJT in forward active mode

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On the other hand, FETs are the most commonly used transistors in electronics. They
are considered to be advantageous because they are controlled by voltage instead of
current requiring a very small amount of power to remain on and they can handle large
currents. The most common FET available is a MOSFET, which has three primary
terminals called the gate, source, and drain (figure 2). The last terminal is called the
body and is usually connected to the source.

Figure 2: N and P channel MOSFETs. The gate is insulated through the substrate by an oxide
layer. On the bottom layer, the body is usually internally connected to the source.
Since the configuration of this model uses insulation, the electric field near the gate
controls the flow of current and not gate current that controls current between the
source and the drain.
A MOSFET has two primary modes of operation including the n channel and the p
channel. The primary difference between the two is the polarity between the voltages
and major carriers. The three modes for MOSFETs are cutoff, linear, and saturation
shown in figure 3.

Figure 3: nMOS drain current vs. drain source voltage at various gate- source voltages

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Like a BJT, a MOSFET has two p-n semiconductor junctions including from the source
of the region to the body of the device and from the body to the drain. The charge
accumulating creates a depletion region as shown in figure 4. In particular, the source
and the drain are formed by doping the n and p substrate creating negative or positive
depletion depending on the mode and the amount of voltage that is applied.
Additionally, p channel and n channel behave very similarly except that the polarity of
both voltages are reversed.

Figure 4: Representation of modes on a nMOS device. A:cutoff, B: linear, C: pinch- off point,
and D: saturation mode

METHODS
1. Use Multisim simulation to observe BJT current for both NPN and PNP
transistors. Use the 2N3904 BJT to build the circuit.
2. To simulate, select DC sweep and set the appropriate conditions under analysis
parameters.
3. Then activate source two and set the source values and finally run the
simulation
4. Using a 2N3904 NPN BJT build the circuit with 1kΩ on the Elvis board and
have both an Elvis ammeter and handheld ammeter to measure the current.
5. Now construct another circuit with 1kΩ, 150 Ω, 2N3904 BJT, LED light and 5V
to measure base and collector current.

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6. Then using a 2N3906 PNP BJT, 1kΩ, 150Ω, LED light, and 5V source to measure
base and collector current again.
7. To see how MOSFETs work, build a circuit with 2N7000G, LED light, 150Ω,
and 5V source to see how much supply is needed for the LED light.
8. Lastly to see BJT amplification, build a circuit using 2N3904 NPN BJT, function
generator for voltage supply, and resistance of 1kΩ and 220Ω
9. Then use an oscilloscope to adjust Vbb and determine the values of Vbb, Vo
(peak to peak), and gain.
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
Function generator: Vpp: 0V, supply voltage: 0 to increments of 100mV, peak to peak:
50mV, DC offset: 0V, Vcc: 12V
Multisim -1
Resistors: 1kΩ, 150Ω, 220Ω, 560Ω – 1 of each
LED light - 1
Transistor: 2N3904, 2N3906, and 2N7000G - 1 of each
Elvis board - 1
Oscilloscope - 1
Ammeter – 2 (one handheld, one on Elvis board)
Wires- as required

This lab was straightforward for the most part, but the most difficult part was trying to
get the MOSFET switch to work. This was a little difficult because it took us a long time
to determine the reason that the LED light wasn’t turning on, but it turned out to be the
wrong resistance value. From this experiment I learned the difference between a PNP
and NPN BJT. I learned that the two values are actually the complete inverse of each
other. This was assured through the data collected through the exercises when we were
determining the base and collector current.

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RESULTS & ANALYSIS

EX 1

Figure 5: BJT collector current for NPN and PNP BJT

The cutoff region is the bottom most red line, the saturation region is the middle region
from the light blue to the dark blue line, and the forward active region is from the
purple to the pink region or the highest region.

EX 2
Collector Current
Collector-Emitter Voltage @ IB = 0 mA @ IB = 1.5 mA @ IB = 3 mA
0.00 0 .0007 .0006
0.25 0 .0682 .0816
0.50 0 .1082 .1471
0.75 0 .1483 .1632
1.00 0 .1261 .1725
1.25 0 .1326 .1804
1.50 0 .140 .1876
1.75 0 .1435 .1936
2.00 0 .1481 .1987
2.25 0 .1524 .2034

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2.50 0 .1564 .2070

Table 1 – 2N3904 Collector Characteristic Curves

DC Transfer Characteristics
0.25

0.2
Current (A)

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Voltage (V)

Figure 6: Blue is base voltage at 0V, orange is base voltage at 1.5mA, and gray is base voltage at
3mA

This exercise was the experimental version of exercise 1 and it could be seen because the
graph represents the data that was also seen in figure 5. The data represented in both is
very similar like expected because they both represent a BJT with the same transistor
and circuit.

EX 3
Variable Supply IB IC
Setting
0.0 V .00002 0
0.2 V .00002 0
0.4 V .00002 0
0.6 V .00002 0
0.8 V .00006 .0144
1.0 V .00026 .0188
1.2 V .00046 .0190
1.4 V .00065 .0191
1.6 V .00086 .0192
1.8 V .00106 .0192
2.0 V .00125 .0192
Table 2 – NPN BJT in switch application.

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The point at which the BJT entered the saturation region was at .8V because that was
when the LED light turned on.

Variable Supply IB IC
Setting
5.0 V .00001 .0003
4.8 V .00001 .0003
4.6 V .00001 .0003
4.4 V .00001 .0003
4.2 V .00004 .0053
4.0 V .00018 .0188
3.8 V .00037 .0192
3.6 V .00056 .0195
3.4 V .00077 .0195
3.2 V .00096 .0197
0.0 V .00239 .0198
Table 3 – PNP BJT in switch application.

The point at which the BJT entered the saturation region is 4.2V for the same reason
mentioned in part one of exercise three.

For exercise 3 the expected results were seen because NPN and PNP BJTs are supposed
to function inversely through their voltages. This was seen through the timing of when
the LED lights were lit.

EX 4
Gate voltage at which LED first began to light: 1.90V

Gate voltage at which LED appears fully lit: 2.27V

Measured gate current at “fully lit” gate voltage: .0001 A

Comparing the values from our experiment to those of the values from the 2N7000G
datasheet it could be said our data was accurate because the gate voltage fell in the
range between .8V to 3V in DC. This device compares to the NPN BJT in that they both
have currents that are relatively close to when the LED light first turns on. The value for
this is very close to .0001 A.

EX 5

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RC VBB for maximum vo peak-to-peak Gain (vo / vs)

gain
220 Ohm .96 1.368 27.36
560 Ohm .82 3.113 62.26
1 kOhm .76 4.534 90.68
Table 4 – BJT Amplifier Output

Figure 7: The output voltage is shown for 220Ω

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Figure 8: The output voltage is shown for 560Ω

Figure 9: The output voltage is shown for 1KΩ

For exercise 5, the results that were shown were seen as expected because the as the
resistance got larger the Vbb would decrease and the peak to peak voltage would
increase.
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PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Transistors are commonly used in many innovative technologies. An example of the use
of a transistor is in a calculator. They function by clicking the buttons on a calculator and
those sensors connected to transistors. The more the transistors there are, the more
complex functions a calculator is able to run. Furthermore, transistors use electricity to
be in an on state and this is indicated through binary numbers. This is very important as
it allows for many important functions to be calculated and analyzed.
CONCLUSION
This was an important lab in that it helped show the difference between the two major
types of transistors. There is either the PNP BJT or the NPN BJT and there is also the
MOSFET. The NPN and PNP are very similar except a few minority things such as the
inverse voltages between them. The MOSFET are a little different because they are FETs
and are more commonly used than BJTs. Furthermore, this lab helped show the difference
between the two types of BJTs because of the comparison with the two different
transistors and observing when the LED light would turn on. Also, this helped show the
theories stated in the lab are true because they can be seen clearly through the
experiments that were run.
REFERENCES
 Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
 Lab 4: Transistor Circuits
 Electric Circuits, 9/E, James W. Nilsson, Susan Riedel

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