Chapter 3:

Bipolar Junction Transistors

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 1 Transistor Construction
There are two types of transistors: pnp and npn-type.

Note: the labeling of the transistor:

E - Emitter
B - Base
C - Collector

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 2 Transistor Operation
With the external sources (VEE and VCC) in the polarities as shown:

The E-B junction is forward-biased and the B-C junction is reverse biased.
Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 3 Currents in a Transistor

IE  IC  IB [Formula 3.1]

Note that IC is comprised of two currents:

IC  ICmajority  ICOminority [Formula 3.2]

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 4 Common Base Configuration

The base is common to both input (emitter – base) and output (collector – base) of the
transistor.

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 5 Input Characteristics for a Common-Base Amplifier

This demonstrates the input current IE to input voltage VBE for various levels of output
voltage VCB.
Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 6 Output Characteristics for a Common-Base Amplifier

This demonstrates the output current IC to an output voltage VCB for various levels of input
current IE.
Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 7 3 Regions of Operation

• Active
Operating range of the amplifier.

• Cutoff
The amplifier is basically off. There is voltage but little
current.

• Saturation
The amplifier is full on. There is little voltage but lots of
current.

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 8 Approximations

IC  IE [Formula 3.3]

VBE  0.7 [Formula 3.4]

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 9 Alpha ()

Alpha () relates the DC currents IC to IE :

IC
dc  IE
[Formula 3.5]

Ideally  = 1, but in reality it is between 0.9 and 0.998.

Alpha () in AC mode:

IC
ac 
IE VCB  constant [Formula 3.6]

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 10 Transistor Amplification
The AC input is amplified.

[Fig. 3.12]
Vi 200mV
IE  Ii    10mA
Ri 20

IC  IE so IL  Ii = 10mA

VL = IL * R = (10mA)(5k) = 50V

Voltage Gain (AV):

VL 50V
Av    250
Vi 200mV

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 11 Common – Emitter Configuration

The Emitter is common to both input (base-emitter) and output (collector-emitter).

The input is on the Base and the output is on the Collector.
Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 12 Characteristics of Common-Emitter

Collector characteristics = output characteristics.

Base characteristics = input characteristics.

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 13 Amplifier Currents

I E = IC + I B

IC =  IE

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 14 Actual Amplifier Currents
IC =  IE + ICBO

ICBO = minority collector current. This is usually so small that it can be ignored, except in
high power transistors and in high temperature environments.

ICBO
ICEO  IB  0  A [Formula 3.9]
1

When IB = 0A the transistor is in cutoff, but there is some minority current flowing called
ICEO.
Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 15 Beta ()

IC
In DC mode: dc  [Formula 3.10]
IB

IC
In AC mode: ac  VCE  constant [Formula 3.11]
IB

 indicates the amplification factor of a transistor. ( is sometimes referred to as hfe, a

term used in transistor modeling calculations)

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 16 Determining beta () from a Graph
(3.2mA  2.2mA) 1mA
AC   (forVCE  7.5) 100
(30 3 20 0 ) 10 0

Note:  AC =  DC
2.7mA
DC  (forVCE  7.5) 108
Robert Boylestad
Digital Electronics 25A Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 17 Relationship between  and 
Both indicate an amplification factor.

[Formula 3.12a]


 1

 [Formula 3.12b]

 1

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 18  provides a Relationship between Currents

IC  IB [Formula 3.14]

[Formula 3.15]
IE  ( 1)IB

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 19 Common – Collector Configuration

The input on the Base and the output is on the Emitter.

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 20 Characteristics of Common Collector
The Characteristics are similar to those of the Common-Emitter.
Except the vertical axis is IE.

IE

IB1
IB2
IB3

VCE

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 21 Limitations of Operation for Each Configuration

Note: VCE is at maximum and IC is at minimum (ICmax=ICEO) in the cutoff region.

IC is at maximum and VCE is at minimum (VCE max = VCEsat = VCEO) in the
saturation region.
The transistor operates in the active region between saturation and cutoff.
Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 22 Power of Dissipation

Common – Base: PCmax  VCBIC [Formula 3.18]

Common – Emitter: PCmax  VCEIC [Formula 3.16]

Common – Collector: a
PCmax  VCEIE

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 23 Transistor Specification Sheet

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 24 Transistor Testing
1. Curve Tracer
Provides a graph of the characteristic curves.
2. DMM
Some DMM’s will measure DC or HFE.
3. Ohmmeter

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.
Slide 25 Transistor Terminal Identification

Robert Boylestad Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Electronics Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
All rights reserved.