ELECTRONICS

CIRCUITS
ANALYSIS and
DESIGN
ACTIVITY1
TRANSISTOR CIRCUIT
ANALYSIS AND
TROUBLESHOOTING

Submitted by:
John Fernand N. Racelis
BSECEIII
 RUBRICS FOR ECE02 LABORATORY
1 - Not 2 - Below 3 - Meets 4 - Exceeds
Attribute Acceptable Expectations Expectations Expectations Score

Laboratory Skills
Members Members
Members do not Members
occasionally occasionally
Manipulative Skills demonstrate demonstrate
demonstrate demonstrate
needed skills additional skills
needed skills needed skills

Damage to Safety
Equipment usage
circuits or Some risk to circuits precautions
safe for both
Safety Precautions equipment due or equipment due to above
circuits and
to improper improper usage requirements
equipment
usage used
Apparatus set
Apparatus
up in a non- Apparatus setup will Apparatus properly
Experimental Set-up enhance for
functional cause data errors setup
better precision
manner
Errors in Error in Documentation Report warns of
Process Skills documentation documentation of complete and difficulties and
of apparatus procedures correct gives alternatives
Conditions for
All data present, but Data presented
Reports logically data and/or Data presented
not in sequence. clearly along with
coherent and graphs not clearly following
Must search for excellent
sequential stated. Unclear each procedure.
items. narrative
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Work Habits
Measurements
Time Required data beyond
Data points poorly All required data
management/Conduct not taken or not requirements
chosen or missing taken and reported
of Experiment reported made and
reported
Correct
Ability to draw proper Conclusions not Incorrect Correct conclusions
conclusions from lab drawn conclusions drawn conclusions drawn correlated to
other material
Members do not
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know their task
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and have no
responsibilities responsibilities responsibilities at
defined
Cooperative and sometimes. Group most of the time. all-time. Group
responsibilities.
teamwork conflicts are Group conflicts are conflicts are
Group conflicts
cooperatively cooperatively cooperatively
have to be
managed most of managed most of managed at all
settled by the
the time the time times
teacher
Clean and
Clean and orderly Clean and orderly
Messy orderly
workplace/papers workplace/papers workplace/papers
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with occasional with some mess at all times during
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experiment
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Members Members require
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supervised by the demonstrate
independent work supervision by supervision by the
teacher other ability
the teacher teacher
No more than two
Spelling and grammar Many errors Several errors No errors
errors
Computer use
Done correctly but Done correctly
For data analysis Not done Done incorrectly
incomplete and completely
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resources that lab Not done Done incorrectly
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 Laboratory Skills Computer use Work habits Total score

Score

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 ACTIVITY 1: TRANSISTOR CIRCUIT ANALYSIS AND TROUBLESHOOTING

OBJECTIVES:
• To identify the typical faults in a basic transistor bias circuit.

INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION
In electronics circuits many possible faults may occur which may involve in faults in a
basic transistor bias circuit such as voltage divider biased transistor circuit and others. The one
who will troubleshoot the circuit should be aware of a few basic man euvers and measurements
that can isolate the problem area and possibly identify a solution to save more time.

In a biased transistor circuit, the transistor can fail or a resistor in the bias circuit can
fail. The typical faults are open base resistor, o pen collector resistor and open ground
connection. These faults can be identified using different instruments such as the voltmeter.

The troubleshooting process is a true test of your clear understanding of the proper
behavior of a network and the ability to isolate problem areas using a few basic measurements
with the appropriate instruments. Experience is the key, and that will come only with continued
exposure to practical circuits.

REQUIREMENTS:
Multisim Software
2 DC Voltage Supplies (9V AND3V)
3 Digital Mustimeters
NPN transistor (2N3904)
2 Resistors: RC=560Ὡ

RB=5.6k Ὡ

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PROCEDURE:

Fault A: Open Base Resistor (R B)

1. Connect the circuit shown in

Figure 1.1.
2. Turn on the multimeters in the
voltmeter mode. Measure the
voltages read at the base and
collector terminals (VB and VC),
then turn off the multimeters
3. Disconnect RB from the base
circuit, then measure again the
voltages read at the base and
collector terminals. What are the
new readings? (For Observation:
Explain why they had such Figure 1.1
readings.)

Fault B: Open Collector Resistor (R C)

4. Reconnect the same circuit in Figure 1.1.

5. Turn on the mustimeters in the voltmeter mode. Measure the voltages read at
the base and collector terminals. (VB and VC), then turn off the mustimeters.
6. Disconnect RC from the base circuit, then measure again the voltages read at
the base and collector terminals. What are the new readings? (For Observation:
Explain why they had such readings.)

Fault C: Open Ground Connection

7. Reconnect the same circuit Figure 1.1, but with a third multimeter connected at
the emitter terminal.
8. Turn on the multimeters in the voltmeter mode. Measure the voltages read at the base
and
Collector, and emitter terminals (V B, VC and VE), then turn off the mustimeters (For Data and
Results: Compute the same voltages by transistor circuit analysis then
calculate the percentage errors.
9. Disconnect the emitter terminals from the ground, and then measure again VB, VC and VE.
What will be the new readings? (For Observation: Explain why they had such readings.)

DATA and RESULTS for FAULT C

Vb Vc Ve
Computed h
Value
Actual 3V 9V 0V
Value
Error
percentage
SET-UP

Figure 1.2 Actual Set-up

SET-UP in MULTISIM:

Table 1.1 Comparison of Voltages for Fault A

ORIGINAL ACTUAL
VB 3V
VC 9V
NEW
VB 22.043mV
VC 9.00 V

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 Table 1.2 Comparison of Voltages for Fault B
ORIGINAL ACTUAL
VB 3V
VC 9V
NEW
VB 3V
VC 2.676V
Table 1.3 Different Voltages of Fault C
VE 0V
VB 3V
VC 9V
VE 2.67V

OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS

For the Fault A, upon removing the base resistance (Rb), I have observed that the circuit still
has a reading of, mainly because the multitester’s probe is connected to the ground. The source
from the base of the transistor has 3V wherein the multitester reads it 22.043mV. This also means
that the base circuit will be in a cutoff phase or the circuit is in open state wherein there will be no
current flowing upon it.
For the Fault B, upon removing the collector resistance (Rc) I have observed that the circuit
still has a reading of 2.676V this is mainly because the base has also a voltage flowing from it. The
base of the transistor has a relation to the collector of the transistor just like what the formula says
that if there is a current/voltage from the base of the transistor the collector will still have a
current/voltage flowing from it due to its relation. Also, when the voltage increases from the base,
the voltage flowing from the collector will also increase. In short, they are directly proportional.
For the Fault C, upon disconnecting the emitter from the ground, they still have such
readings. This is due to the concept of the transistor circuit in which the result displays, clearly it is
described that this transistor has a germanium component. But, it is also faulty because when a
circuit is not connected to the ground, there is a possibility that certain errors will occur because
there is no resistance connected to the emitter part wherein if it is connected properly, it will just
display no value (0V).

CONCLUSION

In this experiment, I learned that basic troubleshooting of the different transistors are very
important before you start building your own device. Without this basic knowledge you will not be
able to build a perfect device or else you will not be able to specifically identify the faults and
problems that may arise from it as you are continually building it.
This also serves as a foundation for you to be knowledgeable enough to identify the
problems of different transistors in any circuit. Aside from these faulty things, I also learned that if
a transistor fails, one of two things usually happens it’s either a junction (or junctions) go short

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circuit (its resistance becomes very low or zero) or a junction (or junctions) go open circuit (its
resistance becomes very high or infinity).

REFERENCES:
Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. (2010). Bipolar Junction Transistor. Retrieved last December
5, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_junction_transistor

Floyd, ThomasL. (2012). Electronic Devices. New Jersey, USA: Prentice –Hall, In

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