Experiment No.

06
NPN BJT COMMON EMITTER CHARACTERISTICS

Aim: To study input and output characteristics of a n-p-n Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) in
Common-emitter configuration.

Apparatus:

Sr. No. Components used Quantity

1. BJT (BC107BP) 1

2. Breadboard 1

3. Resistor (1KΩ, 100KΩ) 1 each

4. Connecting wires As required

5. Ammeters (0-100µA) 1

6. DC power supply (0-30V) 1

7. Multimeter 1

Theory:

The transistor is a two junction, three terminal semiconductor device which has three regions
namely the emitter region, the base region, and the collector region. There are two types of
transistors. An npn transistor has an n type emitter, a p type base and an n type collector while a
pnp transistor has a p type emitter, an n type base and a p type collector. The emitter is heavily
doped, base region is thin and lightly doped and collector is moderately doped and is the largest.
The current conduction in transistors takes place due to both charge carriers- that is electrons and
holes and hence they are named Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT).
BJTs are used to amplify current, using a small base current to control a large current between the
collector and the emitter. This amplification is so important that one of the most noted parameters
of gain, β (or hFE), which is the ratio of collector current to base current. When the BJT is used with
the base and emitter terminals as the input and the collector and emitter terminals as the output,
the current gain as well as the voltage gain is large. It is for this reason that this common-emitter
(CE) configuration is the most useful connection for the BJT in electronic systems.

Operation regions and characteristics curves:

Depending upon the biasing of the two junctions, emitter-base (EB) junction and collector base(CB)
the transistor is said to be in one of the four modes of operation, as described below

Operating region B-E Junction B-C Junction Features

Cut-off Reverse Reverse IB ≈ IC≈IE≈0 Off state – no current (V BE<0.7V)

Saturation Forward Forward Conducting structure VBE=0.7V VCE ≈ 0.2V

Active Forward Reverse Amplifier Gain: 100-1000 (IC=βIB) VBE=0.7V VCE>0.2V

Reverse-active Reverse Forward Limited use Gain< 1 (IB>IC)

NOTE: VBE will vary from 0.6 to 0.7 V

The most important characteristics of transistor in any configuration are input and output
characteristics.

A. Input Characteristics: ‐
It is the curve between input current I B and input voltage VBE constant collector emitter voltage
VCE. The input characteristic resembles a forward biased diode curve. After cut in voltage the I B
increases rapidly with small increase in VBE. It means that dynamic input resistance is small in CE
configuration. It is the ratio of change in VBE to the resulting change in base current at constant
collector emitter voltage. It is given by ΔVBE/ΔIB.

B. Output Characteristics:‐
This characteristic shows relation between collector current I C and collector voltage for various
values of base current. The change in collector emitter voltage causes small change in the collector
current for the constant base current, which defines the dynamic resistance and is given as ΔV CE/ΔIC
at constant I B. The output characteristic of common emitter configuration consists of three
regions: Active, Saturation and Cut‐off.

Active region: In this region base‐emitter junction is forward biased and base‐collector junction
is reversed biased. The curves are approximately horizontal in this region.

Saturation region: In this region both the junctions are forward biased.

Cut‐off: In this region, both the junctions are reverse biased. When the base current is made equal
to zero, the collector current is reverse leakage current ICEO. The region below IB = 0 is the called
the cut-off region.
Circuit Diagram:

Procedure:

A. Input Characteristics

1) Make the circuit connection as shown in the circuit diagram.

2) Set the voltage VCE = 2 V and vary I B with the help of VBB and measure VBE.

3) Set the voltage VCE = 3 V and vary I B with the help of VBB and measure VBE.

4) Plot graph of I B v/s VBE.

5) Evaluate dynamic input resistance which is the ratio of change in VBE to the resulting change
in base current at constant collector emitter voltage. It is given by ΔV BE / ΔIB.

6) The reciprocal of the slope of the linear part of the characteristic gives the dynamic input
resistance of the transistor.

B. Output Characteristics

1) Keep IB constant say 10 μA, vary VCE and note down the collector current I C.

2) Now keep I B = 20 μA, vary VCE and note down the collector current I C.

3) Plot graph of I B v/s VCE.

4) The change in collector emitter voltage causes small change in the collector current for the
constant base current, which defines the dynamic output resistance and is given as ΔVCE / ΔIC
at constant I B or the output conductance is given ∆I C/∆VCE with the IB at a constant current.

5) Find output conductance from the slope of the linear portion of the characteristic curves and
find small-signal current gain which is calculated by β = ∆I C/∆IB with the VCE at a constant
voltage.
Observation Table:

For Input Characteristics

For VCE=0V

VBB (V) IB (µA) VBE (V)

0.1 0 0.167
0.2 0 0.275
0.3 0 0.316
0.4 0 0.385
0.5 0 0.421
0.6 1 0.450
0.7 2.5 0.463
0.8 3 0.474
0.9 4 0.482
1.0 5 0.489
1.1 6 0.498
1.2 7 0.503
1.3 8 0.508
1.4 9 0.511
1.5 9.5 0.514
1.6 10.5 0.519
1.7 11.5 0.522

For VCE=5V

VBB (V) IB (µA) VBE (V)

0.1 0 0.104
0.5 0 0.557
1.5 0 1.557
2.5 0 2.509
3.5 0 3.528
4.5 0 4.527
5.5 0.5 5.475
5.7 1 5.569
6.0 3.5 5.614
6.1 4.5 5.623
6.2 5 5.630
6.3 6 5.634
6.4 7 5.638
6.5 8 5.644
6.6 9 5.649
6.7 10 5.653
6.8 11 5.657
6.9 12 5.661
7.0 13 5.664
For VCE=10V

VBB (V) IB (µA) VBE (V)

1 0 1.066
3 0 3.088
5 0 4.963
7 0.5 6.920
8 0.5 7.910
10 1 9.890
11 3 10.640
11.2 5 10.660
11.4 7 10.680
11.6 9 10.690
12 13 10.700
12.5 17 10.720
13 22 10.730
14 32 10.750
CE Circuit Setup:
Input Characteristics:

VCE=10
V
VCE=5V
VCE=0V