Esc 201A: Introduction to Electronics Department of Electrical Engineering

Experiment 6
Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) Circuits: Inverter and Common Emitter
Amplifier

Introduction
BJTs are extensively used in all types of electronic circuits. The aim of
this part of the experiment is to familiarize you with the basic modes of
operation and features of a BJT through the study of simple BJT
circuits. The BJT that you will be using in this experiment is BC 547 (the
pin diagram is shown in Fig.1), which has a typical current rating of 100
mA (maximum). Make sure to connect the transistor correctly in the
circuits. Also, while changing any component in the circuit, please
turn the power supply off, and turn it on again only after all the
required changes have been made and the circuit is complete.
Fig.1
BJT Inverter Circuit
BJT inverter circuit is commonly used to implement the NOT function (i.e., the output is
an inverted form of the input) using discrete BJTs. The circuit also illustrates the basic
modes of operation of a BJT.
Experiment
(i) Wire the BJT inverter circuit of Fig. 2. Use RC = 1 k. VCC
5V
(ii) Adjust the FG to obtain a 200 Hz triangular wave (0 to +5
V) and connect the same as the input (Vi) to the circuit. RC

(iii) Use the X-Y mode and sketch the voltage transfer RB V0
characteristic (VTC  V0 versus Vi) of the inverter as seen 47 k
on the DSO (it should be somewhat similar to the one shown
Vi
in Fig. 3). Note down the approximate values of VOH, VOL, VIL, D1
and VIH. Indicate the modes of operation of the BJT on the Fig.2
different regions of the VTC.
(iv) Using the VTC, estimate the current gain  of the
transistor. V0

(v) Now use RC = 15 k, and repeat steps (ii) and (iii). VOH
(vi) Explain the effect of RC on the BJT inverter characteristic.
Fig.3

Note: The transistor has a low base-emitter junction reverse

breakdown voltage. To ensure that this junction does not break VOL
0
down due to wrong polarity of the applied voltage, the diode D1 is VIL VIH Vi
used – it clamps the maximum reverse bias across the junction to
approximately 0.7 V.

Common Emitter Amplifier

BJT amplifiers most commonly employ the common emitter (CE) configuration. You will
check the biasing conditions of the given circuit and also test the CE amplifier.

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Esc 201A: Introduction to Electronics Department of Electrical Engineering

Experiment
Before coming to the lab, you should have analyzed the given BJT circuit (for RC = 1.5 k
and 15 k) and calculated the currents IB, IC, and IE, and the voltages VB, VC, and VE. Use 
= 100, VBE = 0.7 V, and VCEsat = 0.2 V.

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 Esc 201A: Introduction to Electronics Department of Electrical Engineering

Common Emitter Amplifier using the BJT Circuit

(i) Wire the CE amplifier circuit of Fig. 4,
omitting the capacitors, RL, and FG
connections. Choose RC = 3.3 k. Make
neat connections such that different
points of the circuit are easily
accessible.
(ii) Measure the node voltages VB, VC, and
VE using the DMM.
(iii) Estimate IB, IC, and IE. Tabulate the
theoretical and the measured results
(Table 1).
(iv) What is the mode of operation of the BJT? Justify your answer.

Table 1: Measured and calculated biasing conditions (RC = 3.3 k)

Parameter VB VC VE IB IC IE Mode
Calculated
Measured

(v) Switch-off the +12V VCC supply to the BJT circuit. Make RC=3.3 k. Now connect
the electrolytic capacitors and RL. Take care to observe the correct polarities when
you connect the electrolytic capacitors.
(vi) Adjust the FG output to give 0.2 sin t V (f=1 kHz). Switch on VCC and connect the
FG output to the BJT circuit through capacitor C1.
(vii) Observe the amplifier input (Vi = VB) and output VO on CH-1 and CH-2, respectively.
(viii) Sketch the two waveforms. Measure the voltage gain of the amplifier (Voltage gain,
AV = VO/Vi).
(ix) Comment on the phase relationship between the amplifier input and output
waveforms.

Increasing the gain of the amplifier

In order to increase the gain, an engineer decided to increase value of RC to 15 k.
(i) Change RC to 15 k.
(ii) Measure the gain of the amplifier. Does it increase? If necessary, decrease the
amplitude of the input signal.
(iii) Measure the DC biasing conditions to determine the mode of operation of the BJT.

It is known from theory that the gain of the CE amplifier can be increased by connecting a
capacitor in parallel with RE.
(i) Change RC back to 3.3 k.
(ii) Connect a 100 F capacitor across RE, and measure the Rp1
gain. You may need to use a potential divider to reduce 10 k
the amplitude of the input signal (5mV to 10mV peak)
so that output signal waveform is undistorted. VB
+
+
Rp2
vs Vin
3 1 k
–
–
Esc 201A: Introduction to Electronics Department of Electrical Engineering

Notes:
 V_{XY} = V_X – V_Y where V_X is the voltage at node X
 measured with respect to ground
 B: base, E: emitter, C: collector
 V_{BE}< 0.7 V: transistor is cutoff
 V_{BE} = 0.7 V, V_{CE}> 0.2 V: transistor is in active region
 V_{BE} = 0.7 V, V_{CE} = 0.2 V: transistor is in saturation
 I_C = beta * I_B when the transistor is in active region.
 I_E = (beta + 1) * I_B when the transistor is in active region
 Take beta = 100