EEE 4381

Electronics and Digitization Techniques

Lecture-9: Bipolar Junction Transistors

Ref: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by Robert L. Boylestad & Louis Nashelsky (11th edition)

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 Transistor Construction
What is a Transistor?
Three-layer semiconductor device
• npn type (two n-type layers with one p-type layer in between)
• pnp type (two p-type layers with one n-type layer in between)
Basic Structure:
There are three terminals in a BJT:
• E (Emitter): The heavily doped region, which injects charge carriers
(either electrons or holes).
• C (Collector): This is lightly doped and collects the charge carriers.
• B (Base): A very thin and lightly doped middle layer that controls the
flow of charge between the emitter and collector.
• The emitter is much more heavily doped than the base and collector. This
means it contains a higher concentration of charge carriers to ensure proper
current flow.
• The width of the base is much smaller compared to the emitter and
collector (as shown in the diagram: 0.001 inches for the base compared to
0.150 inches for the emitter and collector).
 Transistor Construction
Doping:
• Doping refers to adding impurities to the semiconductor to change its
electrical properties. Heavily doped regions (like the emitter) have a high
number of free carriers (electrons or holes), while lightly doped regions (like
the base) have fewer carriers.
• The sandwiched base layer is much thinner and less doped compared to the
outer emitter and collector layers. This design ensures that the base has
higher resistance, which limits the number of charge carriers that flow
through it.

Bipolar term:
• The term "bipolar" refers to the fact that both types of charge carriers—
electrons and holes—are involved in the current flow through the device.
This is different from unipolar devices like FETs (field-effect transistors),
which rely on only one type of carrier.
 Transistor Operation
The operation of a pnp transistor is similar to an npn transistor, but
with the roles of electrons and holes reversed.
• In an npn transistor, electrons are the majority carriers.
• In a pnp transistor, holes are the majority carriers.
Biasing a transistor:
Biasing refers to applying voltage to the transistor terminals to control
its operation. Transistors have two types of biasing:
• Forward bias: In the forward-biased state, the depletion region is
reduced, allowing current to flow. Fig. 3.4(a): forward-biased pnp
transistor. The emitter-base junction is forward-biased, allowing
majority carriers (holes) to move from the emitter into the base,
where they combine with electrons. This creates a flow of current.
• Reverse bias: In the reverse-biased state, the depletion region
increases, which blocks or greatly reduces the current. Fig. 3.4(b):
reverse-biased condition. The base-collector junction is reverse-
biased, meaning that no significant current flows from the
collector to the emitter.
 Transistor Operation

Majority and Minority Carrier Flow:

Majority carriers are the primary charge carriers in the
transistor:
• In a pnp transistor, these are holes.
• In an npn transistor, these are electrons.
Fig. 3.5 shows how the majority carriers move across the pnp
transistor:
• The majority carriers (holes) flow from the emitter (E) to
the base (B), and then diffuse into the collector (C).
• Minority carriers (electrons) in the base are few, but they
recombine with holes.
 Flow of majority and minority carriers in a pnp transistor

Majority Carrier Flow:

• The emitter-base junction is forward biased, meaning a
positive voltage is applied to the emitter relative to the
base.
• Under forward bias, holes from the emitter are injected into
the base region (p-type to n-type movement).
• Since the base is thin and lightly doped, most of these holes
do not recombine with electrons in the base but instead
diffuse across the base toward the collector.
• These holes are collected by the collector (p-type region),
where they form the collector current (IC).
• The result is that a large number of holes flow from the
emitter, through the base, and into the collector, creating a
larger emitter current (IE) compared to the base current.
 Flow of majority and minority carriers in a pnp transistor

Current Relationships:
• Kirchhoff’s Current Law applies to the transistor

• The base current is typically in the microampere (µA)

range, while the emitter and collector currents are in the
milliampere (mA) range.
• The majority of the current comes from the forward-biased
EB junction, where holes flow from the emitter to the
collector.
• A small minority carrier current exists in the reverse-biased
CB junction, contributing to a minimal leakage current.
 Flow of majority and minority carriers in a pnp transistor

Collector Current Components :

• ICmajority: This is the majority carrier current—the main current in

the transistor. In a pnp transistor, the majority carriers are holes
that move from the emitter, across the base, and into the
collector. This is the dominant part of the current.
• ICOminority(Leakage Current): This is the minority carrier current
that flows due to minority carriers in the reverse-biased collector-
base junction. It's also called leakage current, represented by ICO,
which stands for the collector current with the emitter terminal
open. It’s usually very small (in the microampere or nanoampere
range) and flows even when the emitter is disconnected because
of the reverse-biased collector-base junction. (It is like IS for a
reverse biased diode. Temperature sensitive)
 Common Base Configuration

• The base is common to both the input and

output sides of the configuration.
• Input current: IE, Input voltage: VBE
• Output current: IC, Output voltage: VCB
• To fully understand how a three-terminal device
like the common-base amplifier works, we need
two sets of data: one for the input side (called
the "driving point") and another for the output
side.
 Common Base Configuration
• Input characteristics of a common-base silicon
transistor amplifier.
• VBE controls IE
• As VBE​ increases, IE​ also increases in a way that closely
resembles the exponential increase seen in a diode’s I-
V characteristics.
• Early effect: When we increase VCB, depletion region
width increases, base region’s width decreases where
recombination takes place. So recombination
decreases. Increases IE.
• As VCB​ is varied (for example, increasing from 1 V to 10
V and then to 20 V), the input characteristics curve for
IE​ vs. VBE​ shows only a small shift. This indicates that IE​
does not change significantly with different values of
VCB​ at a given VBE​.
 Common Base Configuration
• Output characteristics of a common-base
silicon transistor amplifier.
• Active region: base-emitter forward biased,
collector-base reverse biased.
• Employed for linear amplifiers.
• When IE=0, IC0= reverse saturation current, so
small that it appears to be IC=0
 Common Base Configuration
• As the emitter current IE​ increases, the
collector current IC​ also increases to a level that
is almost equal to IE

• Cutoff region: the collector-base and base-

emitter junctions of a transistor are both
reverse-biased. Collector current is 0A.
• Saturation region: the collector-base and base-
emitter junctions are forward-biased
 Common Base Configuration
Once a transistor is in the “on” state, the base-to-emitter voltage will be assumed to be the
following:
Common Base Configuration
 Common Base Configuration
• In the dc mode the levels of I C and I E due to the majority carriers are related by a quantity called
alpha and defined by the following equation:

• Where IC and IE are the levels of current at the point of operation. Even though the characteristics of
Fig. 3.8 would suggest that a 1, for practical devices alpha typically extends from 0.90 to 0.998, with
most values approaching the high end of the range.
Transistor Amplifying Action
 Common Emitter Configuration

• The emitter is common to both the

input and output terminals (in this case
common to both the base and collector
terminals).
• Two sets of characteristics are again
necessary to describe fully the behavior
of the common-emitter configuration:
one for the input or base–emitter
circuit and one for the output or
collector–emitter circuit.
 Common Emitter Configuration

• Input characteristics: Input Current IB,

Input Voltage VBE
• IB is in microamperes
• The collector-to emitter voltage will
influence the magnitude of the
collector current
• The region to the left of VCEsat is called
the saturation region.
 VCE = VCB + VBE
For a fixed VBE, if VCE increases, VCB
+ + also increases.
VCB VCB reverse biases the C-B junction,
creating a depletion region.
- When VCB is increased, the depletion
VCE region width increases, decreasing
+ the effective base width. So, the
VBE probability of recombination at the
base reduces. Most of the electrons
- - gets collected at the collector,
increasing IC and reducing IB.
 Common Emitter Configuration

• Output characteristics are a plot of the output

current ( IC ) versus output voltage ( VCE ) for a
range of values of input current ( IB ).
• Active region: base–emitter forward biased,
collector–base reverse biased
• The collector-to emitter voltage, VCE will
influence the magnitude of the collector
current, IC
• Active region is used for voltage, current, or
power amplification
• In the active region, IB gets amplified by a
factor of β as IC = βIB
 Common Emitter Configuration

• Saturation region: base–emitter forward

biased, collector–base forward biased
• The region to the left of VCEsat is called the
saturation region.
• When VCE is lower than VCEsat (gets close to
zero), C-B becomes forward biased. When C-B
and B-E junctions are forward biased, BJT
operates in the saturation region.
 Common Emitter Configuration
• Cutoff region: base–emitter reverse biased,
collector–base reverse biased
• The cutoff region for the common-emitter
configuration is not as well defined
• IC is not equal to zero when IB is zero
• For linear (least distortion) amplification
purposes, cutoff for the common-emitter
configuration will be defined by IC = ICEO
 Rearranging (5),
(1)

(2)
If IB = 0 and α = 0.996,
(3)

alpha is defined solely for the majority

carriers, (3) can be written as
(4)
If ICB0 = 1uA, and IB = 0, IC = 0.25mA
From (2) and (4),
So, IC is not equal to zero when IB is
(5) zero.
Common Emitter Configuration
 Common Emitter Configuration
Beta
In the dc mode the levels of IC and IB are related by a quantity called beta and defined by the
following equation:

• where IC and IB are determined at a particular operating point on the characteristics.

• For practical devices the level of typically ranges from about 50 to over 400, with
most in the midrange.
• The formal name for Beta is common-emitter, forward-current, amplification factor.
Alpha to Beta/Beta to Alpha
 Amplification: Active Region
❑ Class lecture, supporting video: https://youtu.be/Z-UvKbQk3go?si=lz_em6WWVBNVcAWW (Only go
through the relevant portions discussed in the class)
Amplification
Amplification
 Switching
• A BJT acts like an open switch when it operates in
the cut-off region (voltage at the base terminal is
0V, base-emitter junction is not forward-biased).
• IB and IC are zero.
• Since IC is zero, the voltage across the collector and
emitter terminal, VCE(cutoff), is equal to VCC

Operating point
(open switch)

Vcc
 Switching
• For a BJT to act as a closed switch, it needs to operate
in the saturation region.
• Ideally, there’s basically a short between the collector
and emitter and the voltage drop across it should be
zero. However, in reality, there is a small voltage drop
across the collector and emitter terminals which is
known as the saturation voltage, VCE(sat).
• For a BJT to operate in the saturation region, the base-
emitter junction and base-collector junction should be
forward-biased, and there should be a sufficient base
current to produce the collector saturation current,
IC(sat),

Reference: https://www.circuitbread.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-bipolar-junction-transistor-bjt-as-a-switch
Switching

Operating point
(closed switch)
Common Emitter Configuration
 Common Emitter Configuration
Beta
In the dc mode the levels of IC and IB are related by a quantity called beta and defined by the
following equation:

• where IC and IB are determined at a particular operating point on the characteristics.

• For practical devices the level of typically ranges from about 50 to over 400, with
most in the midrange.
• The formal name for Beta is common-emitter, forward-current, amplification factor.
Alpha to Beta/Beta to Alpha
 Common Collector Configuration
(Self study from the reference book)
• Used primarily for impedance-matching purposes since it has a high input impedance and low
output impedance.
 Common Collector Configuration
Input Characteristics Output Characteristics

Reference: https://mundus2035.com/fundamentals-of-cc-configuration-you-need-to-learn/