ECE111 – Analog Electronics

Sandeep Saini
Gaurav Chatterjee

1
 Lecture 08
Bipolar Junction
Transistor

2
History

● The invention of the BJT in 1948 at the Bell Telephone

Laboratories ushered in the era of solid-state circuits.
● We replaced the vacuum tubes by transistors in radios and
television sets.
● The invention of the transistor also eventually led to the dominance
of information technology.
● The bipolar transistor enjoyed nearly three decades as the device of
choice in the design of both discrete and integrated circuits.
● Although the MOSFET had been known very early on, it was not
until the 1970s and 1980s that it became a serious competitor to
the BJT
3
 Introduction

● BJT consists of three semiconductor regions: the

emitter region (n type), the base region ( p
type), and the collector region (n type).
● Such a transistor is called an npn transistor.
● Another transistor, a dual of the npn has a p-type
emitter, an n-type base, and a p-type collector,
and is appropriately called a pnp transistor.
● A terminal is connected to each of the three
semiconductor regions of the transistor, with the
terminals labeled emitter (E), base (B), and
collector (C).

4
Operation
● The transistor consists of two pn junctions, the emitter–base junction (EBJ) and
the collector–base junction (CBJ).
● Depending on the bias condition (forward or reverse) of each of these junctions,
different modes of operation of the BJT are obtained, as shown in Table.
● The active mode is the one used if the transistor is to operate as an amplifier.
● Switching applications (e.g., logic circuits) utilize both the cutoff mode and the
saturation mode.
● As the name implies, in the cutoff mode no current flows because both junctions
are reverse biased.

5
 Active Mode

● Two external voltage sources

are used to establish the
required bias conditions for
active-mode operation.
● The voltage VBE causes
forward biasing of the
emitter–base junction.
● The collector–base voltage
VCB causes reverse biasing of
the collector–base junction.
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Current Flow

● The forward bias on the emitter–base junction will cause

current to flow across this junction.
● Current will consist of two components: electrons injected
from the emitter into the base, and holes injected from the
base into the emitter.
● There will be three current components.
● Emitter current IE
● Collector current IC
● Base Current IB
● I E = IB + I C
7
The Collector Current

● The collector current is carried by the electrons that reach

the collector region.
● Its direction will be opposite to that of the flow of electrons,
and thus into the collector terminal.
● Its magnitude will be proportional to evBE /VT , thus
●
● IS, as in the case of the diode, is called the saturation current
● iC is independent of the value of vCB

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Base current

● The base current iB is composed of two components.

● The first component iB1 is due to the holes injected from the
base region into the emitter region.
● This current component is proportional to e vBE /VT .
● The second component of base current, i B2, is due to holes that
have to be supplied by the external circuit in order to replace
the holes lost from the base through the recombination
process.

● the parameter β is called the common-emitter current gain

9
The Emitter Current

● Since the current that enters a transistor must leave it.

● The emitter current iE is equal to the sum of the collector
current iC and the base current iB; that is,

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Minority-Carrier Distribution

● Refer to the figure

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● Observe that since the doping concentration in the emitter, N D, is much
higher than the doping concentration in the base, N A, the concentration
of electrons injected from emitter to base, np(0), is much higher than
the concentration of holes injected from the base to the emitter, p n(0).
● Next, observe that because the base is very thin, the concentration of
excess electrons decays almost linearly
● current In is directly proportional to the slope of the straight-line
concentration profile,

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Recapitulation and Equivalent-Circuit Models

● Large signal models for npn BJT (active mode)

13
● Large signal models for npn BJT

14
Example

● An npn transistor having IS = 10−15A and β = 100 is connected as follows:

● The emitter is grounded, the base is fed with a constant-current source
supplying a dc current of 10 μA, and the collector is connected to a 5-V
dc supply via a resistance RC of 3 k.
● Assuming that the transistor is operating in the active mode, find V BE
and VCE.
● Use these values to verify active-mode operation.
● Replace the current source with a resistance connected from the base to
the 5-V dc supply.
● What resistance value is needed to result in the same operating
conditions?

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Solutions

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17
18
Practice problems

● Calculate β for two transistors for which α = 0.99 and 0.98.

For collector currents of 10 mA, find the base current of each
transistor
● Answer: 99; 49; 0.1 mA; 0.2 mA

● Measurement of an npn BJT in a particular circuit shows the

base current to be 14.46 μA, the emitter current to be 1.460
mA, and the base–emitter voltage to be 0.7 V. For these
conditions, calculate α, β.
● Answer: 0.99 , 100
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Practice Problems

● Consider an npn transistor with vBE = 0.7 V at iC = 1 mA. Find

vBE at iC = 0.1 mA and 10 mA.
● Answers: 0.64 V; 0.76 V

● Transistors of a certain type are specified to have β values in

the range of 50 to 150. Find the range of their α values.
● Answer: 0.980 to 0.993

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The pnp Transistor

● The pnp transistor operates in a manner similar to that of the npn device.
● Here the voltage VEB causes the p-type emitter to be higher in potential than
the n-type base, thus forward biasing the emitter–base junction.
● The collector–base junction is reverse biased by the voltage V BC, which keeps
the p-type collector lower in potential than the n-type base.

21
 Lecture 09
BJT Configurations

22
V-I characteristics

● Circuit Symbols and Conventions

● Circuit symbols for npn and pnp are
shown.
● Voltage polarities and current flow in
transistors operating in the active mode
are also shown.
● Note that currents flow from top to
bottom and that voltages are higher at the
top and lower at the bottom.
● The arrowhead on the emitter also implies
the polarity of the emitter–base voltage.
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● We should make the emitter higher in voltage than the base (by vEB) in order
to cause current to flow into the emitter (downward).
● Note that the symbol vEB means the voltage by which the emitter (E) is
higher than the base (B).
● Thus for a pnp transistor operating in the active mode VEB is positive, while
in an npn transistor VBE is positive.
● From the discussions, it follows that an npn transistor whose EBJ is forward
biased (usually, VBE 0.7 V) will operate in the active mode as long as the
collector voltage does not fall below that of the base by more than
approximately 0.4 V.
● Otherwise, the transistor leaves the active mode and enters the saturation
region of operation.
24
V-I Relationships in the Active Mode

25
Example

● The transistor in the circuit of Figure has β = 100

and exhibits a VBE of 0.7 V at IC = 1 mA. Design the
circuit so that a current of 2 mA flows through the
collector and a voltage of +5 V appears at the
collector.
● Solution: (Rough estimates)
● RC = (15-5)/2mA = 5k
● VE = -0.7V
● RE = (14.3)/IE = 7.15k

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Accurate analysis

27
Practice problem

● In the circuit shown in Figure, the voltage at

the emitter was measured and found to be
–0.7 V.
● If β = 50, find IE, IB, IC, and VC.

● Answers:
● 0.93 mA; 18.2 μA; 0.91 mA; +5.45 V

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Practice problem

● In the circuit shown in Figure measurement

indicates VB to be +1.0 V and VE to be +1.7 V.
● What are α and β for this transistor? What
voltage VC do you expect at the collector?

● Answers:
● 0.994; 165; –1.75 V

● Now lets us go back to one more example

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 Lecture 10
BJT Configurations

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Common base configuration

● The common-base terminology is derived from the

fact that the base is common to both the input and
output sides of the configuration.
● All the current directions appearing in Figure are the
actual directions as defined by the choice of
conventional flow.
● Note in each case that IE = IC + IB.
● Note also that the applied biasing (voltage sources)
are such as to establish current in the direction
indicated for each branch.
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 Input characteristics

● To fully describe the behavior of a three-

terminal device such as the common-base
amplifiers requires two sets of characteristics
○ one for the driving point or input parameters
○ the other for the output side.

● The input set for the common-base amplifier

relates an input current (IE) to an input voltage
(VBE) for various levels of output voltage (V CB).

32
Output characteristics

● The output set relates an

output current (IC) to an
output voltage (VCB) for
various levels of input
current (IE)
● The output or collector set of
characteristics has three
basic regions of interest,
● active, cutoff, and saturation

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● In the active region the base–emitter junction is forward-
biased, whereas the collector–base junction is reverse-
biased.
● In the cutoff region the base–emitter and collector–base
junctions of a transistor are both reverse-biased.
● In the saturation region the base–emitter and collector–base
junctions are forward-biased.

● In active region, we assume VBE ≈ 0.7 V

● In saturation region, we assume VCE ≈ 0.2 V or 0V
34
Biasing

● The proper biasing of the common-base

configuration in the active region can be
determined quickly using the approximation I C≈IE
and assuming for the moment that I B≈0 mA.
● The result is the configuration of Figure for the
pnp transistor. The arrow of the symbol defines
the direction of conventional flow for I E ≈ IC.
● The dc supplies are then inserted with a polarity
that will support the resulting current direction.
● For the npn transistor the polarities will be
reversed.

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Common emitter configuration

● It is called the common-emitter configuration because the

emitter is common to both the input and output terminals

36
Input and output characteristics

● For the common-emitter configuration the output characteristics

are a plot of the output current (IC) versus output voltage (VCE) for
a range of values of input current (I B).
● The input characteristics are a plot of the input current (I B) versus
the input voltage (VBE) for a range of values of output voltage (V CE).
● Note that on the characteristics graph the magnitude of I B is in
microamperes, compared to milliamperes of I C.
● Consider also that the curves of IB are not as horizontal as those
obtained for IE in the common-base configuration

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Input and output characteristics

38
Beta (DC mode)

● DC Mode 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 b typically ranges from
about 50 to over 400

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Beta (AC mode)

● For ac situations an ac beta is defined as follows:

● The formal name for βac is common-emitter, forward-
current, amplification factor.
● Since the collector current is usually the output current for a
common-emitter configuration and the base current is the
input current, the term amplification is included in the
nomenclature above.

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● To find beta for AC
mode, we take the
difference on IC and IB
and then calculate the
value.

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Biasing for CE mode

● The proper biasing of a common-emitter amplifier can be

determined in a manner similar to that introduced for the
common-base configuration.

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Breakdown Region

● In Figure the characteristics of CE

configurations have been extended to
demonstrate the impact on the
characteristics at high levels of VCE.
● At high levels of base current the
currents almost climb vertically,
whereas at lower levels a region
develops that seems to back up on
itself.
● Regions of this nature are said to have
a negative-resistance characteristic

43
COMMON-COLLECTOR CONFIGURATION

● The common-collector configuration is used primarily for

impedance-matching purposes since it has a high input
impedance and low output impedance, opposite to that of
the common-base and common-emitter configurations.

44
LIMITS OF OPERATION

● For each transistor there is a region of operation on the

characteristics that will ensure that the maximum ratings are
not being exceeded and the output signal exhibits minimum
distortion.
● Some of the limits of operation are self-explanatory, such as
● maximum collector current - IC
● maximum collector-to-emitter voltage - VCE

45
● For the device of this example,
the collector power dissipation
was specified as 300 mW.
● Pcmax = VCEIC = 300 mW
● or VCEIC = 300 mW

46
47
OPERATING POINT

● For transistor amplifiers the resulting dc current and voltage

establish an operating point on the characteristics that
define the region that will be employed for amplification of
the applied signal.
● Because the operating point is a fixed point on the
characteristics, it is also called the quiescent point
(abbreviated Q-point).

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FIXED-BIAS CONFIGURATION

● The fixed-bias circuit is the simplest transistor dc bias

configuration.
● For the dc analysis the network can be isolated from the indicated ac
levels by replacing the capacitors with an open-circuit equivalent.

49
Input loop analysis

● Writing Kirchhoff’s voltage equation in the

clockwise direction for the loop, we obtain
● +VCC - IBRB - VBE = 0

50
Output loop analysis

51
Example..

● Find

52
Transistor Saturation

● For a transistor operating in the saturation

region, the current is a maximum value for
the particular design.
● The highest saturation level is defined by the
maximum collector current as provided by the
specification sheet.
● Saturation conditions are normally avoided
because the base–collector junction is no
longer reverse-biased and the output
amplified signal will be distorted.
● An operating point in the saturation region is
depicted in Figure.

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● In saturation
● VCE = 0.
● Once ICsat is known, we have some idea of
the maximum possible collector current for
the chosen design and the level to stay
below if we expect linear amplification.

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Example

● Find the saturation current

for the given circuit.

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Load-Line Analysis

● Given a common emitter fixed bias configuration..

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Changing VCC or RC

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Example

● Given the load line of Figure and the defined

Q-point, determine the required values of
VCC, RC, and RB for a fixed-bias configuration

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EMITTER-BIAS CONFIGURATION

● The dc bias network contains

an emitter resistor to improve
the stability level over that of
the fixed-bias configuration.
● The more stable a
configuration, the less its
response will change due to
undesireable changes in
temperature and parameter
variations.

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Input loop analysis

60
Output loop analysis

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Example …

● Find IB, IC, VCE, VC, VE, VB, VBC.

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63
Saturation level

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Why emitter bias is better?

● Prepare a table and compare the bias voltage and currents of the circuits of fixed bias
and emitter bias circuits for the given value of β = 50 and for a new value of β = 100.
● Compare the changes in IC and VCE for the same increase in β.

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● For fixed bias

● For emitter bias

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Example..

● Draw the load line for the network of

Figure.
● For a Q-point at the intersection of
the load line with a base current of 15
mA , find the values of ICQ and VCEQ.
● Determine the dc beta at the Q-point.
● Using the beta, calculate the required
value of RB and suggest a possible
standard value.

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Solution

68
VOLTAGE-DIVIDER BIAS CONFIGURATION

● The circuit for voltage divider bias configuration is as follows:

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Exact Analysis

70
Example

● Determine the dc bias voltage VCE

and the current IC for the voltage-
divider configuration of given
circuit.

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Approximate Analysis

Because Ri = (β + 1)RE ≈βRE the condition that will define

whether the approximate approach can be applied is

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Example.

● Repeat the analysis of same example using the approximate

technique, and compare solutions for ICQ and VCEQ.

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COLLECTOR FEEDBACK CONFIGURATION

● An improved level of stability can

also be obtained by introducing a
feedback path from collector to
base.
● Although the Q-point is not totally
independent of beta, the sensitivity
to changes in beta or temperature
variations is normally less than
encountered for the fixed-bias or
emitter-biased configurations.

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Input loop analysis

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Output loop analysis

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Example…

● Determine the quiescent

levels of ICQ and VCEQ for the
network

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Example ..

● Determine the dc level of IB

and VC for the network

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EMITTER-FOLLOWER CONFIGURATION
(Common collector)

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● Determine VCEQ and IEQ for
the network

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COMMON-BASE CONFIGURATION

● Complete circuit and the input loop are shown.

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Applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law to the entire outside
perimeter of the network

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 Example

● Determine the currents IE and

IB and the voltages VCE and VCB
for the common-base
configuration

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MISCELLANEOUS BIAS CONFIGURATIONS

● Determine ICQ , VCEQ,VB, VC, VE,

and VBC.

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● Determine VC and VB for the network
● Applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law in the
clockwise direction for the base–
emitter loop results in

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SUMMARY TABLE

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87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100