BSc Hons.

Electronics &
Telecommunications
Technology
HETT204: APPLICATIONS OF
ELECTRONIC DEVICES & CIRCUITS

Mr P Dangare
 Transistor Biasing
Basic configuration of the common-emitter amplifier .

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 Characteristic Curves
• two sets of characteristic curves are used to
fully describe the behaviour of a CE amplifier.
• these arise from the fact that:
iC = f(iB, vCE)
iB = f(vBE, vCE)

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 Input Characteristics
(or static base characteristics)
• relate the input current to an input voltage for
various levels of output voltage.

• for the CE amplifier these relate iB to vBE for

various levels of vCE.

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 Typical input characteristics for a silicon
transistor (CE mode).

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 Output Characteristics
(or static collector characteristics)

• relate the output current to the output voltage

for various levels of input current.

• for the CE amplifier these relate iC to vCE for

various values of iB.

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Typical output characteristics for a silicon transistor
(CE mode)

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 Circuit Biasing and the operating point
• Biasing a transistor means establishing p.d.’s across its
electrodes, causing currents to flow in the device.
• The purpose of biasing is to establish operation on the desired
portion of a transistor’s input/output transfer function curve
– i.e. in its active region for amplifiers.
• In transistor amplifier design, first a DC bias point (also called
the quiescent or Q point) is established.
• This point consists of DC voltages and currents that exist within
the amplifier when the no input signal is applied.
• When a signal is applied to the input, the internal voltage levels
depart from their DC operating point.
• The variation from this DC level gives rise to amplification.
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• for a CE amp the biasing determines static values of:
– base current (IB)
– collector current (IC)
– base-emitter voltage (VBE)
– collector-emitter voltage (VCE)
• Note that upper case symbols and subscripts are used
to denote that the values quoted are the d.c. or static
ones.
• When a signal is applied these static values will se &
se about their quiescent value as the input signal
swings +ve and -ve.

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• eg., suppose an amplifier has IBQ = 20 A,
ICQ = 3 mA and VCEQ = 5.0 V,
• When an input signal is connected:
– IB varies by ± 5 A,
– IC varies by ±1mA and
– VCE varies by ± 2.0 V,
• We now have an a.c. signal component
present that is changing the static values.
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 Transistor Biasing
Fixed Bias
Variations in the
supply voltage
produce changes in
the quiescent values,
and also a change in
temperature will alter
the current gain of the
transistor and hence
quiescent point.

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 Emitter Stabilized bias
The emitter resistor RE acts
as a negative feedback to
stabilize the operating
point.
If increases for any
reason, a resulting rise in IE
will increase the voltage
drop across RE, and
thereby increase VE.
VBE thus becomes smaller,
causing a drop in IB that
counteracts the increase in
IE .

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 Collector Feedback bias
The base-biasing resistor
connected to the collector
instead of VCC.

Rf acts as a negative
feedback resistor since it
feeds the collector
current back into the
base.

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 Voltage Divider bias
This circuit offers the
best resilience against
changes in temperature
and device
characteristics.

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