Cairo University Computer Engineering Department

Faculty of Engineering First Year

Bipolar Junction Transistor

Supervised by Dr. Karim Ossama Abbas

Presented by Abdelrahman Jamal Sayed

‫عبدالرحمن جمال سيد احمد حنفى‬

Section 1

Bench Number 40

Spring 2020
Abstract
This is a short paper that studies the Bipolar Junction Transistor. It describes its
general structure of the BJT and why asymmetry in the doping of its components is
important. It also describes the BJT’s four modes of operation, explaining how the
BJT functions as a switch and as an amplifier. While explaining all of these
concepts and more, this paper doesn’t delve into complex mathematical equations
but focuses on explaining the general concepts.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction................................................................................................4

2. General Structure.......................................................................................5

3. The BJT in thermal equilibrium...............................................................6

4. Modes of operation.....................................................................................6
I. Forward-Active Mode..........................................................................................6

II. Reverse-Active Mode.........................................................................................10

III. Saturation Mode.................................................................................................10

IV. Cutoff Mode........................................................................................................10

5. Conclusion.................................................................................................11

6. References..................................................................................................12
Introduction
The bipolar point-contact transistor, the
first ever type of transistor to be
successfully produced in a laboratory, was
invented in December, 1947 by the three
scientists, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain,
and William Shockley, the scientists found
in [2, Figure 1], at the Bell Telephone
Laboratories. They won the Noble prize
for their invention. The bipolar junction
transistor, the version that this paper
studies, was later invented by William
Figure 1 John Bardeen, William Shockley
Shockley in 1948.[1] and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs, 1948

The bipolar junction transistor can be

thought of as two PN junctions connected back to back. It uses both electrons and
holes as charges carriers responsible for producing current, hence the “Bipolar” in
its name, as opposed to only using a single charge carrier like field effect
transistors which are unipolar transistors.

It has two configurations, either npn or pnp. It consists of three regions which are
the emitter, base and collector. The device has four modes of operation which are
dependent on the voltage drop between both the emitter-base junction and the
collector-base junction. Through these four modes of operation the BJT can
function as an amplifier and as a switch.
General Structure
As was mentioned in the
introduction, the BJT consists
of three regions, in two
configurations, npn and pnp.
In this paper, we will study the
BJT in the npn configuration.
The general concepts for the
Figure 2 the bipolar junction transistor in the npn
functionality of the BJT will configuration
be the same for both
configurations.

One of the major differences between the two configurations is the dominant
charge carrier contributing to current production. Electrons are the dominant
carriers in the npn configuration, and holes are dominant in the pnp configuration.
The difference in the dominant carriers comes with a difference in speed between
both configurations, as electrons have higher mobility than holes and thus the npn
configuration works at a higher frequency than the pnp configuration.

As we can see in [3, Figure 2], both the emitter and collector regions are of the
same type while the base region is of the opposite type. The doping of the three
regions is different. The emitter n-type region is heavily doped, the collector n-type
region is moderately doped, while also being wider than the emitter region, and
lastly, the base p-type region is lightly doped and is extremely narrow.

Both the geometric conditions of the BJT, and the asymmetric doping of its three
regions are fundamental to its functionality. The reason for these changes will be
covered later in this paper.
The BJT in thermal equilibrium
In [4, Figure 3] we can see the band
diagram of the BJT in equilibrium
and the depletion region that is
formed between both the emitter-
base junction and the collector-base
junction.

The fermi level is constant,

indicating that no current is Figure 3 The band diagram of an npn BJT in
passing through the device. Also, thermal equilibrium
the fermi level being closer to the
conduction band edge in the emitter region than to the conduction band edge in the
collector region indicates the higher doping level of the emitter region. The
asymmetry in doping can also be indicated by looking at the difference between
the level of conduction band edge in the emitter region and in the base region,
you’ll notice that this difference is bigger than the difference between the levels in
the base and in the collector regions, indicating an asymmetry in doping with the
emitter being more heavily doped.

Modes of operation
As there are two PN junctions, we can conclude that there are four modes of
operation depending on a combination of forward and reverse biases that are
applied to the two PN junctions.

The four modes of operations are as follows:

Mode BE Junction BC Junction

Forward-Active Forward Backward
Reverse-Active Backward Forward
Saturation Forward Forward
Cutoff Backward Backward
 Table 1 the four modes of operation of the BJT

I. Forward-Active Mode

The forward mode is the most important mode in the BJT, it involves a positive
voltage drop on the BE Junction and a negative voltage drop on the BC Junction.

The positive voltage on the BE junction makes it forward biased and reduces the
width of the depletion region, thereby reducing the energy barrier between the
emitter and the base and making it easier for electrons to defuse from the emitter
region to the base region and for holes to defuse from the base region to the emitter
region.

The negative voltage on the BC junction makes it backward biased and increases
the width of the depletion region, thereby increasing the energy barrier between the
collector and the base and making it harder for electrons defuse from the collector
region to the base region and for holes to defuse from the base region to the
collector region.

As we can see in [5, Figure 4], Due

to the large asymmetry in the
doping of the n-type emitter region
and the p-type base region, a large
concentration of electrons will
diffuse from the emitter region to
the base region, while a much
smaller concentration of holes will
diffuse from the base region to the Figure 4 The band diagram of an npn BJT in
emitter region. The reason for the Active-forward mode
difference in concentration of the
diffused charge carriers is due to
the asymmetry in doping.

Almost all of the diffused charge carriers will manage to reach the other region
without much change in their concentration due to the depletion region, the reason
for this, is that the depletion region doesn’t contain any charge carriers, it only
contains immobile charges that can’t recombine with the diffused electrons and
holes and therefore the diffused charge carriers’ concentration will not be affected.

As we can see in [6, Figure 5], some

of the diffused electrons will
recombine with the holes in the base,
some of them will touch the metal
contact of the base and become part
of the base current, but most of them
will manage to reach the end of the
base region and will be swept by Figure 5 An npn BJT in forward-active mode
the strong electric field between the
base and the collector regions and will manage to enter the collector region.

The reason that most of the electrons that diffused from the emitter region
managed to reach the end of the base region is due to the fact that the base is very
lightly doped and thereby, its hole concentration isn’t very large and doesn’t affect
the diffused electrons in a significant manner, but more importantly, because of the
fact that base region is extremely narrow, the reason why this is important is that
for a large concentration of electrons to be able to reach the end of the base region
without recombining, the width of the base region needs to be much smaller than
the diffusion length of electrons in the base region. The diffusion length is the
length that an excess charge carrier of a certain polarity (positive or negative) can
move in a region before recombining with a charge carrier of the opposite polarity.
In this case, it’s the length that a diffused electron can move in the base region
without recombining with the holes in it.

The electrons that diffuse from the emitter to the base form a part of the emitter
current, while the other part is formed by the diffusion of holes from the base to the
emitter. The collector current is formed by the electrons that manage to reach the
end of the base region and drift to the collector region, thereby producing the
collector drift current.

At this point, we can finally disclose the reasons behind the doping and structural
asymmetry of the bipolar junction transistor, the big difference in doping
concentrations between the emitter and the base is to allow for the diffusion of a
large concentration of electrons from the emitter to the base that form the majority
of the emitter current, while the light doping of the base region and it’s narrow
width is to help the majority of the diffused electrons to reach the end of the base
region without recombining, furthermore, the relatively smaller, albeit still big,
difference in doping between the collector and the base, allow for the formation of
a strong electric field between the base and the collector that drifts the electrons
that reach the end of the base region into the collector region forming the collector
current that is almost equal to the emitter current, finally, the reason that the
collector region is the largest in size is that, during the operation of the BJT, the
collector region collects a large concentration of electrons, which leads to it
heating up, so the larger surface area helps cool it down.

Also, another common misconception is that, since the BC junction has a very
large depletion region, it must be an insulator and current shouldn’t be able to pass
through it. This is false, the reason why a PN junction in reverse bias acts as an
insulator and doesn’t allow current to pass through it is that in reverse bias, the
increase in the width of the depletion region increases the energy barrier for
diffusion, making it much harder for it to occur, and only allows for drifting to
occur, but the direction of the electric field only allows electrons to move from the
p-type region to the n-type region and vice versa, electrons, however, are very
scarce in the p-type region while holes are also, very scarce in the n-type region,
thus the field is effectively trying to move minority carriers from one region to the
other region which is very rich in that carrier type, this, obviously, leads to the
generation of a very small, almost zero, current. The difference in the BJT,
however, is that while the field is still trying to move holes from the collector
region, where they are very scarce, it is also trying to move electrons from the base
region, where a large concentration of electrons just diffused to there from the
emitter region, therefore, it can generate a large amount of current due to the
drifting of the electrons, the only reason that this could happen, is due to the fact
that these drifting electrons came from an external source, the emitter region.

With this, we have described the forward-active operation of the BJT, in this
operation, it acts as an amplifier, the reason is that it can generate a very large
current just by providing a small voltage drop on the BE junction, the core reason
for the amplification is that the current generated by the PN junction is an
exponential function depending on the voltage drop on it.

II. Reverse-Active Mode

This is the second of the four modes of operation, it deals with the BE junction
being in a backward bias, while the BC junction is in forward bias. This leads to
this mode being very similar to the active-forward mode, but with some
differences, mainly, due to the much smaller difference in doping between the
collector and the base regions compared to the difference between the emitter and
the base regions, this leads to a much smaller concentration of electrons being
diffused from the collector region to the base region. As the concentration of
electrons isn’t that large, much of the diffused electrons quickly recombine with
the holes in the base region, this leads to a base current that’s much larger than in
the forward-active mode, and a much smaller concentration of electrons that
manage to reach the end of the base region and get swept by the BE field, leading
to a much smaller over all current in the device. All in all, this device is an inferior
version of the active-mode with no advantages over it, and as such, it has no uses.

III. Saturation Mode

In this mode, both the BE and the BC junctions are forward biased. This leads to a
large concentration of electrons diffusing from both the emitter and the collector
regions into the base region, and because the base region is lightly doped, the large
concentration of electrons diffusing into it quickly overwhelm it the and saturate it
with electrons, turning it into a temporary n-type region, this change reduces the
depletion regions between the three terminals and forms a current path that is very
small in resistance, thus allowing a large current to pass through the device. So, in
this mode, the device acts as an on-switch transistor.

IV. Cutoff Mode

In this mode, both of the junctions are in reverse bias, this leads to an increase in
the width of both depletion regions and allows almost no charge carriers to move
between the two regions, as such, no current can pass through the device and it acts
as an off-switch transistor.
Conclusion
The BJT was an amazing device for its time, it managed to act as a switch and also
act as an amplifier. Humanity (or Science), however, keeps evolving, and the BJT
no longer has the edge it used to have, with the introduction of CMOS, MOSFET,
and other technologies that are both better and easier to fabricate, the BJT has very
limited applications in the current times. The BJT was, however, an important
milestone that helped us reach this point and as always, Humanity (or Science) will
keep evolving.
References
[1] "Bipolar Junction Transistor". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2020,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_junction_transistor. Accessed 26 Apr 2020.

[2] AT&T. John Bardeen, William Shockley And Walter Brattain, The Inventors Of The
Transistor, 1948. 1964,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bardeen_Shockley_Brattain_1948.JPG. Accessed 26
Apr 2020.

[3] The Structure (Simplified) Of An NPN BJT Transistor.. 2007,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NPN_BJT.svg. Accessed 26 Apr 2020.

[4] The Band Diagram Of An NPN BJT In Equilibrium. 2007,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NPN_Band_Diagram_Equilibrium.svg. Accessed 26
Apr 2020.

[5] The Band Diagram Of An NPN BJT In Active Mode. 2007,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NPN_Band_Diagram_Active.svg. Accessed 26 Apr
2020.

[6] The Basic Operation Of An NPN BJT In Active Mode. 2007,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NPN_BJT_Basic_Operation_(Active).svg. Accessed
26 Apr 2020.