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Bipolar Junction
Transistors
EE 21 Fundamentals of Electronics
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Topics
Construction and characteristics

BJT operation

Transistor configurations
Common-Base
Common-Emitter
Common-Collector

Limits of operation

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First Ever Transistor
Created in 1947 by
William Shockley, John
Bardeen & Walter
Brattain.

Replaced vacuum
tubes, which
manipulate electrical
signals by controlling
electron movements

Advantages: smaller,
lightweight, doesnt
require warmup, lower
operating voltage

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Schematic Symbol
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BJT Construction
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3-layer device:
Either PNP or NPN
type transistor

The sandwiched
material is always lesser
in width (150:1 ratio)
and less doped (10:1
ratio) compared to the
outer layers to decrease
conductivity.


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Transistor Operation
Transistor must be
biased correctly for
correct amplification
process

In either NPN or PNP
transistor, BE junction
is forward biased
while BC junction is
reverse biased.
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NPN Transistor with correct biasing
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Base-Emitter Junction
The correct bias
makes the B-E
junction forward
biased.

Electrons pass from
emitter to base,
resulting in current
flow.
(in what direction?)
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Collector-Base Junction
On the other hand,
the collector-base
junction is reverse
biased.

Recall though that
there is still a small
reverse current
flowing (by minority
carriers). 9
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Net current
The net effect is a
current leaving the
emitter terminal of
the transistor.

By KCL: I
E
= I
C
+ I
B
.

Also, Ic = Ic
M
+ Ico
m

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Base current magnitude
Base current is in A range due to the
sandwiched materials low conductivity.
Majority carriers (holes) of the forward
biased PN junction appears as minority
carriers of the reverse-biased NP junction.
I
C
>> I
B
.

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PNP Transistor Illustration
The same analysis
can be done for PNP
transistors (with the
reversal of majority
& minority carriers
as well as the
biasing)
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Transistor Configurations
Three configurations in consideration:
Common-Base
Common-Emitter
Common-Collector

Input and Output characteristics of CB and CE
configurations are tackled to determine
important quantities and .
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Common-Base Configuration
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Input Characteristics
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Relates the input
voltage V
BE
to an input
current I
E
.

Graph of input, a.k.a.
driving characteristics
of a common-base Si
transistor.
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Output Characteristics: Active,
Cutoff, and Saturation regions
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Active Region
Active Region: desired operating region (BE
junction FB, CB junction RB, with net flow of
current)

For I
E
= 0, I
C
= I
CO
, which is practically only
leakage current similar to the diode

At active region for the common-base, we can
make the assumption I
C
= I
E
since I
COm
is very
small.

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Cutoff and Saturation regions
Cutoff occurs when I
C
= 0

At cutoff, both BE and CB junctions are reverse
biased.

Saturation occurs where V
CB
0 V.

Note the sharp exponential shape of the
collector current as V
CB
0.

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Simplifying the Transistors
turn-on
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Alpha ()
DC Alpha () is defined as the ratio of collector
to emitter current: I
C
/I
E
.

In the AC mode, it can be extended to the
differential of collector to emitter current.

Ideally, = 1. In reality, = 0.99, 0.98. (close to
1)


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Basic Transistor Amplifying
Action
Consider the following common-base circuit:
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Transistor Amplifying Action
Assuming = 1, I
C
= I
E
.
Then I
L
= I
i
= 10mA
And V
L
= I
L
R = (10mA) (5k) = 50 Volts
The voltage gain is expressed by:

Current was transferred from a low- to a high-
resistance circuit; combining transfer and
resistor is the source of the label
TRANSISTOR.

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Common-Emitter
Configuration
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Common-Emitter
Configuration
Most frequently encountered transistor
configuration

Emitter terminal is common/reference to the
input (base) terminal and the output
(collector) terminal.

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Input Characteristics
Input current (I
B
) v.
Input voltage (V
BE
) for
a range of output
voltage V
CE


We retain the
common-base turn-
on voltage for active
region operation
(0.7 Volts) in later
analysis.


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Exact Transistor Collector
Current
Similar to the diode, the transistor collector
current is given by


Where
i
c
= collector current
I
so
= reverse saturation current
V
CE
= collector-emitter voltage
V
BE
= base-emitter voltage
V
T
= volt equivalent of temperature (kT/q)
V
A
= Early voltage*
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i
C
I
S0
1+
v
CE
V
A

e
v
BE
V
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Early Effect
Amount of reverse-bias
(i.e. thickness of
depletion region) is
affected (directly
proportional) by the
collector-base voltage
V
CB
.
This effect results in the
early voltage, denoted
as V
A
in the exact
transistor i
c
.

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Output Characteristics
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Beta ()
Beta () is defined as the ratio of collector to base current,
that is,


Another symbol: h
FE
: forward current & common emitter
(this will be more important in our AC analysis)

Relationship of beta and alpha:

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B E B
I I I Ic ) 1 ( ; ;
1
and ,
1

B
C
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Common-Collector
Configuration
Primarily used for
impedance
matching

High input
impedance and low
output impedance,
unlike the CB and
CE configurations.

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Limits of Operation
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