Chapter 4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors

 4.1 General Considerations

 4.2 Structure of Bipolar Transistor

 4.3 Operation of Bipolar Transistor in

Active Mode

 4.4 Bipolar Transistor Models

 4.5 Operation of Bipolar Transistor in

Saturation Mode

 4.6 The PNP Transistor

1
 Bipolar Transistor

 In the chapter, we will study the physics of bipolar

transistor and derive large and small signal models.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 2
 Voltage-Dependent Current Source

Vout
AV    KRL
Vin

 A voltage-dependent current source can act as an

amplifier.
 If KRL is greater than 1, then the signal is amplified.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 3
 Voltage-Dependent Current Source with Input
Resistance

 Regardless of the input resistance, the magnitude of

amplification remains unchanged.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 4
 Exponential Voltage-Dependent Current Source

 A three-terminal exponential voltage-dependent current

source is shown above.
 Ideally, bipolar transistor can be modeled as such.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 5
 Structure and Symbol of Bipolar Transistor

 Bipolar transistor can be thought of as a sandwich of three

doped Si regions. The outer two regions are doped with the
same polarity, while the middle region is doped with
opposite polarity.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 6
 Injection of Carriers

 Reverse biased PN junction creates a large electric field

that sweeps any injected minority carriers to their majority
region.
 This ability proves essential in the proper operation of a
bipolar transistor.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 7
 Forward Active Region

 Forward active region: VBE > 0, VBC < 0.

 Figure b) presents a wrong way of modeling figure a).

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 8

 Accurate Bipolar Representation

 Collector also carries current due to carrier injection from

base.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 9
 Carrier Transport in Base

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 10

 Collector Current

AE qDn ni2  VBE 

IC   exp  1
N EWB  VT 
VBE
I C  I S exp
VT
AE qDn ni2
IS 
N EWB

 Applying the law of diffusion, we can determine the charge

flow across the base region into the collector.
 The equation above shows that the transistor is indeed a
voltage-controlled element, thus a good candidate as an
amplifier.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 11
 Parallel Combination of Transistors

 When two transistors are put in parallel and experience the

same potential across all three terminals, they can be
thought of as a single transistor with twice the emitter area.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 12
 Simple Transistor Configuration

 Although a transistor is a voltage to current converter,

output voltage can be obtained by inserting a load resistor
at the output and allowing the controlled current to pass
thru it.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 13
 Constant Current Source

 Ideally, the collector current does not depend on the

collector to emitter voltage. This property allows the
transistor to behave as a constant current source when its
base-emitter voltage is fixed.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 14
 Base Current

I C  I B
 Base current consists of two components: 1) Reverse
injection of holes into the emitter and 2) recombination of
holes with electrons coming from the emitter.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 15
 Emitter Current

I E  IC  I B
 1
I E  I C 1  
 
IC

IB

 Applying Kirchoff’s current law to the transistor, we can

easily find the emitter current.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 16

 Summary of Currents

VBE
IC  I S exp
VT
1 VBE
IB  I S exp
 VT
 1 VBE
IE  I S exp
 VT


 1

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 17

 Bipolar Transistor Large Signal Model

 A diode is placed between base and emitter and a voltage

controlled current source is placed between the collector
and emitter.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 18
 Example: Maximum RL

 As RL increases, Vx drops and eventually forward biases the

collector-base junction. This will force the transistor out of
forward active region.
 Therefore, there exists a maximum tolerable collector
resistance.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 19
 Characteristics of Bipolar Transistor

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 20

 Example: IV Characteristics

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 21

 Transconductance

d  VBE 
gm   I S exp 
dVBE  VT 
1 VBE
g m  I S exp
VT VT
IC
gm 
VT

 Transconductance, gm shows a measure of how well the

transistor converts voltage to current.
 It will later be shown that gm is one of the most important
parameters in circuit design.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 22
 Visualization of Transconductance

 gm can be visualized as the slope of IC versus VBE.

 A large IC has a large slope and therefore a large gm.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 23
 Transconductance and Area

 When the area of a transistor is increased by n, IS increases

by n. For a constant VBE, IC and hence gm increases by a
factor of n.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 24
 Transconductance and Ic

 The figure above shows that for a given VBE swing, the
current excursion around IC2 is larger than it would be
around IC1. This is because gm is larger IC2.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 25

 Small-Signal Model: Derivation

 Small signal model is derived by perturbing voltage

difference every two terminals while fixing the third terminal
and analyzing the change in current of all three terminals.
We then represent these changes with controlled sources
or resistors.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 26
 Small-Signal Model: VBE Change

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 27

 Small-Signal Model: VCE Change

 Ideally, VCE has no effect on the collector current. Thus, it

will not contribute to the small signal model.
 It can be shown that VCB has no effect on the small signal
model, either.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 28
 Small Signal Example I

IC 1
gm  
VT 3.75

r   375
gm
 Here, small signal parameters are calculated from DC
operating point and are used to calculate the change in
collector current due to a change in VBE.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 29

 Small Signal Example II

 In this example, a resistor is placed between the power

supply and collector, therefore, providing an output
voltage.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 30
 AC Ground

 Since the power supply voltage does not vary with

time, it is regarded as a ground in small-signal
analysis.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 31

 Early Effect

 The claim that collector current does not depend on VCE is

not accurate.
 As VCE increases, the depletion region between base and
collector increases. Therefore, the effective base width
decreases, which leads to an increase in the collector
current.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 32
 Early Effect Illustration

 With Early effect, collector current becomes larger than

usual and a function of VCE.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 33

 Early Effect Representation

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 34

 Early Effect and Large-Signal Model

 Early effect can be accounted for in large-signal model by

simply changing the collector current with a correction
factor.
 In this mode, base current does not change.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 35
 Early Effect and Small-Signal Model

VCE VA VA
ro   
I C I exp VBE I C
S
VT
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 36
 Summary of Ideas

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 37

 Bipolar Transistor in Saturation

 When collector voltage drops below base voltage and

forward biases the collector-base junction, base current
increases and decreases the current gain factor, .
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 38
 Large-Signal Model for Saturation Region

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 39

 Overall I/V Characteristics

 The speed of the BJT also drops in saturation.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 40

 Example: Acceptable VCC Region

VCC  I C RC  (VBE  400mV )

 In order to keep BJT at least in soft saturation region, the

collector voltage must not fall below the base voltage by
more than 400mV.
 A linear relationship can be derived for VCC and RC and an
acceptable region can be chosen.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 41
 Deep Saturation

 In deep saturation region, the transistor loses its voltage-

controlled current capability and VCE becomes constant.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 42

 PNP Transistor

 With the polarities of emitter, collector, and base reversed, a

PNP transistor is formed.
 All the principles that applied to NPN's also apply to PNP’s,
with the exception that emitter is at a higher potential than
base and base at a higher potential than collector.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 43
 A Comparison between NPN and PNP Transistors

 The figure above summarizes the direction of current flow

and operation regions for both the NPN and PNP BJT’s.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 44

 PNP Equations

VEB
I C  I S exp
VT
IS VEB
IB  exp
 VT
 1 V
IE  I S exp EB
 VT
 VEB  VEC 
Early Effect I C   I S exp 1  
 VT  VA 

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 45

 Large Signal Model for PNP

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 46

 PNP Biasing

 Note that the emitter is at a higher potential than both the

base and collector.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 47

 Small Signal Analysis

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 48

 Small-Signal Model for PNP Transistor

 The small signal model for PNP transistor is exactly

IDENTICAL to that of NPN. This is not a mistake because
the current direction is taken care of by the polarity of VBE.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 49
 Small Signal Model Example I

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 50

 Small Signal Model Example II

 Small-signal model is identical to the previous ones.

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 51
 Small Signal Model Example III

 Since during small-signal analysis, a constant voltage

supply is considered to be AC ground, the final small-signal
model is identical to the previous two.
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 52
 Small Signal Model Example IV

CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors 53