Chapter-1: Bipolar Junction Transistor.

Introduction:
Electronic systems are interconnection or combination of electronic devices and electrical
elements. Electrical elements in the electronic systems are used to bias the electronic devices.
Semiconductor devices such as diodes and transistors are called electronic devices. Electronic
devices are used for switching and amplification purpose. Diodes are used for switching
applications and they are not having the capability of amplifying the signals. Therefore diodes are
limited to switching applications.
The transistor is a three-terminal device that can amplify the signals as well as performing
switching action.
The term transistor is derived from the statement transfer of resistor that is a transistor
will transfers the resistance from one junction to another junction through proper biasing. Hence,
transistors perform amplification by changing their resistance.

Transistor
Transfer of Resistor

The first transistor was demonstrated on 23rd Dec 1947, by Dr. Willian Shockley and his
team at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, USA
The important features of transistors compared to vacuum tubes are listed as follows.
1. Three terminal solid-state device
2. Smaller and lightweight
3. Rugged construction
4. No heater requirement
5. Requires less power
6. Lower operating voltage and
7. More efficient.
With these advantages, transistors are developed and used in all electronic systems as a
switch and/or amplifier.

Classification:
Figure (1) shows the classification of transistors.

Transistor

BJT FET

NPN PNP JFET MOSFET

P- Enhancement
N-Channel Depletion mode
Channel mode

P-
N-Channel N-Channel P-Channel
Channel
Figure 1: Classification of transistors.
 In the following section, BJTs construction, working principle, characteristics and
applications are discussed.
BJT, stands for bipolar junction transistor, figure (2) shows the structure of BJT and
terminologies.

Figure 2: Structure of transistor.

 Bipolar: Both electrons and holes are involved in current flow.

 Junction: has two p-n junctions.
 Transistor: Transfer + Resistor.
• BJTs are current-controlled devices
• Have three regions with three terminals labeled as
i. Emitter (E)
ii. Base (B) and
iii. Collector (C)

Figure (3) shows the structure and circuit symbol of NPN and PNP transistors.

 NPN- Bipolar Junction Transistor

 PNP- Bipolar Junction Transistor



Figure 3: Structure and circuit symbols of NPN and PNP transistor.

The arrow in the circuit symbols indicates the direction of the current flow. In the NPN
transistor, current will flow from collector to emitter terminal and in the PNP transistor current
will flow from emitter to collector.
Construction:
 In the following section, the step-by-step process of constructing NPN – BJT is explained,
the following specifications are to be considered for constructing BJTs.

Emitter Base Collector

Width Medium Thin High

Doping
High Low Moderate
Concentration

Step1: start with a piece of intrinsic semiconductor and divided it into three regions

Figure 4: Piece of intrinsic semiconductor

Step2: Three regions are doped to form NPN regions

Figure 5: Doped intrinsic semiconductor

Doping with pentavalent element gives N-type material and doping with trivalent element gives
P-type semiconductor material.

Step3: Metallic contacts are deposited at each layer to connect the electrodes to form terminals

Figure 6: Electrodes connected to each layer

Step4: Terminals are named as Emitter, Base, and Collector

Figure 7: Terminals are named as emitter, base, and collector

The emitter terminal emits more electrons and hence, the emitter region is doped heavily,
Collector terminal collects the emitted electrons, hence the width of the collector region is high.
The base terminal is a lightly doped and thin region, which controls the electrons flow from
emitter to collector.

Working Principle:
The BJTs are working under three different modes, such as cut-off, saturation and active modes
and the working principle of NPN-BJT is explained with these three modes.
Case (i): Cut-off mode
• Both Emitter-Base and Collector-Base junctions are reverse biased
• The depletion region widens at both the junctions and no current will flow through the
device.
• Acts as an OFF switch

Figure 8: Cut-off mode operation of BJT

Case (ii): Saturation Mode

• Both Emitter-Base and Collector-Base junctions are forward biased
• The depletion region reduces at both the junctions and maximum current will flow
through the device.
• Acts as an ON switch.

Figure 8: Saturation mode operation of BJT

Case (iii): Active Mode

• Emitter-Base Junction is forward biased and Collector-Base junction is reverse biased
• The width of the depletion region decreases at EB Junction.
• Width of the depletion region Increases at CB Junction.
• Electrons move through the base region, but the base region is lightly doped and only a
few electrons recombine with the holes present in the base region, remaining electrons are
drifted towards the collector region and constitute a collector current.
• Only 2-5% of electrons recombine at the base region, remaining 95 to 98% electrons move
to the collector region
• Transfer of resistance takes place, hence it is called the transistor.
• Acts as an amplifier
 Figure 8: Active mode operation of BJT
Characteristics of BJT:

Bipolar junction transistor is a three-terminal device and BJTs are need to be modeled as
a two-port network. A pair of terminals is called a port, the two-port network means, the network
has two pairs of terminals. One pair of terminals used to apply the input and another pair of
terminals is used to take the corresponding output. Figure (9) shows the block diagram of two-
port model.

Figure 9: Two-port model

One terminal of BJT can be connected to the ground or made common to both input and
output to form a two-port model, which leads to three different configurations they are.

1. Common Base (CB) Configuration

2. Common Emitter (CE) Configuration and
3. Common Collector (CC) Configuration.

Each of these configurations is having its advantages and disadvantages. To study the behavior of
these configurations, VI characteristics need to be obtained, VI Characteristics of BJTs are divided
into two types they are.

1. Input characteristics and

2. Output characteristics

1. Common Base (CB) Configuration:

 Figure 10: CB Configuration of NPN-BJT
• The base terminal(grounded) is common for both input and output
• Input is applied between E and B
• Output is taken across C and B
• IE is the input current and IC is the output current
• VEB is the input voltage and VCB is the output voltage
Where,
• IE - Emitter current
• IC - Collector current
• VEB - Emitter to base voltage
• VCB - collector to base voltage.

Figure (11) shows the circuit arrangement to obtain the VI characteristics

Figure 11: Circuit arrangement to obtain the VI Characteristics

Input Characteristics:

• VEB vs IE with zero or constant VCB

• Initially, the collector-base voltage VCB is kept at zero, and emitter current IE is increased
from zero by increasing VEB.
• The EB junction depletion region reduces by increasing VEB and if VEB is greater than or
equal to cut-in voltage, current starts increasing.
• This characteristic is similar to the forward bias characteristics of the diode.
• Effect of VCB: If VCB is increased, the depletion region of the CB junction increases and
the depletion region penetrates deeper into the base region, which leads to a decrease in
the width of the based region, so emitter current increases. This effect is called early
effect or based width modulation.

Figure 12: Input characteristics of CB configuration

Output Characteristics:
 • VCB vs IC with zero or constant IE
• If IE is zero, and CB junction reverse-biased, a small current will flow through the device.
This current is called reverse leakage current, denoted as ICBO.
• If IE increases by increasing VEB, the emitter terminal injects more electrons and less
recombination takes place at the base region due to early effect, and hence collector
current increases proportionally to emitter current.
• i.e., 𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂; ICBO is the leakage current and small
• 𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸 ; α is the current amplification factor of CB configuration typically 0.95 to 0.98
• 𝐼𝐶 ≈ 𝐼𝐸 ; Collector current is approximately equal to emitter current.

Figure 13 Output characteristics of CB configuration

Mathematical Expressions:

𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐶 + 𝐼𝐵 − − − (1)
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂 − − − (2)
𝛼𝐼𝐸 ≫ 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸
Where,
𝑰𝑪
𝜶=
𝑰𝑬
𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑚𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝐵 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
Typically
𝛼 = 0.95 𝑡𝑜 0.98 ;
𝑰𝑪 ≈ 𝑰𝑬

2. Common Emitter (CE) Configuration

Figure 14: CE configuration

• Emitter terminal is common (grounded) for both input and output

• Input is applied between B and E
• Output is taken across C and E
• IB is the input current and IC is the output current
• VBE is the input voltage and VCE is the output voltage
Where,
• IB – Base current
 • IC - Collector current
• VBE – Base to Emitter voltage
• VCE - collector to Emitter voltage

Figure (15) shows the circuit arrangement for obtaining the VI Characteristics

Figure 15: Circuit arrangement to obtain the characteristics.

Input characteristics

• VBE vs IB with zero or constant VCE

• Initially, the collector-emitter voltage VCE is kept at zero, and emitter current IB is
increased from zero by increasing VBE.
• The EB junction depletion region reduces by increasing VBE and if VBE is greater than or
equal to cut-in voltage, current starts increasing.
• This characteristic is similar to the forward bias characteristics of the diode.
• Effect of VCE: If VCE is increased, the depletion region of the CB junction increases and
the depletion region penetrates deeper into the base region, which leads to a decrease in
the width of the base region, so emitter current increases and base current decreases
(IE=IB+IC). This effect is called early effect or based width modulation.

Figure 16: Input characteristics of CE configuration

Output characteristics
• VCE vs IC with zero or constant IB
• If IB is zero, and CB junction reverse-biased, a small current will flow through the device.
This current is called reverse leakage current, denoted as ICEO.
• 𝐼𝐶 = 𝛽𝐼𝐵 + (1 + 𝛽)𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂 − − − (1)
• 𝐼𝐶 ≈ 𝛽𝐼𝐵 − − − (2); β is the current amplification factor in CE configuration
• If IB increases IC also increases.
• Effect of VCE: If VCE increases base current decreases and collector current increases
due to early effect.
 Figure 17: Output characteristics of CE configuration

Mathematical Expressions:
𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐶 + 𝐼𝐵 − − − (1)
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂 − −(2)
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼(𝐼𝐶 + 𝐼𝐵 ) + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐶 + 𝛼𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
(1 − 𝛼)𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
Divide (1 − 𝛼) on both sides
𝛼 1
𝐼𝐶 = 𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼
(1 − 𝛼) (1 − 𝛼) 𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝛼 1
𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝛽 = ; (1 + 𝛽) =
(1 − 𝛼) (1 − 𝛼)
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛽𝐼𝐵 + (1 + 𝛽)𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐶 = 𝛽𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝐸𝑂 − − − (3);
Where,
𝐼𝐶𝐸𝑂 = (1 + 𝛽)𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝑰𝑪
𝜷= = 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝐸
𝑰𝑩

3. Common Collector (CC) Configuration

Figure 18: CC configuration

• Collector terminal is common (grounded) for both input and output

• Input is applied between B and C
• Output is taken across E and C
• IB is the input current and IE is the output current
• VBC is the input voltage and VEC is the output voltage
Where,
• IB – Base current
 • IE – Emitter current
• VBC – Base to Collector voltage
• VEC - Emitter to collector voltage.

Figure () shows the circuit arrangement to obtain the VI Characteristics

Figure 19: Circuit arrangement to obtain the VI characteristics

Input characteristics
• VBC vs IB with zero or constant VEC
• Initially, the emitter to collector voltage VEC is kept at zero.
• If VCB increases the CB junction depletion region increases and the width of the base
region decreases, thereby decreasing the base current shown in figure.
• Effect of VEC: If VEC is increased, the depletion region of CB junction increases and
depletion region penetrates deeper into the base region, which leads to further decrease
in the width of the base region, so emitter current increases and base current further
decreases.

Figure 20: Input characteristics of CC configuration

Output characteristics
• VEC vs IE with zero or constant IB
• If IB is zero, and CB junction reverse-biased, a small current will flow through the device.
This current is called reverse leakage current, denoted as ICBO.
• 𝐼𝐸 = 𝛾𝐼𝐵 + 𝛾𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂 − −(1);
𝛾 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝐶𝐶 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.
• The emitter current is proportional to the input current (Base current), the
proportionality constant is the current amplification factor
 Figure 21: Output characteristics of CC configuration

Mathematical Expressions:

𝐼𝐶 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂 − − − (1)

𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶 − − − (2)
𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚, (2)
𝐼𝐶 = 𝐼𝐸 − 𝐼𝐵 − − − (3)
𝐼𝐸 − 𝐼𝐵 = 𝛼𝐼𝐸 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐸 − 𝛼𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
(1 − 𝛼)𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐵 𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐸 = + − − − (4)
(1 − 𝛼) (1 − 𝛼)
1
Let, (1−𝛼) = 𝛾
𝐼𝐸 = 𝛾𝐼𝐵 + 𝛾𝐼𝐶𝐵𝑂
𝐼𝐸 = 𝛾𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝐶𝑂 − − − (5)
𝐼𝐶𝐶𝑂 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐶𝐶 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝐼𝐶𝐶𝑂 ≪ 𝛾𝐼𝐵
𝐼𝐸 = 𝛾𝐼𝐵 − − − (6)
𝑰𝑬
𝜸= ⇒ 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝐶 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑰𝑩

Relation between 𝜶, 𝜷 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝜸

𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐶 + 𝐼𝐵 − − − (1)
𝐼 𝐼 𝐼
We know that, 𝛼 = 𝐼𝐶 ; 𝛽 = 𝐼𝐶 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝛾 = 𝐼𝐸
𝐸 𝐵 𝐵
Divide 𝐼𝐵 on both sides
𝐼𝐸 𝐼𝐶
= +1
𝐼𝐵 𝐼𝐵
𝜸=𝜷+𝟏
Divide IE, both sides
𝐼𝐶 𝐼𝐵
1= +
𝐼𝐸 𝐼𝐸
1
1=𝛼+
𝛾
1 𝜸−𝟏
𝛼 =1− ⇒𝜶=
𝛾 𝜸
Divide IC, both sides
𝐼𝐸 𝐼𝐵 1 1 𝜷
=1+ ⇒ =1+ ⇒ 𝜶 =
𝐼𝐶 𝐼𝐶 𝛼 𝛽 𝟏+𝜷
Β in terms of α
1 1
=1+
𝛼 𝛽
1 1
−1=
𝛼 𝛽
1−𝛼 1
=
𝛼 𝛽
𝛼
𝛽=
1−𝛼

Comparison of three configurations

Characteristic Common Base Common Emitter Common Collector

Input Impedance Low Medium High

Output Impedance Very High High Low

Phase Shift 0o 180o 0o

Voltage Gain High Medium Low

Current Gain Low Medium High

Power Gain Low Very High Medium