UNIT III: BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISITOR

Transistor Fundamentals:

A transistor is a three terminal semiconductor device with two diodes connected back to back
in a single piece of semiconductor material. There are two basic types of bipolar transistor
construction, PNP and NPN, which basically describes the physical arrangement of the
P-type and N-type semiconductor materials from which they are made.

The three regions of the transistor - emitter , base and collector. The middle region is known
as the base and the outer regions are called emitter and collector which can not be
inter-changed due to the change in doping and their physical size difference. the collector
region is large to dissipate more heat.

The base is lightly doped, emitter is heavily doped and collector is moderately doped. The
emitter is to emit electrons/holes to the base which will pass most of the charge carriers to the
collector. There are two junctions in a transistor and two types of charge carriers are involved
in the operation of a transistor- therefore the name bipolar junction transistor.

An NPN transistor is composed of two N type material separated by a thin layer of P type
semiconductor material. The crystal structure and schematic symbol of the NPN transistor
are shown.
 There are three leads taken out from each type of material recognized as the emitter, base,
and collector. In the symbol, when the arrowhead of the emitter is directed outwards from
the base, it indicates that the device is of the NPN type.
Unbiased transistor:

A transistor with its three terminals left open is called unbiased transistor. Under this
condition, the diffusion of majority charge carriers across the junction produces two depletion
regions- one at the emitter junction and the other at the collector junction and they have
different width because of the difference in doping levels.
Working of NPN Transistor
As shown in the above figure, the emitter to base junction is forward biased and the collector
to base junction is reverse biased. Forward bias on the emitter to base junction causes the
electrons to flow from N type emitter towards the bias. This condition formulates the emitter
current (IE).
While crossing the P-type material, electrons tend to combine with holes, generally very few,
and constitute the base current (IB). Rest of the electrons cross the thin depletion region and
reach the collector region. This current constitutes collector current (IC).In other words, the
emitter current actually flows through the collector circuit. Therefore, it can be considered
that the emitter current is the summation of the base and the collector current. It can be
expressed as, IE = IB + IC
Biasing a transistor
When both the junctions of a transistor are forward biased , the transistor is said to be at
Saturation

When both the junctions are reverse biased, then the transistor is said to be at cut-ff.

When the emitter-base junction is forward biased and collector base junction is reverse
biased, then the transistor is said to be in the active region of operation.

When the emitter-base junction is reverse biased and collector base junction is forward
biased, then the transistor is said to be in the inverted mode of operation.
Relationship between DC Currents and Gains
Bipolar Transistor Configurations

Basically there are three terminal in a transistor. However when we connect a transistor in a
circuit , we require four terminals- two for inputs and two for outputs. This difficulty is
overcome by making one terminal common to both input and output. Accordingly there are
three configurations, CB mode, CE mode and CC mode as shown in the diagram. In all three
modes of operations, the emitter -base junction is forward biased and collector base junction
is reverse biased.
Characteristics of a transistor:
The electrical behaviour of a transistor can be best described if the interrelations of various
voltages and currents are stated . These relations are most convincingly displayed by current
voltage graphs called characteristics. Two sets of such graphs are of practical importance.
They are input and output characteristics.
In Common Emitter (CE) configuration, the emitter is the common terminal. Hence, the input
is between the base and the emitter while the output is between the collector and the emitter.
Two terms that you must remember:
Input characteristic – the variation of the base current (IB) with the base-emitter voltage
(VBE)
Output characteristic – the variation of the collector current (IC) with the collector-emitter
voltage (VCE)
It is observed that the output characteristics are controlled by the input characteristics. Hence,
the collector current changes with the base current. Let’s study them with the help of a circuit
diagram shown below:
Input Resistance (ri)
Input resistance (ri) is the ratio of change in the base-emitter voltage (ΔVBE) to the subsequent
change in base current (ΔIB) when the collector-emitter voltage (VCE) is kept constant.
ri = (ΔVBE/ ΔI B)VCE
This is ac resistance or dynamic resistance and which is obvious in the input characteristics
since its value varies with the operating current in the transistor.

Output Resistance (ro)

Output resistance (ro) is the ratio of change in the collector-emitter voltage (ΔVCE) to the
change in the collector current (ΔIC) when the base current (IB) is kept constant.

ro = (ΔVCE/ ΔI C)IB

A close look at the output characteristics reveals that initially, IC increases linearly for every
small change in the value of VCE. The reason is simple – the base-collector junction is not
reverse biased and the transistor is not active. On the contrary, the transistor is in a saturation
state.

Current Amplification Factor (β)

Current Amplification Factor (β) is the ratio of change in the collector current (I C) to the
change in base current (IB) when the collector-emitter voltage (VCE) is kept constant. Also, the
transistor is in an active state. Now, the small signal current gain is

βac = (ΔIC/ ΔI B)VCE

This has a large value. On the other hand, if we take a simple ratio of IC and IB, we get βdc of
the junction transistor.

βdc = IC/IB

It is important to note that IC and IB increase almost linearly. In simple words, if IB=0, then
IC=0. Hence, the values of βac and βdc are nearly equal.

CB Characteristics of a transistor

Input characteristics

The input characteristics describe the relationship between input current (IE) and the input
voltage (VBE).

First, draw a vertical line and horizontal line. The vertical line represents y-axis and
horizontal line represents x-axis. The input current or emitter current (IE) is taken along the
y-axis (vertical line) and the input voltage (VBE) is taken along the x-axis (horizontal line).

To determine the input characteristics, the output voltage VCB (collector-base voltage) is kept
constant at zero volts and the input voltage VBE is increased from zero volts to different
voltage levels. For each voltage level of the input voltage (VBE), the input current (IE) is
recorded on a paper or in any other form.
A curve is then drawn between input current IE and input voltage VBE at constant output
voltage VCB (0 volts).

Next, the output voltage (VCB) is increased from zero volts to a certain voltage level (8 volts)
and kept constant at 8 volts. While increasing the output voltage (VCB), the input voltage
(VBE) is kept constant at zero volts. After we kept the output voltage (VCB) constant at 8 volts,
the input voltage VBE is increased from zero volts to different voltage levels. For each voltage
level of the input voltage (VBE), the input current (IE) is recorded on a paper or in any other
form.

A curve is then drawn between input current IE and input voltage VBE at constant output
voltage VCB (8 volts).

This is repeated for higher fixed values of the output voltage (VCB).

When output voltage (VCB) is at zero volts and emitter-base junction JE is forward biased by
the input voltage (VBE), the emitter-base junction acts like a normal p-n junction diode. So the
input characteristics are same as the forward characteristics of a normal pn junction diode.

The cut in voltage of a silicon transistor is 0.7 volts and germanium transistor is 0.3 volts. In
our case, it is a silicon transistor. So from the above graph, we can see that after 0.7 volts, a
small increase in input voltage (VBE) will rapidly increase the input current (IE).
When the output voltage (VCB) is increased from zero volts to a certain voltage level (8 volts),
the emitter current flow will be increased which in turn reduces the depletion region width at
emitter-base junction. As a result, the cut in voltage will be reduced. Therefore, the curves
shifted towards the left side for higher values of output voltage VCB.

Output characteristics

The output characteristics describe the relationship between output current (IC) and the output
voltage (VCB).

First, draw a vertical line and a horizontal line. The vertical line represents y-axis and
horizontal line represents x-axis. The output current or collector current (IC) is taken along the
y-axis (vertical line) and the output voltage (VCB) is taken along the x-axis (horizontal line).

To determine the output characteristics, the input current or emitter current IE is kept constant
at zero mA and the output voltage VCB is increased from zero volts to different voltage levels.
For each voltage level of the output voltage VCB, the output current (IC) is recorded.

A curve is then drawn between output current IC and output voltage VCB at constant input
current IE (0 mA). 

When the emitter current or input current IE is equal to 0 mA, the transistor operates in the
cut-off region.
Next, the input current (IE) is increased from 0 mA to 1 mA by adjusting the input voltage
VBE and the input current IE is kept constant at 1 mA. While increasing the input current IE,
the output voltage VCB is kept constant.

After we kept the input current (IE) constant at 1 mA, the output voltage (VCB) is increased
from zero volts to different voltage levels. For each voltage level of the output voltage (VCB),
the output current (IC) is recorded.

A curve is then drawn between output current IC and output voltage VCB at constant input
current IE (1 mA). This region is known as the active region of a transistor.

This is repeated for higher fixed values of input current IE (I.e. 2 mA, 3 mA, 4 mA and so
on).

From the above characteristics, we can see that for a constant input current IE, when the
output voltage VCB is increased, the output current IC remains constant.

At saturation region, both emitter-base junction JE and collector-base junction JC are forward
biased. From the above graph, we can see that a sudden increase in the collector current when
the output voltage VCB makes the collector-base junction JC forward biased.