Transistor
Transistor
Figure 1.1: Schematic and Symbols of (a) NPN Transistor (b) PNP Transistor
1
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2 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
A BJT consists of two P-N junctions (emitter-base junction and collector-base junction)
and three terminals (emitter, base, and collector). The name transistor is derived from the
terms transfer of resistor. A change in current at the emitter causes almost the same change
in current at the collector. The same current is transferred from the low-resistance region
to the high-resistance region.
Figure 1.2 shows the current components in a bipolar junction transistor (PNP) in the
normal mode of operation. (i.e., with the emitter-base junction forward biased and the
collector-base junction reverse biased)
ICBO -Reverse leakage current of the collector-base junction with emitter open
ICp -Collector current due to the holes coming through the base from the emitter
IE = IEp + IEn
IC = −(ICp − ICBO )
Figure 1.3 shows an NPN transistor biased in the active region, the base-emitter (BE)
junction is forward biased whereas the collector-base (CB) junction is reverse biased. The
width of the depletion region of the BE junction is small as compared to that of the CB
junction. The forward bias at the BE junction reduces the barrier potential and causes the
electrons to flow from the emitter to the base. As the base is thin and lightly doped, it
consists of very few holes, so some of the electrons from the emitter recombine with the
holes present in the base region and flow out of the base terminal. This constitutes the base
current. The remaining electrons which are large in number cross the base region and the
collector junction and reach the collector terminal, constituting the collector current. Thus
KCL,
IE = IB + IC (1.1)
The base current is very small compared to the emitter and collector current. Therefore,
IE ≈ IC (1.2)
Here, the majority of charge carriers are electrons. The operation of a PNP transistor is the
same as that of an NPN transistor, the difference is that the majority of charge carriers are
holes instead of electrons.
4 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
ICp
αT = (1.4)
ICp + IBr
The transport factor can be maximized by minimizing base current due to recombina-
tion (IBr ). For this base width and base doping must be minimum. Injection efficiency can
be maximized by minimizing the emitter current due to the injection of electrons from the
base to the emitter (IEn ) or by keeping the emitter-to-base doping ratio as high as possible.
In short, the emitter must be heavily doped, the base must be lightly doped and the base
width must be minimum. If the collector is having higher doping than the base region,
the collector base depletion region extends into the base side, reducing the effective base
width. If VCB is increased, the base region gets completely depleted and the effective base
width becomes zero. This is called Punch Through. Under this condition, the majority of
carriers from the emitter will be directly swept to the collector region and the transistor ac-
tion is lost, Punch-through is a breakdown effect and must be avoided in circuits. In order
to avoid the punch-through effect, the collector region should have lighter doping than the
base. Lighter doping of the collector region increases the power dissipation in the collector
region. Therefore a compromise between these conflicting requirements has to be made.
A practical solution to this is to have a doping profile shown in Figure 1.4.
BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR 5
The collector is having lighter doping near the base end and heavy doping towards the
collector end, thus avoiding early punch-through and reducing overall resistance. Collector
and emitter regions have comparable currents. But the collector has higher resistance than
the emitter (due to lighter doping). Therefore, the area of the collector region must be the
maximum possible. Usually, the collector of a transistor is connected to its body so that
heat gets conducted outward.
Input characteristics of transistors in common base configurations are the forward char-
acteristics of the emitter-base junction with VCB (reverse bias on the collector-base junc-
tion) constant as shown in Figure 1.6. As VCB increases the collector base depletion layer
width increases and the effective base width reduces. This reduces the transit time through
the base region. Therefore holes emitted from the base are collected at a faster rate, increas-
ing IC and IB . Therefore for a given VEB as VCB increases the emitter current increases.
The curves shift towards the left as VCB increases.
Therefore collector current is equal to the difference in current due to the injection of holes
from emitter to base and current due to the injection of holes from collector to base. There-
fore IC reduces as the forward bias on the collector-base junction increases and becomes
zero for a forward bias equal to the forward bias on the emitter-base junction.
Therefore, for different values of IC (VEB ) the curves meet on the voltage axis for
different values of VCB (for IC = 0, VCB ∼ = VEB ). If VCB is further increased, the
direction of IC changes and increases in the opposite direction. When the reverse bias on
the collector-base junction increases IC increases slightly due to the early effect.
BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR 7
α of a transistor is defined as the forward short circuit current gain in common base con-
figuration
IC
α=− , VCB = 0 (1.5)
IE
IC
β= , VCE Constant (1.6)
IB
IE + IC + IB = 0 or IB = −(IC + IE ) (1.7)
therefore,
IC
β= (1.8)
−IE − IC
−IC
IE
β= (1.9)
1 + IICE
α
β= (1.10)
1−α
10 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
Parameters CE CB CC
Input impedance Low (1KΩ) Very low (20Ω) High
Output impedance Medium (10KΩ) High (1MΩ) Low
Voltage High High Low
Current gain High(100) Low(0.98) High
Applications General purpose Constant current impedance
amplifier source, High matching, cur-
frequency ampli- rent amplifier or
fier, impedance buffer
matching
A circuit of fixed bias or base bias is shown in Figure 1.11. A dc voltage source VBB
forward biases the emitter-base junction through a current limiting resistor RB . Ohm’s
FIXED BIASING AND LOAD LINE 11
law gives
VBB − VBE
IB = (1.11)
RB
where VBE = 0.7V for Si and 0.3 for Ge. In the collector circuit, dc voltage source VCC
reverse biases the collector through RC . Applying KVL leads to,
VCE = VCC − IC RC (1.12)
In a given circuit VCC and RC are constants, VCE and IC are variables. Equation (7.2) can
be rearranged to get
−VCE VCC
IC = + (1.13)
RC RC
This is a linear equation similar to y = mx + c. Figure 1.12 shows the graph of equation
(1.13) superimposed on the output characteristics. The vertical intercept is VRCCC
horizontal
−1
intercept is VCC and the slope is RC . The straight line represented by the equation (1.13)
is called the dc load line. This line is the locus of quiescent operating points. Quiescent
operating point shows the location on the load line for a given IB with no signals applied
to the transistor.
The point where the load line intersects the IB = 0 curve is known as cut off. At this
point collector current is ICEO (collector-emitter leakage current). At cut-off, the emitter-
base junction gets reverse-biased, and normal transistor action is lost. The collector-emitter
voltage at cut off is VCE(cutof f ) = VCC .
The intersection of the load line and IB = IBsat curve is called saturation. The collector
current is maximum at this point. The collector base junction gets forward-biased at this
point and normal transistor action is lost. The collector current at saturation is
VCC
IC(sat) = (1.14)
RC
and the base current that just produces saturation is
IC(sat)
IB(sat) = (1.15)
β
12 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
If the base current increases above IBsat , the collector current does not increase. So in
this region, the relation IC = βIB is not valid. All operating points between cut-off and
saturation are in the active region of the transistor. In the active region, the emitter-base
junction is forward-biased and the collector-base junction is reverse-biased. In fixed bias,
RB and VBB decide the base current. The intersection of the curve for this base current
with the load line gives the operating point. This bias is sensitive to temperature variations
and may lead to thermal runaway.
Voltage divider bias is the most widely used biasing technique. In this biasing the resis-
tors R1 and R2 form a voltage divider network, that is why it is known as voltage divider
biasing. The operating point of the transistor can be made independent of β by a suitable
selection of R1 and R2 .
First, consider the input section, assuming that the base current (IB ) is very small com-
pared to the currents in R1 and R2 . That is
I1 , I2 ≫ IB (1.17)
VOLTAGE DIVIDER BIASING 13
We can apply the voltage divider theorem to find the voltage across R2 (same as base
voltage VB ).
R2
VB = V2 = VCC (1.18)
R1 + R2
The voltage across emitter resistor RE =Voltage across R2 -Base emitter voltage.
VE = V2 − VBE (1.19)
The voltage at the collector VC =The supply voltage VCC -Voltage drop across RC .
VC = VCC − IC RC (1.21)
IE =IB +IC . Since IB is very small, IE and IC are approximately equal. Note that in
this voltage divider analysis, β is not present in any of the equations. This means that the
operating point doesn’t depend on the value of β of the transistor. Because of this reason,
voltage divider bias is widely used.
14 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
(IB ). This causes an ac component of current (ic ) to be added to the dc collector current
(IC ).
As the input vs slightly increases, IB increases by a small value, and IC increases by a
large value (∆IC =β∆IB ). Therefore, the output decreases by a large value. Similarly, if
vi decreases by a small value, output increases by a large value. While the input voltage
increases, the output voltage decreases, and the input voltage decreases, the output voltage
increases as shown in Figure 1.15, which implies that there is a phase shift of 180◦ between
the input and output. Hence the transistor in common emitter configuration amplifies the
input voltage with a phase shift of 180◦ .
Cut off frequency of an amplifier is defined as the frequency at which its power gain
reduces to half of its maximum value. At this frequency, the voltage gain will reduce
to a value √12 or 0.707 times its maximum gain. A reduction in a power gain of half is
equivalent to −3 in decibels. Therefore the cut-off frequencies are obtained by taking
the points on the frequency response curve, 3dB below the maximum gain.
The lower frequency corresponding to −3dB point is called lower cut off frequency
(fL ) and the upper frequency corresponding to −3dB point is called upper cut off-
frequency (fH ).
The difference between the upper cut-off frequency and lower cut-off frequency is the
bandwidth of the amplifier. Bandwidth = fH − fL
Solid-state switches are one of the main applications of transistors. The areas of operation
of a Transistor Switch are the Saturation Region and the Cut-off Region. This means then
that we can ignore the operating Q-point biasing and voltage divider circuitry required
for amplification and use the transistor as a switch by driving it back and forth between
its Fully-OFF (cut-off) and Fully-ON (saturation) regions as shown in Figure 1.19. The
cut-off region and saturation region of a transistor are defined as:
Cut-off Region: Here, the operating conditions of the transistor are zero input base cur-
rent (IB ), zero output collector current (IC ), and maximum collector voltage (VCE ) which
results in a large depletion region and no current flowing through the device. Therefore the
transistor is switched Fully OFF. The transistor in cut-off is shown in Figure 1.20.
Cut-off Characteristics:
Saturation Region: The transistor is biased such that the base current IB is much greater
than IC /β. So that the transistor operates in the saturation region when it is ON. The
transistor in saturation is shown in Figure 1.21.
Saturation Characteristics:
VOU T =VCE =0
1.12 PHOTOTRANSISTOR
A phototransistor is a device that converts light energy into electric energy. Phototransis-
tors are similar to photoresistors but produce both current and voltage, while photoresistors
only produce current. This is because a phototransistor is made of a bipolar semiconductor
and focuses the energy that is passed through it. Photons (light particles) activate photo-
transistors and are used in all electronic devices that depend on light in some way. The
structure of a phototransistor is shown in Figure 1.22. The schematic symbol of a photo-
transistor is shown in Figure 1.23.
In a phototransistor, the base region is kept open and the collector-base junction is il-
luminated. ICBO is the reverse saturation current of the collector-base junction. ICBO
increases with increased illumination as in a photodiode. The collector current of a tran-
sistor is given by
IC = βIB + (1 + β)ICBO (1.25)
In a phototransistor,
IB = 0 (1.26)
IC = (1 + β)ICBO (1.27)
i.e., ICBO is multiplied by a factor (1 + β) times the current in a photodiode with
same illumination. Thus, the sensitivity of a phototransistor is much higher than that of a
photodiode. The V-I characteristics of a phototransistor are shown in Figure 1.24.
PHOTOTRANSISTOR 21
1.12.1 DRAWBACKS
Slower than a photodiode (higher switching delay)
It does not have a particularly good high-frequency response
1.12.2 APPLICATIONS
As a photodetector
For isolation
As optocoupler
22 BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS