Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of Electronic Circuits

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

This lecture covers Section 5.1-5.2
1.
2.
3.
4.

BJT device structures and operational principle

Ebers-Moll Model
IV Characteristics for active modes
BJT operated in saturation region

Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is the other most widely used 3terminal devices beside MOSFET. Although CMOS technology is the
technology of choice today for most of digital IC designs. BJT circuits
are still is widely used in high-speed application, analog IC, and many
special applications.

Device Structure and operation modes

Notes:

2 different structures npn-type and pnp-type

2 junctions, EBJ, CBJ
Four operation modes depending on the bias of two junctions

Mode
Cut-off
Active
Reverse active
Saturation

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

EBJ
Reverse
Forward
Reverse
Forward

CBJ
Reverse
Reverse
Active
Forward

Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of Electronic Circuits

Operation of npn in the active mode

The electron in the BASE become minority, the excess minority

concentration fall off exponential from EBJ to CBJ.
Since the BASE is thin, the concentration follows a linear decay.
At the EBJ
n p (0 ) = n p 0 e

The electron diffusion current in the base region

I n = AE qDn

dn p ( x )
dx

n p (0)

= AE qDn
W

Due to the electron-hole recombination in the BASE region, the

electron concentration will actually follow the dash line in the
figure.
Since the BASE is thin, most of electron injected from the Emitter
to the BASE will cross the BASE.
Now since CBJ is reversed biased, the electron in the BASE will
be swept into the Collector by drifting under the enhanced field. So
almost all electron diffusion current above will contribute to the
current in the Collector.
n p (0 ) AE qD n n p 0
=
iC = AE qD n
W
W

v BE
VT

A qD n 2
vBET
e = E n i

N AW
v

BE
vBET
e = I S e vT

NA is the dopant concentration in the BASE. Is~10-12 to 10-18A,

referred as the scale current.

The Base Current

The base current consists of two parts. The first comes from the
hole injection from the BASE to the Emitter:

EBJ forward biased

The base region is thin
Majority carriers diffuse through EBJ junction. So we have a lot of
electron inject into the BASE, and a lot of hole inject from the
BASE to the EMITTER.
By controlling the doping concentration, we make Jn>>Jp,
therefore, we focus on electron injected into the BASE.

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

AE qD p n i2
i B1 =
N D LP

vvBE
e T

The second part comes from the recombination of electron in based

with the majority: holes.
iB 2 =

Qn

A qWni2 VBET
1
Qn = AE q n p (0)W = E
e
2
2N A
v

iB 2 =

AE qWni2 VBET
e
2 N A b

Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of Electronic Circuits

i B = i B1 + i B 2

Dp N A W 1 W 2
= IS
+
D N L
2 Dn b
n
D
p

vVBE
e T

Active device structure: planar junction:

v BE

i
I
i B = S e VT = C

is called common-emitter current gain, in range 50 to 200.
The emitter current
+1
i E = iC + i B =
iC

iC =

+1

i E = i E

is called common-base current gain <1.

Since we operated in the forward-active region, the and is
often referred as F and F.

The Circuit Model in forward bias

In the actual device structure, since the emitter is smaller than the
collector, so they are NOT equivalent.
If the emitter and collector are interchanged, then the BJT works in
reverse active mode.
Their performance can be modeled using R (0.01 to 0.5)and R
(0.01 to 1)
The reverse active BJT can be modeled by a diode and a current
source too shown above too.

The Ebers-Moll (EM) model

If we combine the circuit models for the forward active mode and
revise active mode together. We have the EM model.

In the forward biasing, the emitter current iE depends on vBE

exponentially.
The collector current does not depend on the reverse biased CBJ,
as long as vCB0. The collector current is almost equal to the
emitter current.

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of

Electronic Circuits

Using this model, we can related the scale current Is, and to the
complete I-V characteristics.
v
I BE

i E S e VT + I S 1

F
F

iC I S e

v BE
VT

I
i B S
F

Operation of pnp in the active mode

+ I S
1
R

VBET
1
1

e I S

F R

Here is derivation:

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

Similar to the operation of npn transistor, the pnp transistor also

rely on ONE type of carriers to function.
Unlike the npn transistor, current in the pnp is conducted by holes
injected from the emitter into the base.
CBJ is reversed biased to attract holes in the n-based into the pcollector.
Their large signal model of pnp device is similar to the npn type
too, however the biased voltage are different.

Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of

Electronic Circuits

The IV Characteristics

iC = I S e

v BE

+1

VT

Example: a npn BJT has =100 and exhibits a vBE of 0.7 V at iC=1
mA. Design a circuit so that a current of 2 mA flow through the
collector and a voltage +5V appears at the collector.

iC I S vBE VT
I S vBE VT
= e
iB =
i E = = e


1
kT
=
VT =
= 25mV (300 K )

q
iC

In the last lecture and from above equations, we learn that the collector
current only depends on vBE in forward active mode, the mode most of
BJTs operates. The only requirement for VCB is that VCB should NOT
be forwarded bias for more than 0.4 to 0.5 V.

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of

Electronic Circuits

Graphical representation of transistor characteristics

The Early Effect

If we used vBE as parameter to characterize the IV characteristics of

iC and vCE, we found that the active region is not flat.
As we studied before, as long as VCB is forward biased, or VCE>VBE
in the common emitter configuration shown above, the iC should
be constant.
But the measurement results indicate otherwise shown above, this
is due to the BASE-width modulation. The change of VCE will
change the width of CBJ and consequently, the width of the BASE.
At different vBE, the sloped iC vs. vCE trace will converge at the
same point on vCE axis, VA, the early voltage. This suggest:
iC = I S e

Since the collector current is from the emitter, we use the emitter
current as gauge or parameter for the IV characteristics of iC and
vCB.
I-V characteristics of iC and vBE is similar to a diode IV curve.
The threshold vBE ~ 0.5V.
The typical value of vBE is between 0.6 to 0.8V, normally we take
vBE=0.7V.
Since VT depends on temperature, the I-V characteristics of iC and
vBE changes about 2 mV for each rise of 1oC.
I-V characteristics of iC and vCB is remains relatively flat like
MOSFET in active region.
When vCB<-0.4 to -0.5 V, we enter the saturation region where the
injected carriers from the emitter into the base cannot be
effectively collected into the collector.

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

VT

vCE
1 +
VA

The vCE dependent IV characteristics can be modeled by the

output resistance looking into the collector, which is not .
ro =

vBE

1
i
C
vCE

v BE = cons tan t

VA
v BE

I S e VT

To consider this finite output resistance, the model is modified as:

Course Notes for EE 0257 Analysis and Design of

Electronic Circuits
The Saturation voltage VCEsat and Saturation Resistance RCEsat:

The Common-Emitter Characteristics

As the common-emitter configuration is the most used configuration,
lets take a deeper look of its performance.
The Common-emitter Current Gain : If we feed the based with a
current source, the iC ~ vCE characteristics is shown below:

In the active region, given an operational point Q, the DC or large

signal current gain is defined as: = I CQ

When a transistor is operated in the saturation region, the current gain

will become a lot of smaller due to the inefficient carrier transportation
from the emitter to the collector.

I BQ

The small signal gain or AC gain is defined as: =

iC
i B

vCE = cons tan t

The magnitude of ac and dc differ by ~ 10% to 20%. The small

signal ac is also known as hfe, or short-circuit common-emitter
current gain.

Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

The current gain of a saturated transistor is referred as forced .

I
forced = Csat
forced <
IB
The iC-vCE curves in saturation are steep, can be characterized by
the collector-to-emitter saturation resistance (~tens ).
All saturated iC-vCE curves intersects the vCE axis at: VT ln(1 / R )
At a given operational point X, the transistor performance can be
characterized by the slope: 1/RCEsat (tens ) and a intersect VCEsat
(~0.1-0.3V). The circuit model is shown below.