Fahad Bin Sultan University

ELEE 240
Electronics
Fall 2013

Bipolar Junction Transistors

(BJT)

Chapter 5
Part I

Transistors
Two main categories of transistors:
bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and
field effect transistors (FETs).

Transistors have 3 terminals where the application of

current (BJT) or voltage (FET) to the input terminal
increases the amount of charge in the active region.
The physics of "transistor action" is quite different for
the BJT and FET.
In analog circuits, transistors are used in amplifiers
and linear regulated power supplies.
In digital circuits they function as electrical switches,
including logic gates, random access memory (RAM),
and microprocessors.

The Junction Transistor

First BJT was invented early in 1948, only
weeks after the point contact transistor.
Initially known simply as the junction transistor.
It did not become practical until the early 1950s.
The term bipolar was tagged onto the name to
distinguish the fact that both carrier types play
important roles in the operation.
Field Effect Transistors (FETs) are unipolar
transistors since their operation depends
primarily on a single carrier type.

Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)

A bipolar transistor
essentially consists of a pair of
PN Junction diodes that are
joined back-to-back.
There are therefore two kinds
of BJT, the NPN and PNP
varieties.
The three layers of the
sandwich are conventionally
called the Collector, Base, and
Emitter.

The First BJT

Transistor Size (3/8L X 5/32W X 7/32H)

No Date Codes. No Packaging.

Modern Transistors

BJT Fabrication
BJT can be made either as discrete devices or
in planar integrated form.
In discrete, the substrate can be used for one
connection, typically the collector.
In integrated version, all 3 contacts appear
on the top surface.
The E-B diode is closer to the surface than the
B-C junction because it is easier make the
havier doping at the top.

BJT Structure - Planar

The Planar Structure developed by

Fairchild in the late 50s shaped the basic
structure of the BJT, even up to the present
day.

In the planar process, all steps are performed from

the surface of the wafer

 BJTs are usually constructed vertically

Controlling depth of the emitters n doping sets the
base width

n
n

How the BJT works

NPN Bipolar Transistor

Figure shows the energy

levels in an NPN transistor
under no externally applying
voltages.
In each of the N-type layers
conduction can take place by
the free movement of
electrons in the conduction
band.
In the P-type (filling) layer
conduction can take place by
the movement of the free
holes in the valence band.
However, in the absence of
any externally applied electric
field, we find that depletion
zones form at both PNJunctions, so no charge
wants to move from one layer
to another.

How the BJT works

Apply a Collector-Base voltage

What happens when we

apply a moderate voltage
between the collector and
base parts.
The polarity of the applied
voltage is chosen to
increase the force pulling
the N-type electrons and Ptype holes apart.
This widens the depletion
zone between the collector
and base and so no current
will flow.
In effect we have reversebiassed the Base-Collector
diode junction.

Charge Flow

Apply an Emitter-Base voltage

What happens when we apply a

relatively small Emitter-Base voltage
whose polarity is designed to forwardbias the Emitter-Base junction.
This 'pushes' electrons from the
Emitter into the Base region and sets
up a current flow across the EmitterBase boundary.
Once the electrons have managed to
get into the Base region they can
respond to the attractive force from
the positively-biassed Collector
region.
As a result the electrons which get
into the Base move swiftly towards
the Collector and cross into the
Collector region.
Hence a Emitter-Collector current
magnitude is set by the chosen
Emitter-Base voltage applied.
Hence an external current flowing in
the circuit.

Charge Flow

Some electron fall into a hole

Some of free electrons crossing

the Base encounter a hole and
'drop into it'.
As a result, the Base region
loses one of its positive charges
(holes).
The Base potential would
become more negative
(because of the removal of the
holes) until it was negative
enough to repel any more
electrons from crossing the
Emitter-Base junction.
The current flow would then
stop.

Charge Flow

Some electron fall into a hole

To prevent this happening we

use the applied E-B voltage to
remove the captured electrons
from the base and maintain the
number of holes.
The effect, some of the
electrons which enter the
transistor via the Emitter
emerging again from the Base
rather than the Collector.
For most practical BJT only
about 1% of the free electrons
which try to cross Base region
get caught in this way.
Hence a Base current, IB,
which is typically around one
hundred times smaller than the
Emitter current, IE.

Terminals & Operations

Three terminals:
Base (B): very thin and lightly doped central region (little
recombination).
Emitter (E) and collector (C) are two outer regions
sandwiching B.

Normal operation (linear or active region):

B-E junction forward biased; B-C junction reverse biased.
The emitter emits (injects) majority charge into base region
and because the base very thin, most will ultimately reach
the collector.
The emitter is highly doped while the collector is lightly
doped.
The collector is usually at higher voltage than the emitter.

Terminals & Operations

Operation Mode

Operation Mode
Active:
Most importance mode, e.g. for amplifier operation.
The region where current curves are practically flat.

Saturation:
Barrier potential of the junctions cancel each other out
causing a virtual short.
Ideal transistor behaves like a closed switch.

Cutoff:
Current reduced to zero
Ideal transistor behaves like an open switch.

Operation Mode

BJT in Active Mode

Operation
Forward bias of EBJ injects electrons from emitter into base
(small number of holes injected from base into emitter)
Most electrons shoot through the base into the collector across
the reverse bias junction (think about band diagram)
Some electrons recombine with majority carrier in (P-type) base
region

Circuit Symbols

VCB > = -

vCB

Circuit Configuration

Collector Current
Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across
the CBJ depletion region to the collector b/c of the higher potential applied
to the collector.

Note that iC is independent of vCB (potential bias across CBJ) ideally

Saturation current is
inversely proportional to W and directly proportional to AE
Want short base and large emitter area for high currents
dependent on temperature due to ni2 term

Collector Current
Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across
the CBJ depletion region to the collector b/c of the higher potential applied
to the collector.

Note that iC is independent of vCB (potential bias across CBJ) ideally

Saturation current is
inversely proportional to W and directly proportional to AE
Want short base and large emitter area for high currents
dependent on temperature due to ni2 term

Collector Current
Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across
the CBJ depletion region to the collector b/c of the higher potential applied
to the collector.

Note that iC is independent of vCB (potential bias across CBJ) ideally

Saturation current is
inversely proportional to W and directly proportional to AE
Want short base and large emitter area for high currents
dependent on temperature due to ni2 term

Base Current
Base current iB composed of two components:
holes injected from the base region into the emitter region

holes supplied due to recombination in the base with diffusing electrons

and depends on minority carrier lifetime b in the base

And the Q in the base is

So, current is

Total base current is

Beta
Can relate iB and iC by the following equation

and is

Beta is constant for a particular transistor

On the order of 100-200 in modern devices (but can be higher)
Called the common-emitter current gain
For high current gain, want small W, low NA, high ND

Emitter Current
Emitter current is the sum of iC and iB

is called the common-base current gain

I-V Characteristics

Base-emitter junction looks

like a forward biased diode

Collector-emitter is a family of
curves which are a function of
base current.

I-V Characteristics

Example:
Calculate the
values of
and from the
transistor
shown in the
previous
graphs.
5mA/50uA

Early Effect
S
a
tu
ra
tio
nre
g
io
n
A
c
tiv
ere
g
io
n

V
B
E
3

V
B
E
2

V
B
E
1

-V
A

V
C
E

Early Effect

Current in active region depends (slightly) on vCE

VA is a parameter for the BJT (50 to 100) and called the Early voltage
Due to a decrease in effective base width W as reverse bias increases
Account for Early effect with additional term in collector current equation
Nonzero slope means the output resistance is NOT infinite, but
IC is collector current at the boundary of active region

Common-emitter

It is called the common-emitter configuration because (ignoring the

power supply battery) both the signal source and the load share the
emitter lead as a common connection point.

Common-collector

It is called the common-collector configuration because both the signal

source and the load share the collector lead as a common connection
point. Also called an emitter follower since its output is taken from the emitter
resistor, is useful as an impedance matching device since its input impedance is
much higher than its output impedance.

Common-base

This configuration is more complex than the other two, and is less
common due to its strange operating characteristics.

Used for high frequency applications because the base separates the
input and output, minimizing oscillations at high frequency. It has a high
voltage gain, relatively low input impedance and high output impedance
compared to the common collector.

BJT Analysis
Here is a
common
emitter BJT
amplifier:
What are the
steps?

Input & Output

We would want to know the collector current (iC),

collector-emitter voltage (VCE), and the voltage across
RC.
To get this we need to find the base current (iB) and the
base-emitter voltage (VBE).

Input Equation

To start, lets write Kirchoffs voltage law (KVL)

around the base circuit.

Output Equation

Likewise, we can write KVL around the collector

circuit.

Use Superposition:
DC & AC sources
Note that both equations are written so as to calculate the
transistor parameters (i.e., base current, base-emitter voltage,
collector current, and the collector-emitter voltage) for both the
DC signal and the AC signal sources.
Use superposition, calculate the parameters for each separately,
and add up the results:
First, the DC analysis to calculate the DC Q-point
Short Circuit any AC voltage sources
Open Circuit any AC current sources

Next, the AC analysis to calculate gains of the amplifier.

Depends on how we perform AC analysis
Graphical Method
Equivalent circuit method for small AC signals

BJT - DC Analysis
Using KVL for the input and output circuits
and the transistor characteristics, the
following steps apply:
1. Draw the load lines on the transistor characteristics
2. For the input characteristics determine the Q point for
the input circuit from the intersection of the load line
and the characteristic curve (Note that some transistor
do not need an input characteristic curve.)
3. From the output characteristics, find the intersection of
the load line and characteristic curve determined from
the Q point found in step 2, determine the Q point for
the output circuit.

Base-Emitter Circuit Q point

The Load Line

intersects the
Base-emitter
characteristics
at VBEQ = 0.6 V
and IBQ = 20 A

Collector-Emitter Circuit Q point

Now that we have
the Q-point for the
base circuit, lets
proceed to the
collector circuit.

The Load Line intersects the Collector-emitter characteristic, iB = 20 A at

VCEQ = 5.9 V and ICQ = 2.5mA, then = 2.5m/20 = 125

BJT DC Analysis - Summary

Calculating the Q-point for BJT is the first step in
analyzing the circuit
To summarize:
We ignored the AC (variable) source
Short circuit the voltage sources
Open Circuit the current sources
We applied KVL to the base-emitter circuit and using load line
analysis on the base-emitter characteristics, we obtained the
base current Q-point
We then applied KVL to the collector-emitter circuit and using
load line analysis on the collector-emitter characteristics, we
obtained the collector current and voltage Q-point

This process is also called DC Analysis

We now proceed to perform AC Analysis

BJT - AC Analysis
How do we handle the variable source Vin(t) ?
When the variations of Vin(t) are large we will
use the base-emitter and collector-emitter
characteristics using a similar graphical
technique as we did for obtaining the Q-point.
When the variations of Vin(t) are small we will
shortly use a linear approach using the BJT
small signal equivalent circuit.

BJT - AC Analysis
Lets assume that Vin(t) = 0.2 sin(t).
Then the voltage sources at the base vary from a
maximum of 1.6 + 0.2 = 1.8 V to a minimum of 1.6 0.2 = 1.4 V
We can then draw two load lines corresponding the
maximum and minimum values of the input sources
The current intercepts then become for the:
Maximum value: 1.8 / 50k = 36 A
Minimum value: 1.4 / 50k = 28 A

AC Analysis Base-Emitter Circuit

From this graph, we find:

At Maximum Input Voltage:
VBE = 0.63 V, iB = 24 A
At Minimum Input Voltage:
VBE = 0.59 V, iB = 15 A
Recall: At Q-point:
VBE = 0.6 V, iB = 20 A

Note the asymmetry around the Qpoint of the Max and Min Values for
the base current and voltage which
is due to the non-linearity of the
base-emitter characteristics

imax = 24-20 = 4 A;
iBmin = 20-15 = 5 A

AC Analysis Base-Emitter Circuit

AC Characteristics-Collector Circuit

Using these max and min values for the base current on the collect
circuit load line, we find:
At Max Input Voltage: VCE = 5 V, iC = 2.7mA
At Min Input Voltage: VCE = 7 V, iC = 1.9mA
Recall: At Q-point: VCE = 5.9 V, iB = 2.5ma

AC Characteristics-Collector Circuit

BJT AC Analysis - Amplifier Gains

From the values calculated from the base and
collector circuits we can calculate the amplifier gains:

BJT AC Analysis - Summary

Once we complete DC analysis, we analyze the
circuit from an AC point of view.
AC analysis can be performed via a graphical
processes
Find the maximum and minimum values of the input
parameters (e.g., base current for a BJT)
Use the transistor characteristics to calculate the output
parameters (e.g., collector current for a BJT).

Calculate the gains for the amplifier

The pnp Transistor

Basically, the pnp transistor is similar to the
npn except the parameters have the opposite
sign.
The collector and base currents flows out of the
transistor; while the emitter current flows into the
transistor
The base-emitter and collector-emitter voltages
are negative

Otherwise the analysis is identical to the npn

transistor.

The PNP Transistor

Current flow in a pnp transistor biased to operate in the active

mode.

The pnp Transistor

Two junctions
Collector-Base and Emitter-Base
Biasing
vBE Forward Biased
vCB Reverse Biased

IE

p+ n

Input
circuit

IC
pnp

B I
B

(a)
Base
B

Emitter
E

np(0)
np(x)

VEB

(c)

VC B
C

pn(0)
pn(x)

IE

(b)

Collector
C
E

Output
circuit

IC

IE

Electron
Diffusion
Hole

IC

Hole
diffusion dri f t

pno

npo

Re c obi nat ion

WEB
V EB

WB
IB

WBC

Ele c trons

Leakage

current

VC B

IB

(a) A schematic illustration of pnp BJT with 3 differently doped regions. (b)
The pnp bipolar operated under normal and active conditions. (c) The CB
configuration with input and output circuits identified. (d) The illustration of
various current component under normal and active conditions.

(d)

The pnp Transistor

Current flow in an pnp transistor biased to operate in the

active mode.

The pnp Transistor

Two large-signal models for the pnp transistor operating in

the active mode.