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DC operating point
A typical CE circuit is shown in the figure below, where

, and

The DC operating point (also known as bias point, quiescent point, or Q-point) is the DC steady-state operating condition of a transistor, (with no AC
input signal applied), determined by
and
of the input port, and
and
of the output port.
The input current

and voltage

can be determined by

The base characteristics of the PN-junction between base B and emitter E, and
The external circuit including the voltage source
and resistor
, represented by the load line

, which is

the straight line that passes through the two special points corresponding to the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current:

The actual current

and

can be found at the intersection of the two curves, so that both the internal current-voltage characteristics of the

transistor and the external circuit parameters are both satisfied. The voltage
low and

is not too large, so that

The output current

and voltage

can also be approximated to be about

if

is not too

is within its typical range in practice.

can also be determined by

The output characteristics of the transistor, and

The external circuit including the voltage source

and resistor

, represented by the load line

, which is

the straight line that passes through the two special points corresponding to the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current:

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The actual current

and voltage

, the DC operating or Q point, can be obtained as the intersection of the load line and the curve of the

current-voltage characteristics, corresponding to a given base current

From the current-voltage plot of the output characteristics, we see that the operation of a transistor can be in one of the three possible regions:
Cut-off region:
When

, or even negative,

, the output current is

, i.e., the transistor (between collector

and emitter) is cut off (immediate above the horizontal axis of the output plot).
Linear region:
When the input voltage is about
proportional to base current

, the transistor is in the linear range where the collector current

, and

is

. The CE transistor circuit in the linear region is widely used for amplification.

Saturation region:
When the input voltage

is further increased

the linear relationship

, independent of

will be significantly increased (due to the exponential relationship between

no longer holds as

approaches its maximum

and

),

. The transistor is is saturated and

(to the immediate right of the vertical axis of the output plot).

Example: In the CE circuit shown below,

and

. The load line can be determined by two points:

. Find output voltage

when

takes the

following values:

,
,

and
, and

, the transistor is cut off.

.

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The transistor is in linear region.

.

We get this unreasonable negative voltage

, and
because the base current

.
is so high that the transistor is working in its saturation

region where the linear relationship

is no longer applicable (It is only valid in linear region). The actual output voltage can be estimated

to be about

can be found to be

, and the actual

next up previous
Next: AC Signal Amplification Up: ch4 Previous: Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
Ruye Wang 2016-07-25

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