Preliminary Work for Laboratory 7

BJT-FET Characteristics :

Figure 1. The IE-VCB characteristic of an npn transistor fed with a constant emitter current I E .
The transistor enters the saturation mode of operation for VCB < -0.4 V, and the collector
current diminishes.
Figure2. The ID-VDS charactenstlcs for a device with K=1ma/V2
BJT-FET Applications :

The bipolar transistor enjoyed nearly three decades as the device of choice in the design of
both discrete and integrated circuits. Although the MOSFET had been known very early on, it
was not until the 1970s and 1980s that it became a serious competitor to the BJT. At the time
of this year, the MOSFET is undoubtedly the most widely used electronic device, and CMOS
technology is the technology of choice in the design of integrated circuits. Nevertheless, the
BJT remains a significant device that excels in certain applications. For instance, the
reliability of BJT circuits under severe environmental conditions makes them the dominant
device in automotive electronics, an important and still-growing area.

The BJT is still the preferred device in very demanding analog circuit applications, both
integrated and discrete. This is especially true in very-high-frequency applications, such as
radio-frequency (RF) circuits for wireless systems. A very-high-speed digital logic-circuit
family based on bipolar transistors, namely emitter-coupled logic, is still in use. Finally,
bipolar transistors can be combined with MOSFETs to create innovative circuits that take
advantage of the high-input-impedance and low-power operation of MOSFETs and the very-
high-frequency operation and high-current-driving capability of bipolar transistors. The
resulting technology is known as BiMOS or BiCMOS, and it is finding increasingly larger
areas of application (latches and Flip-Flops, semiconductor memories, sense amplifiers and
address decoders etc.)
BJT-FET Usage Differences :
FETs are unipolar devices. They are much smaller than BJTs. Most digital circuits are FETs
~99% of transistors manufactured today. FETs have three modes.

1- Cutoff : VGS < Vth => ID = 0.

2- Triode (Linear mode) : VGS > Vth
VDS < VGS - Vth
ID = K[2(VGS - Vth)VDS- VDS2]

3- Saturation : VGS > Vth

VDS > VGS - Vth
ID = K(VGS - Vth)2
BJTs, in saturation mode:
IC = ISeVbe / T
IE = IB + IC

In FETs:
Gate current IG is zero. (IG=0)
Drain current ID equals to the source current IS. (ID=IS)

In BJTs:
Base current IB is too small but not zero.
Collector current IC almost equals to IE. (IC ~ IE)