CHAPTER THREE

Bipolar Junction Transistors(BJTs)

Prepared by Getachew N.
 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
 Describe the basic structure of BJTs
 Explain theory of BJT operation
 Explain how a transistor is biased and discuss the transistor
currents and their relationships
 Discusstransistor parameters and characteristics and use these
to analyze a transistor circuit.
 Discuss how a transistor is used as a voltage amplifier
 Discuss how a transistor is used as an electronic switch
 Discuss the concept of dc bias in a linear amplifier
 Analyze a voltage-divider bias circuit
 Analyzea collector-feedback bias circuit, a base bias circuit2 ,
and an emitter bias circuit
 INTRODUCTION
 Two basic types of transistors are the bipolar junction
transistor (BJT), which we will begin to study in this
chapter, and the field-effect transistor (FET), which we
will cover in later chapters.
 The BJT is used in two broad areas-as a linear amplifier
to boost or amplify an electrical signal and as an
electronic switch.
 Both of these applications are introduced in this chapter.

 Several types of bias circuits are also discussed.

 This material lays the groundwork for the study of

amplifiers, oscillators, and other circuits that cannot
operate without proper biasing. 3
TRANSISTOR STRUCTURE AND OPERATION
Transistor structure
 The basic structure of the BJT determines its operating
characteristics.
 The BJT is constructed with three doped semiconductor regions
-separated by two p-n junctions, as shown in the epitaxial planar
structure in Fig.2.1 (a).
 The three regions are called emitter, base, and collector. Physical
representations of the two types of BJTs are shown in Fig.2.1 (b) and
(c).
 One type consists of two n regions separated by a p region (npn), and
the other type consists of two p regions separated by an n region
(pnp).
 The p-n junction joining the base region and the emitter region is4
called the base-emitter junction.
 …CONT’D
 The p-n junction joining the base region and the collector
region is called the base-collector junction, as indicated in
Fig.2.1 (b).
 A wire lead connects to each of the three regions, as
shown. These leads are labeled E, B, and C for emitter,
base, and collector respectively.
 The base region is lightly doped and very thin compared to
the heavily doped emitter and the moderately doped
collector regions.

5
…CONT’D

Figure 2.1 Basic BJT constructions

 Figure 2.2 shows the schematic symbols for the npn and pnp
bipolar junction transistors. The term bipolar refers to the use of
both holes and electrons as carriers in the transistor structure.

Figure 2.2 standard BJT symbols

6
…CONT’D
Basic transistor operation
 In order for the transistor to operate properly as an
amplifier, the two p-n junctions must be correctly biased
with external dc voltages.
 In this section, we use the npn transistor for illustration.
The operation of the pnp is the same as for the npn except
that the roles of the electrons and holes, the bias voltage
polarities, and the current directions are all reversed.
 Figure 2.3 shows the proper bias arrangement for both npn
and pnp transistors for active operation as an amplifier.
 Notice that in both cases the base-emitter (BE) junction is
forward-biased and the base-collector (BC) junction is 7
reverse-biased.
…CONT’D

Figure 2.3 Proper bias arrangements for BJT

 To illustrate transistor action, let's examine what happens
inside the npn transistor.
 The forward bias from base to emitter narrows the BE
depletion region, and the reverse bias from base to 8
collector widens the BC depletion region, as depicted in
Fig. 2.4.
…CONT’D
 The heavily doped n-type emitter region is teeming with
conduction-band (free) electrons that easily diffuse through
the forward-biased BE junction into the p-type base region
where they become minority carriers, just as in a forward-
biased diode.
 The base region is lightly doped and very thin so that it has a
limited number of holes.
 Thus, only a small percentage of all the electrons flowing
through the BE junction can combine with the available
holes in the base.
 These relatively few recombined electrons flow out of the
base lead as valence electrons forming the small base 9
electron current, as shown in Fig. 2.4.
…CONT’D
 Most of the electrons flowing from the emitter into the
thin, lightly doped base region do not recombine but
diffuse into the BC depletion region.
 Once in this region they are pulled through the reverse-
biased BC junction by the electric field set up by the force
of attraction between the positive and negative ions.
 The electrons now move through the collector region, out
through the collector lead, and into the positive terminal of
the collector voltage source.
 This forms the collector electron current, as shown in
Fig2.4. The collector current is much larger than the base
current. This is the reason transistors exhibit current gain.
10
…CONT’D
 Notice that the arrow on the emitter of the transistor symbols points
in the direction of conventional current. These diagrams show that
the emitter current (IE) is the sum of the collector current (IC) and
the base current (IB), expressed as follows:

11
…CONT’D

12

Figure 2.4 Illustration of BJT action

…CONT’D
 Thedirections of the currents in an npn transistor and its
schematic symbol are as shown in Fig. 2.5(a); those for a
pnp transistor are shown in Fig.2.5(b).

13

Figure 2.5 Transistor currents

TRANSISTOR CHARACTERISTIC AND PARAMETERS
 When a transistor is connected to dc bias voltages, as shown in
Figure 2.6 for both npn and pnp types VBB forward-biases the base-
emitter junction, and VCC reverse-biases the base-collector junction.

 In practice the voltages are often derived from a dc power supply.

For example, VCC is normally taken directly from the power supply
output and VBB (which is smaller) can be produced with a voltage
divider.

 The ratio of the dc collector current (IC) to the dc base current (IB) is
the dc-beta ( ), which is the dc current gain of a transistor.
14
Typical values of range from less than 20 to 200 or higher.
…CONT’D

 The ratio of the dc collector current (IC) to the dc emitter

current (IE) is the dc alpha ( ). The alpha is a less-used
parameter than beta in transistor circuits.
 Typically, values of range from 0.95 to 0.99 or
greater, but is always less than 1. The reason is that IC is
always slightly less than IE by the amount of IB.

15
CURRENT AND VOLTAGE ANALYSIS
 Consider the basic transistor bias circuit configuration in
Fig.2.6. Three transistor dc currents and three dc voltages can
be identified.
IB: dc base current
IE: dc emitter current
IC: dc collector current
VBE: dc voltage at base with respect to emitter
VCB: dc voltage at collector with respect to base
VCE: dc voltage at collector with respect to emitter
 As shown from circuit of fig.2.6 V BB forward-biases the base-
emitter junction, and VCC reverse-biases the base-collector
junction. When the base-emitter junction is forward-biased, it
is like a forward-biased diode and has a nominal forward 16
voltage drop of:
…CONT’D

Figure 2.6 transistors currents and voltages

 Since the emitter is at ground (0V), by Kirchhoff's voltage law, the
voltage across RB is

17
…CONT’D

 The voltage at the collector with respect to the grounded

emitter is

 The voltage across the reverse-biased collector-base

junction is

18
 BJT CONFIGURATION TYPES
 we could have three types of commonly used transistor
configurations. These are:
i. Common base configuration.
ii. Common emitter configuration.
iii. Common collector configuration

i. Common base configuration:

 Input is applied between emitter and base and output is
taken from the collector and base.
 Here, base of the transistor is common to both input and
output circuits and hence common base configuration.
 IE and VEB are the input current and biasing voltage; 19 IC
and VCB are the output current and biasing voltages
…CONT’D

 To fully describe the behavior of a three-terminal

device such as the common base amplifiers of Fig.
2.7 requires two sets of characteristics—one for the
driving point or input parameters and the other for
the output side.
 The input set for the common-base amplifier as
shown in Fig. 2.8 will relate an input current (IE) to
an input voltage (VBE) for various levels of output20
voltage (VCB).
…CONT’D
 The output set will relate an output current (IC) to an output voltage
(VCB) for various levels of input current (IE) as shown in Fig. 2.9.
 The output or collector set of characteristics has three basic regions
of interest: the active, cutoff, and saturation regions.
 The active region is the region normally employed for linear
(undistorted) amplifiers.

21

Figure 2-7: Transistor DC bias circuits

…CONT’D

 At the lower end of the active region the emitter current

(IE) is zero, the collector current is simply that due to the
22
reverse saturation current ICO, as indicated in Fig. 2.9.
…CONT’D
 The current ICO is so small (microamperes) in magnitude
compared to the vertical scale of IC (mill amperes) that it
appears on virtually the same horizontal line as IC =0.
 The circuit conditions that exist when IE = 0 for the
common-base configuration are shown in Fig.2.10.

Figure 2.10

23
…CONT’D
ii. Common emitter configuration:
 Emitter is common or reference to both the input and
output terminals (in this case common to both the base
and collector terminals).
 Two sets of characteristics are again necessary to describe
fully the behavior of the common-emitter configuration:
one for the input or base-emitter circuit and one for the
output or collector-emitter circuit.

24
…CONT’D
 For the common-emitter configuration the output
characteristics are a plot of the output current (IC) versus
output voltage (VCE) for a range of values of input current
(IB).

 The input characteristics are a plot of the input current (IB)

versus the input voltage (VBE) for a range of values of
output voltage (VCE).

25
…CONT’D

 Fig.2.11 Characteristics of a silicon transistor in the common-emitter

configuration: (a) collector characteristics; (b) base characteristics. 26
…CONT’D
 Consider that the curves of IB are not as horizontal as those
obtained for IE in the common-base configuration, indicating
that the collector-to-emitter voltage will influence the magnitude
of the collector current.

 The active region for the common-emitter configuration is that

portion of the upper-right quadrant that has the greatest
linearity, that is, that region in which the curves for IB are
nearly straight and equally spaced.

 In Fig. 2.11a this region exists to the right of the vertical dashed
line at VCEsat and above the curve for IB equal to zero. 27

 The region to the left of VCEsat is called the saturation region.

…CONT’D
 The active region of the common-emitter configuration can
be employed for voltage, current, or power amplification.
 Note on the collector characteristics of Fig. 2.11 that IC is
not equal to zero when IB is zero.
 For the common-base configuration, when the input
current IE was equal to zero, the collector current was
equal only to the reverse saturation current ICO, so that
the curve IE =0 and the voltage axis were, for all practical
purposes, one.
 The reason for this difference in collector characteristics
can be derived through the proper manipulation of the
following equation. That is,
IC=αIE + ICBO = α(IC + IB) + ICBO
28
…CONT’D
 If we consider the case discussed above, where IB = 0 A,
and substitute a typical value of α such as 0.996, the
resulting collector current is the following:

 If ICBO were 1 µA, the resulting collector current with IB =

0 A would be 250(1 µA) = 0.25 mA, as reflected in the
characteristics of Fig. 2.11.
 The collector current defined by the condition IB = 0 µA
will be assigned the notation indicated by following
equation. 29
…CONT’D
iii. Common Collector Configuration
 Collector is common or reference to both input and output
terminals. It is usually the terminal closest to or at
ground potential.
 IB is the input current and IE is the output current

 The common-collector configuration is used primarily for

impedance-matching purposes since it has a high input
impedance and low output impedance, opposite to that 30
of
the common-base and common-emitter configurations.
…CONT’D
 Note that the collector is tied to ground even though the
transistor is connected in a manner similar to the
common-emitter configuration.
 For all practical purposes, the output characteristics of
the common-collector configuration are the same as for
the common-emitter configuration.
 For the common-collector configuration the output
characteristics are a plot of IE versus VEC for a range of
values of IB. The input current, therefore, is the same
for both the common-emitter and common collector
characteristics. 31
…CONT’D
 The horizontal voltage axis for the common-
collector configuration is obtained by simply
changing the sign of the collector-to-emitter
voltage of the common-emitter characteristics.
 Finally, there is an almost unnoticeable change
in the vertical scale of IC of the common-emitter
characteristics if IC is replaced by IE for the
common-collector characteristics (since α = 1).
 For the input circuit of the common-collector
configuration the common-emitter base
characteristics are sufficient for obtaining the
required information. 32
DC LOAD LINE
 Cutoff and saturation can be illustrated in relation to the
collector characteristic curves by the use of a load line.
Fig.2.12 shows a dc load line drawn on a family of curves
connecting the cutoff point and the saturation point.
 The bottom of the load line is at ideal cutoff where IC = 0
and VCE = VCC. The top of the load line is at saturation
where IC = IC (sat) and VCE = VCE (sat). In between cutoff and
saturation along the load line is the active region of the
transistor's operation.

33
Figure 2.12 DC load line on a family of collector characteristic curves illustrating the cutoff
and saturation condition
TRANSISTORS AS AN AMPLIFIER
 Amplification is the process of linearly increasing the
amplitude of an electrical signal and is one of the major
properties of a transistor.
 Let's look at the circuit in Fig.2.13 (a). An ac voltage, Vin is
superimposed on the dc bias voltage VBB by connecting
them in series with the base resistor, RB, as shown. The dc
bias voltage VCC is connected to the collector through the
collector resistor RC.
 The ac input voltage produces an ac base current, which
results in a much larger ac collector current.
 The ac collector current produces an ac voltage across RC,
thus producing an amplified, but inverted, reproduction of
the ac input voltage in the active region of operation, as
illustrated in Fig.2.13 (b). 34
…CONT’D

Figure 2.13 Basic transistor amplifier circuit.

 can be considered the transistor ac input voltage where
can be considered the transistor ac output voltage.
 The ratio of is the ac voltage gain, Av, of the transistor
circuit
35
 Since RC is always considerably larger in value than , the
output voltage is always greater than the input voltage.
TRANSISTORS AS A SWITCH
 The second major application area of transistor is in switching
applications.
 When used as an electronic switch, a transistor is normally
operated alternatively in cutoff and saturation. Digital circuits
make use of the switching characteristics of transistors.
 Figure 2.14 illustrates the basic operation of the transistor as a
switching device.
 In part (a), the transistor is in the cutoff region because the
base-emitter junction is not forward-biased. In this condition,
there is, ideally, an open between collector and emitter, as
indicated by the switch equivalent.
 In part (b), the transistor is in the saturation region because the
base-emitter junction and the base-collector junction are
forward-biased and the base current is made large enough to
36
cause the collector current to reach its saturation value.
CONT’D…
 In this condition, there is, ideally, a short between collector
and emitter, as indicated by the switch equivalent.
Actually, a voltage drop of up to a few tenths of a volt
normally occurs, which is the saturation voltage,

Figure 2.14 ideal switching action of a transistor

 As mentioned before, a transistor is in the cutoff region
when the base-emitter junction is not forward-biased. 37
Neglecting leakage current, all of the currents are zero,
and VCE is equal to VCC.
CONT’D…
 As we know when the base-emitter and base-collector
junctions are forward-biased ; there is enough base current
to produce a maximum col1ector current, the transistor is
saturated. The formula for collector saturation current is

 Since VCE (sat) is very small compared to VCC, it can usually

be neglected. The minimum value of base current needed
to produce saturation is

IB should be significantly greater than to keep the

transistor well into saturation. 38