LESSON 11 – BIPOLAR

JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
Chifundo Polska Mlangeni
Chifundo.mlangeni20@gmail.com
 What is a BJT
• A transistor is a three-layer semiconductor device consisting of either:
▪ two n - type and one p -type layers of material or
▪ two p - type and one n -type layers of material.
• The transistor is a three-layer semiconductor device consisting of either
two n - and one p -type layers of material or two p - and one n -type layers
of material
• The abbreviation BJT, from bipolar junction transistor , is often applied to
this three-terminal device. The term bipolar reflects the fact that holes
and electrons participate in the injection process into the oppositely
polarized material.
Transistor Structures
• There are two types of bipolar junction transistor: npn and pnp.
• The npn bipolar transistor contains a thin p-region between two n-
regions.

• The pnp bipolar transistor contains a thin n-region sandwiched

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 Construction of BJT
Emitter

NOTE: Collector
• The term bipolar is used because both electrons and holes
• participate in the injection process into the oppositely polarized material.
 TRANSISTOROPERATION(NPN)
• The transistor has two p-n junctions, and four possible bias
combinations may be applied to the device, depending on
whether a forward or reverse bias is applied to each junction.
TRANSISTORCURRENTS
TRANSISTORCURRENTS
• The B-E junction is forward biased
• electrons from the emitter are injected across the B-E
junction into the base, creating an excess minority carrier
concentration in the base.
• The B-C junction is reverse biased,
• the electron concentration at the base of that junction is
approximately zero.
 TRANSISTORCURRENTS
• The base region is vey narrow, so that in the ideal case, the injected
electrons will not recombine with any of the majority carrier
holes in the base
• Because of the large gradient in this concentration, electrons that are
injected, or emitted, from the emitter region diffuse across the
base and are swept across the base–collector junction by the
electric field and collected in the collector region creating the collector
current.
• However, if some carrier recombination does occur in the base, the
electron concentration will differ from the ideal case.
• To minimize recombination effects, the width of the neutral base region
must be small compared to the emitter region.
TRANSISTORCURRENTS
• Applying Kirchhoff's current law to the transistor as if it were a single
node:
• 𝐼𝐸= 𝐼𝐵+ 𝐼𝐶
• The operation of the p-n-p transistor is the same only that the roles
played by the electrons and holes are interchanged.
BJTConfigurations
As the Bipolar junction Transistor is a three terminal device, there are
basically three possible ways to connect it within an electronic circuit
with one terminal being common to both the input and output.
1. Common Base Configuration - has Voltage Gain but no
Current Gain.
2. Common Emitter Configuration - has both Current and
Voltage Gain.
3. Common Collector Configuration - has Current Gain but no
Voltage Gain.

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Common Emitter Configuration
• In this configuration the emitter is common
to both the input and output sides of the
configuration
• The emitter is the terminal closest to,
or at, ground potential.
• The input signal is applied between the
base, while the output is taken from
between the collector and the emitter.
Common Emitter configuration
 Common Emitter configuration
• It is the most commonly used circuit for transistor based amplifiers
and which represents the "normal" method of bipolar transistor
connection.
• The common emitter amplifier configuration produces the highest
current and power gain of all the three configurations.
• This is mainly because the input impedance is LOW as it is connected
to a forward-biased PN-junction, while the output impedance is HIGH
as it is taken from a reverse- biased PN-junction.
Common Emitter configuration
• The common emitter configuration is an inverting amplifier
circuit resulting in the output signal being 𝟏𝟖𝟎° out-of-phase
with the input voltage signal.
• The input characteristic relates an input current (IB) to an input
voltage (𝑉𝐵𝐸 ) for various levels of output voltage(𝑉𝐶𝐸 ).
• Output characteristics are a plot of the output current(𝐼𝐶 )
versus output voltage(𝑉𝐶𝐸 ) for a range of values of the input
current(𝐼𝐵)
Output characteristics Input characteristics
Operation regions
• The output characteristic has three basic regions of interest:
1. the active region
2. saturation region and
3. cutoff regions.
• The active region for the common-emitter configuration is that
portion of the upper-right quadrant that has the greatest linearity,
Operation regions
• In the active region of a common –emitter amplifier the collector-
base junction is reversed biased ,while the base-emitter junction
is forward biased.
• It can be employed for voltage ,current, or power
amplification.
• The cutoff region is defined as that region where the base
currents is 0 Amps.
• The saturation region is the one where the Ib curves are non linear

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Beta (β)
• In the dc mode the levels of IC and IB are related by a quantity
called beta and defined by the following equation:
 Common Emitter configuration
• The currents in this transistor are related by the following equation:

𝐼𝐸= 𝐼𝐵+ 𝐼𝐶
But 𝐼𝐶= β𝐼𝐵
𝐼𝐸= 𝛽𝐼𝐵+ 𝐼𝐵
𝐼𝐸= 𝐼𝐵(𝛽 + 1)
NB
• When the transistor is in the on or active state, the voltage from base
to emitter is 0.7V at any level of emitter current as controlled by the
external network.
Common Baseconfiguration
• In the Common Base or grounded base configuration, the
Base connection is common to both the input signal AND the
output signal with the input signal being applied between
the base and the emitter terminals.

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Common Baseconfiguration
Common Baseconfiguration
• This type of amplifier configuration is a non-inverting voltage
amplifier circuit, in that the signal voltages V-in and V-out are in-
phase.
• This type of transistor arrangement is not very common due to its
unusually high voltage gain characteristics.
Common Baseconfiguration
• The input set relates an input current (𝐼𝐸 ) to an input voltage (𝑉𝐵𝐸 )
for various levels of output voltage(𝑉𝐶𝐵).
• The output set will relate an output current (𝐼𝐶) to an
output voltage (𝑉𝐶𝐵) for various levels of input current
Output characteristics
Alpha (α)
• In the dc mode the levels of 𝐼𝐶and 𝐼𝐸due to the majority carriers are
related by a quantity called alpha and defined by:

• The ac alpha is formally called the common-base or short-

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Common Collector Configuration
Voltage Amplifying Action

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Voltage Amplifying Action
Common Collector Configuration
• In this configuration the collector is connected to ground.
• The input signal is connected directly to the base, while the output
is taken from the emitter load.
• It has a high input impedance and a low output impedance. This
makes the configuration to be used for impedance matching
applications.
• This type of configuration is commonly known as a Voltage
Follower or Emitter Follower circuit.
Limits of operation
• For each transistor there is a region of operation on the
characteristics that will ensure that
• the maximum ratings are not being exceeded and
• the output signal exhibits minimum distortion.
• Some limits of operation are
• maximum collector current
• maximum collector –to-emitter voltage.
• Maximum dissipation level
Applications of
Transistors
• Used as switch
• Used as Amplifiers
THANK YOU