El-Shorouk Academy

Higher Institute of Engineering

Course Name:
Electronic circuits Analysis

Course code:

(ECE222)

Level: 2nd Year

First Semester

2024/2025

Unijunction Transistor

Mariam Mohamed Elsayed Ahmed

128250020

Sec.8

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 Unijunction Transistor
The UJT is a three-terminal, semiconductor device which exhibits negative resistance and
switching characteristics for use as a relaxation oscillator in phase control applications

The Unijunction Transistor or UJT

is another solid state three terminal device that can be used in gate pulse, timing circuits and
trigger generator applications to switch and control either thyristors and triac’s for ACpower
control type applications.

Like diodes, unijunction transistors are constructed from separate P-type and N-type
semiconductor materialsforming a single (hence its name Uni-Junction) PN-junction within
the main conducting N-type channel of the device.

Although the Unijunction Transistor has the name of a transistor, its switching characteristic

are very different from those of a conventional bipolar or field effect transistor as it can not
be used to amplify a signal but insteadis used as a ON-OFF switching transistor. UJT’s
have unidirectional conductivity and negative impedance characteristics acting more like a
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 variable voltage divider during breakdown.

Like N-channel FET’s, the UJT consists of a single solid piece of N-type semiconductor
material forming the maincurrent carrying channel with its two outer connections marked as
Base 2 ( B2 ) and Base 1 ( B1 ). The third connection, confusingly marked as the Emitter ( E ) is
located along the channel. The emitter terminal is
represented by an arrow pointing from the P-type emitter to the N-type base.
The Emitter rectifying p-n junction of the unijunction transistor is formed by fusing the P-
type material into theN-type silicon channel. However, P-channel UJT’s with an N-type
Emitter terminal are also available but these are little used.

The Emitter junction is positioned along the channel so that it is closer to terminal B2 than
B1. An arrow is used in the UJT symbol which points towards the base indicating that the
Emitter terminal is positive and the silicon bar is negative material. Below shows the symbol,
construction, and equivalent circuit of the UJT.

Unijunction Transistor Applications

Now that we know how a unijunction transistor works, what can they be used for. The most
common applicationof a unijunction transistor is as a triggering device for SCR’s and
Triacs but other UJT applications include sawtoothed generators, simple oscillators, phase
control, and timing circuits. The simplest of all UJT circuits is the Relaxation Oscillator
producing non-sinusoidal waveforms.

In a basic and typical UJT relaxation oscillator circuit, the Emitter terminal of the
unijunction transistor isconnected to the junction of a series connected resistor and
capacitor, RC circuit as shown below.

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 1.oscillator

Unijunction Transistor Relaxation Oscillator

Used in generating sawtooth or ramp waveforms,useful in time-ase generators,sweep

circuits,and waveforms generators

When a voltage (Vs) is firstly applied, the unijunction transistor is “OFF” and the capacitor
C1 is fully dischargedbut begins to charge up exponentially through resistor R3. As the
Emitter of the UJT is connected to the capacitor, when the charging voltage Vc across the
capacitor becomes greater than the diode volt drop value, the p-n junction behaves as a
normal diode and becomes forward biased triggering the UJT into conduction.
Theunijunction transistor is “ON”. At this point the Emitter to B1 impedance collapses as
the Emitter goes into a lowimpedance saturated state with the flow of Emitter current
through R1 taking place.

As the ohmic value of resistor R1 is very low, the capacitor discharges rapidly through the
UJT and a fast risingvoltage pulse appears across R1. Also, because the capacitor discharges
more quickly through the UJT than it does charging up through resistor R3, the discharging
time is a lot less than the charging time as the capacitor discharges through the low resistance
UJT.

When the voltage across the capacitor decreases below the holding point of the p-n

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 junction ( VOFF ), the UJTturns “OFF” and no current flows into the Emitter junction so
once again the capacitor charges up through resistor R3 and this charging and discharging
process between VON and VOFF is constantly repeated while there is a supply voltage, Vs
applied

Generating
2.sawtooth Waveform
Linear ramp signals essential in applications like television vertical deflection circuits or analog
signal processing.

we can see that the unijunction oscillator continually switches “ON” and “OFF” without any
feedback. The frequency of operation of the oscillator is directly affected by the value of the
charging resistance R3, in series with the capacitor C1 and the value of η. The output pulse
shape generated from the Base1 (B1) terminal is thatof a sawtooth waveform and to regulate
the time period, you only have to change the ohmic value of resistance, R3 since it sets the RC
time constant for charging the capacitor.

The time period, T of the saw-toothed waveform will be given as the charging time plus the
discharging time of the capacitor. As the discharge time, τ1 is generally very short in
comparison to the larger RC charging time, τ2 the time period of oscillation is more or less
equivalent to T ≅ τ2. The frequency of oscillation is therefore givenby ƒ = 1/T.

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 3.triggering circuits

SCR and TRIAC Triggering: UJTs are widely used to provide precise triggering pulses
for silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) and TRIACs in power control circuits, such as in
dimmers, motor controllers, and regulated power supplies.

UJT Triggering of SCR Working Principle:

UJT Triggering of SCR Working Principle – One common application of the unijunction
transistor is the triggering of the other devices such as the SCR, triac etc. The basic elements
of such a triggering circuit are shown in Fig. 26.91. The resistor RE is chosen so that the load
line determined by RE passes through the device characteristic in the negative resistance region
i.e., to the right of the peak point but to the left of the valley point, as shown in Fig. 26.92. If
the load line does not pass to the right of the peak point P, the device cannot turn on.

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 4. UJT as Over Voltage Detector Circuit Diagram:

UJT as Over Voltage Detector Circuit Diagram – A simple dc overvoltage detector

circuit is given in Fig. . It operates on the fact that the device remains switched
off as long as the input voltage remain less than the peak point voltage VP of the UJT
and as soon as input voltage exceeds VP, the device is switched on

Let the input voltage Vin to be kept constant. For it VBB is to be chosen in such a way
that this is slightly lesser than Vin. As soon as Vin exceeds VP, then UJT is switched on,
and consequently the capacitor commences discharging through low resistance
path E and B1. The current flowing in pilot lamp L lights it, which is an indication
of an overvoltage across the circuit.

5. Phase- control applications

UJTs are used in phase control circuits to regulate power delivered to loads by

controlling the firing angle of SCRs or TRIACs

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 How it Works:

1. Capacitor Charging:

• A capacitor charges through a variable resistor at the start of each AC half-cycle.

• The charging speed is determined by the time constant (T= RC ).

2. UJT Activation:

• The UJT stays off until the capacitor voltage reaches its peak-point voltage.

• Once this happens, the UJT turns on, discharging the capacitor and generating

A sharp pulse.

3. Triggering the Power Device:

• The sharp pulse is sent to the gate of an SCR or TRIAC, turning it on.

• This allows current to flow through the load for the remainder of the AC half

-cycle.

4. Phase Angle Adjustment:

• By changing the resistance in the RC network, the capacitor’s charging speed

can be controlled.

• A slower charge delays the trigger, increasing the phase angle (alpha ),

and reduces the power delivered to the load

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 6. Timers
Time-Delay Circuits: UJTs are used in timing applications where precise delays

are required, such as in industrial automation or sequential circuit control.

UJT and SCR Timer:

This traditional timer setting can provide time intervals up to a few tens of minutes.

The unijunction can be the 2N2646 and the SCR the TIC106. The supply voltage

depends on the relay used. The circuit is from a Radio Shack documentation

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