Bipolar transistors can detect charge in electrostatic experiments

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Bipolar transistors can detect
charge in electrostatic experiments
L Dvo r ak
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Physics Education, Charles University in
Prague, V Hole sovi ck ach 2, 18000 Praha 8, Czech Republic
E-mail: leos.dvorak@kdf.mff.cuni.cz
Abstract
A simple charge indicator with bipolar transistors is described that can be
used in various electrostatic experiments. Its behaviour enables us to
elucidate links between static electricity and electric currents. In addition it
allows us to relate the sign of static charges to the sign of the terminals of an
ordinary battery.
Introduction
Devices that can measure or detect charges
are useful tools in demonstration or laboratory
experiments for teaching electrostatics. A number
of such instruments exist. Since the beginning
of investigations of electricity, versoria and,
later, electroscopes were used [1, 2]. Vacuum
tubes offered much greater sensitivity, see [3, 4].
Field effect transistors (FETs) enabled both
extremely simple [5] and very sensitive [68]
detectors. Integrated circuits are also often
used [911] to construct charge detectors and
electrometers. Of course, these instruments are
available commercially both from companies
oriented to professional measurement systems
and from suppliers of educational tools, now
often with the possibility of performing computer
measurements (for their use see, for example, [12]).
Also, some hobby indicators can be used in
teaching electrostatics [13]. One may think that
there is no more room for improvement or the
design of new variants of these detection tools. A
recent article [14] shows that this is not the case
and that this area is still alive.
Why add another type of simple charge
detector to the pile of existing devices? It seems
there is still space and need for some new and
simple instruments. Commercial devices tend
to be rather expensive and cost is something
that is not only of concern in this time of
nancial crises. Moreover, such devices are
often made as black boxes, the function of
which is hidden from students (and teachers
too). The complexity is often also of concern in
designs with integrated circuits. FETs have good
sensitivity and enable unbeatable simple circuit
designs. However, extremely high sensitivity is not
always desired in school experiments; moreover,
FETs can be quite easily destroyed by static
charges. Saying this does not mean that these
devices are useless, it just indicates some of their
limitations.
In this article a simple indicator of electric
charges that contains only bipolar transistors is
presented. It is a very simple device that can
be built quite easily by teachers or students, its
function is rather transparent and it can be used
in a number of experiments.
This detector has been used by the author for
a couple of years, both in teaching students and
in workshops for in-service physics teachers. At
some of these workshops teachers built detectors
of this type by themselves. Although the detector
was presented some years ago at Physics on Stage
events and other occasions [15], it seems it is still
434 PHYS I CS EDUCATI ON 47(4) 0031-9120/12/040434+05$33.00 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd
Bipolar transistors can detect charge in electrostatic experiments
10M
R1
T1
T2
T3

+
R2
1K
4.5V
A
Figure 1. The electrostatic indicator made from
three bipolar transistors.
Figure 2. The completed construction of the indicator.
unknown to a wider audience that could, hopefully,
benet from its use.
Below, the construction of the indicator is
described in sufcient detail and its behaviour is
discussed in such a way that it can be explained to
students.
An indicator with bipolar
transistorsand some basic experiments
The circuit diagram of the indicator is presented in
gure 1 and its completed construction in gure 2.
Cables with small crocodile clips can be attached
to the nails in the wooden board that make the
terminals of the device.
The indicator need not be used only in
electrostatic experiments. It can also demonstrate
the conductivity of different objects. In fact, that
was its main purpose when developed years ago.
If you touch the + terminal on the indicator with
your nger and your forehead (or any other part of
your body) with a cable connected to the terminal
A the light bulb will start to glow, see gure 3.
Such a demonstration is always a kind of
show. The laughter of the audience can be
increased by stating that this experiment proves
that no one is innitely resistive. To understand
Figure 3. The indicator can demonstrate the
conductivity of the human body.
why even the low conductivity of a human body
or similar object can make the light bulb glow,
it is sufcient to know that the transistor can
amplify current. Small current into the base of the
transistor T1 controls larger current in its emitter
circuit; this current ows into the base of T2 and
so onnally the large current (hundreds of mA)
in the collector circuit of T3 makes the light bulb
glow. This may be used as an explanation even at
the level of junior secondary school. In fact, for
further discussion of experiments with charges it
is not necessary to understand the function of the
circuit in detailit is sufcient to know that the
device can indicate very small current owing into
the terminal A.
To check the conductivity may be interesting
but when experimenting with the indicator one
soon discovers it is so sensitive that it also reacts
to changes of electric eld. The basic experiment
is shown in gure 4. If we move a charged plastic
rodor just a plastic straw charged by rubbing
to a short piece of cable attached to terminal A of
our indicator, the light bulb does not glow. How-
ever, when we move the straw away from it, the
light bulb glows brightly. How can we explain
this behaviour? The answer will also reveal some
connection between static electricity and electric
current and explain how the indicator can deter-
mine the sign of the charges on the observed ob-
ject.
The behaviour of the indicatoran
explanation
The explanation can be given in steps. It is
not necessary to stress here that we may go
July 2012 PHYS I CS EDUCATI ON 435
L Dvo r ak
Figure 4. Response of the indicator when a charged plastic straw is moving: (a) towards the terminal A (left) and
(b) away from it (right).
interactively through these steps, in the manner
of a guided discovery, so that students themselves
can discover and formulate the answers as well
as the partial explanations. The analysis and
discussion of our experiments can go as follows.
Let us start from the fact that if we connect ter-
minal A to the + terminal of the battery, the light
bulb glows. So, the light bulb glows when current
ows into A. (Here we are speaking about conven-
tional direction of the current, from + to ).
Now, assume the rod is charged negatively,
which is the case for the rod shown in gure 4.
If we move it closer to the cable attached to
terminal A, the negative charge at the rod attracts
positive charge in the wires. (Of course, the rod
attracts positive charges even at large distance, but
when it is closer the attraction is stronger.) So,
positive charges move to the part of the cable
close to the rod
1
; we can say that some amount
of positive charge accumulates there. No current
is owing into the terminal A, therefore the light
bulb stays dark.
Then we move the negatively charged rod
away from the cable. The attraction between the
charges at the rod and the charges at the cable
decreases. Therefore, the positive charge that had
accumulated there ows awayinto terminal A.
So there is a current owing into terminal A and
the light bulb glows. The behaviour shown in
gure 4 is explained.
1
We use the phenomenological description of charges and
currents here, so we have not mentioned that only the electrons
can move in metal conductors. Of course, the explanation can
take this into account; see the discussion concerning gure 7 in
the text. Also, we do not stress that the charges accumulate on
the surfaces of wires, not inside.
What if the charge at the rod is positive? In
this case, when we move the rod towards the cable
it will repel positive charges. They will ow into
terminal A (there is no other way for them to go),
so the current will ow into A and the light bulb
should glow. On the other hand, when we move
the rod away from the cable, no current will ow
into terminal A and the light bulb will remain dark.
Figure 5 shows just this behaviour of the indicator
when a glass cylinder charged by rubbing moves
near the cable connected to A. So, the experiment
conrms that the glass is positively charged. (To
be more precise, it conrms that its charge has the
same sign as the charge which ows from the +
terminal of a battery.) We see that we can use the
indicator to determine the sign of charge of various
objects.
How to make the charge indicator
It may be helpful to also describe here some
technicalities concerning the construction of the
indicator.
Our version is built on a small wooden plate
with tiny brass nails as points to which terminals
of components are soldered. One advantage of
such a construction is that it can clearly mimic
the circuit diagramcompare gures 1 and 2. So
it is transparent (no black boxes if you do not
count tiny black plastic packages of transistors)
and when explaining the function of the indicator
one can point directly to individual components.
Various components can be used in the device.
The transistors should have large DC current gain
to make the indicator sensitive. In the original
construction transistors BC547C are used as T1
436 PHYS I CS EDUCATI ON July 2012
Bipolar transistors can detect charge in electrostatic experiments
Figure 5. Response of the indicator when a positively charged glass cylinder is moving: (a) towards terminal A
(left) and (b) away from it (right).
and T2. The letter after the number 547 classies
the transistors according a current gain, C
denoting the current gain in the range 420800,
which is ne. For T3 it is necessary to use
the type that can survive greater current in the
collector circuit (several hundreds of milliamps
owing through the light bulb); the type BC337
was used. Subtype denoted as BC33740 is
best from the point of view of current gain. For
datasheets of all these transistors see [16, 17].
The values of resistors are also not critical.
The purpose of the resistor R2 is just to limit
the current through the emitter of T2 and the
base of T3 in case the base of T1 has been,
perhaps inadvertently, connected directly with the
+ terminal of the battery. The purpose of the
resistor R1 is to prevent large current owing
into the base of T1 if we connect it to some
voltage source, for example 100 V. However, do
not discharge, for example, a Leyden jar charged
to high voltage directly to terminal A when the
terminal of the indicator is connected to the
other terminal of the Leyden jar. One small resistor
cannot protect us against everything.
The light bulb used was 3.5 V/0.2 A. Again,
the values of its parameters are not critical; a type
with nominal current 0.3 A or even 0.5 A can be
used.
One obvious detail should not be neglected:
the wooden plate must be sufciently dry.
Any currents through the wood, especially to
terminal A or to the base of T1, should be
negligible. Usually this is the case. Nevertheless,
it is advisable to solder the base of T1 not to a nail,
but directly to the terminal of the resistor R1 so that
their connection does not touch the wood. If we are
Figure 6. Terminal A can be completely isolated from
the wood and the nail.
still worried about some parasitic current through
the wood, we can also isolate the wire representing
terminal A from the nail using plastic tubing, as
shown in gure 6.
There is a variant of the indicator that could
be more suitable for teachers who would not like
to speak about positive charges owing into the
base of the transistor, etc, when explaining the
function of the indicator. Such teachers may prefer
to talk about the ow of electrons in metal wires.
For these teachers the variant with PNP transistors
may be preferablesee gure 7. In this case the
light bulb glows when a current of electrons ows
into the base of the rst transistor, for example if
we connect terminal A to the terminal of the
battery. Of course, this variant of the indicator
behaves in the opposite way to the variant with
NPN transistors described above. The light bulb of
the indicator nowglows when a negatively charged
rod approaches terminal A and when a positively
charged rod moves away from it.
July 2012 PHYS I CS EDUCATI ON 437
L Dvo r ak
10M
BC557
BC557
BC327

+
1K
4.5V
A
Figure 7. The variant of the indicator with PNP
transistors.
Conclusions
The indicator described above can be built easily
by either teachers or students. This was veried
on various occasions during courses for in-service
teacher training (on one occasion not only in the
Czech Republic, see [18]). Teachers appreciate
that the indicator is simple, its construction is
clearly visible and it is cheap: the price of
all the electronic components is less than about
0.20 e. The indicator can be used for classical
demonstrational experiments and also in inquiry
based teaching and learning of physics. Students
can, for example, investigate how the indicator
works, how it behaves in different situations,
how its sensitivity can be increased and in which
experiments it can be used.
There are also other interesting features and
possibilities concerning the simple indicator that
have not been discussed here to keep this text
compact. These will be described in a subsequent
article.
Received 9 November 2011, in nal form 5 February 2012
doi:10.1088/0031-9120/47/4/434
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Leo s Dvo r ak is an associate professor
and a deputy head of the Department of
Physics Education at the Faculty of
Mathematics and Physics, Charles
University in Prague, Czech Republic.
He has been engaged in pre-service
teacher training for more than 25 years
giving lectures on subjects like classical
and theoretical mechanics,
electrodynamics, relativity and modern
trends in physics education. His interests
include general questions of physics
education and teacher training, and the
use of simple experiments in physics
teaching and learning.
438 PHYS I CS EDUCATI ON July 2012