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Dynamic Effects (Active Mode)

Use of quasi-static assumption allows the current under dynamic conditions to be modeled as sum of two components:

(i) static current component

(ii) current due to capacitances

The capacitances are determined by taking the charge profiles same as that under static conditions. As a first step towards
finding the capacitances associated with the device , let
us first identify all the relevant charges and their dependence on base-emitter and base-collector voltages.

There are in general two kinds of charges:

(i) Depletion charge due to donor and acceptor atoms
(ii) Diffusion charge due to minority carrier storage
In active mode of operation, four distinct charges can be recognized:

The four charges are:

(i) Diffusion charge , due to holes stored in the emitter

(ii) Depletion charge associated with emitter-base junction

(iii) Diffusion charge , due to electrons stored in the base

(iv) Depletion charge associated with collector-base junction

We will take up each charge one at a time:

(i) due to holes stored in the emitter can be expressed as

For a uniformly doped emitter, the hole density will vary linearly with position if recombination in emitter is neglected:

It was shown earlier in the section on current gain:

This allows Eq. (3) to be written as

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Eq. (6) shows that the hole diffusion charge will vary with variations in collector current.The collector current varies rapidly
with emitter-base voltage but only slowly with collector-base voltage, which we shall neglect. We can therefore, define a
diffusion capacitance:

(2) Depletion charge associated with emitter-base junction:

Using the expression derived for PN junctions, the depletion capacitance can be written as:

Eq. (10) assumes that the emitter doping is much larger than the base doping level

(3) Diffusion charge , due to electrons stored in the base

For a uniformly doped base , the electron density varies linearly

using the expression for collector current derived earlier :

is known as the base transit time.

The capacitance associated with the base diffusion charge can be written as:

For the case where doping is non-uniform in the base, Eq. (18) continues to hold except that the expression for base transit
time

4) Depletion charge associated with collector-base junction:

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Using the expression derived for PN junctions, the depletion capacitance for the case where collector doping is much smaller
than the base doping, can be written as:

Eq. (21) shows that the effective doping in the collector is the usual collector doping along with an additional term due to
collector current density. This is explained below.The collector current requires flow of electrons through the collector-base
depletion region. This current flows via drift mechanism because of the large electric field. If it is assumed that all the
electrons move with the same saturation velocity , then The extra electron density if taken into account,
results in charge density within the depletion region that has two terms:

The collector depletion charge depends on both collector-base voltage as well as emitter-base voltage. As a result two
capacitances can be defined:

This is the usual depletion capacitance. The other capacitance can be defined as:

Eq. (20-21) allow Eq. (24) to be expressed as

The second term in the expression above is simply the collector-base depletion width , so Eq. (25) can be written as

is called the collector transit time.

The five capacitances obtained earlier are listed below:

i. , the emitter-base junction capacitance

ii. , the diffusion capacitance due to holes stored in the emitter.

iii. , the diffusion capacitance due to holes stored in the emitter

iv. , the capacitance due to electrons stored in the collector depletion region

v. , the emitter-base junction capacitance

The first four capacitances are associated with the emitter-base junction, while the last one is associated with the collector-
base junction.

The second, third and fourth capacitances can be combined into a single capacitance defined as:

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is known as the forward transit time.

The Ebers Moll Model derived earlier for static conditions can be modified by adding the capacitances as shown below so as
to make it applicable under dynamic conditions as well:

·This model is applicable only for forward active mode because the capacitances derived so far were for the active mode of
operation where the collector-base junction is reverse biased .If this junction were forward biased, there would be a diffusion
capacitance associated with it also, so that in general, a dynamic model such as that shown below can be obtained

Returning back to the forward active mode of operation, one can define an emitter-to-collector transit time as

where is the sum of all the capacitances in the device. As we shall see later, the frequency at which the small signal
current gain drops to unity, is related to this time
constant according to the relation:

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·The unity gain frequency is frequently used as a figure of merit for the response time the BJT.
Using the expressions for capacitances derived earlier, the transit time across the device can be written as

the junction capacitances as well as collector current are functions of device area. The emitter junction capacitance is
proportional to emitter area while the collector junction capacitance is proportional to the base-junction area which is
larger than the emitter area. The collector current in active mode flows only under the emitter, so the area relevant to it is
also This allows Eq. (31) to be written as

The capacitances in the equation above are capacitances per unit area now.

Eq. (32) shows that the transit time would decrease with increase in collector current density and attain a minimum value of

The variation of transit time with collector current density is illustrated by the Figure below:

The Figure shows that the transit time decreases with collector current density at first as expected but begins to increase
again. This is due to high level injection effects, which result in increase in collector and base transit times. These will be
discussed in the next section.

"The transit time will reach its minimum theoretical value given by Eq. (33) only if the collector current density required to
reduce the first term in Eq. (32) to a small enough value as compared to the remaining terms is smaller than the current
density at which high level injection effects set in.

This will be true if :

Example 3.1 For the NPN transistor whose description is given below. Determine the values for different time constants and

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capacitances

Take base-emitter voltage to be 0.75 V and base-collector voltage as –2V.

Solution : The following results can be obtained using the expressions for capacitances derived earlier:

The collector depletion width turns out to be 0.27mm for the case

The collector junction capacitance

Although, at high forward bias, the expression for capacitance is not very accurate, we shall use it just so as to get a rough
estimate of the emitter junction capacitance. It turns out to be

Example 3.2 : Using the time constants and capacitances obtained above, calculate the unity gain frequency for collector
current densities ranging from and
comment on the importance of different factors at different collector current densities.

Solution : The table below shows the contributions of various terms at different collector current densities:

The table above shows that transit time is determined primarily by junction capacitances at low collector current densities
and base transit time at high collector current densities.

·Because base transit time is such an important factor, there has been a constant effort over the years to reduce the base
thickness.

·The base transit time can also be reduced through appropriate selection of doping profile in the base.

Example 3.3 : Determine the base transit time for an exponential doping profile in the base. Comment on the relative
advantages/disadvantages of using such a profile

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Solution : For an exponential doping profile of the form:

the base transit time can be evaluated using Eq. (19) as

For , the base transit time improves by 36% compared to base transit time for a uniformly doped base. The
improvement will be even better for even steeper grading of
doping in the base because it results in higher electric field in the base, which aids the transport of electrons. Figure below
shows comparison of uniform and exponential doping profiles:

To maintain a identical current gains, the Gummel charge in both the cases must be the same. As a result, for exponential
doping profile, the doping near the emitter will be higher and near the collector lower as compared to the uniform doped
case. This means that emitter junction capacitance will be higher, while the collector junction capacitance will not be much
affected because it is determined largely by the collector doping which is often much smaller. The increase in emitter junction
capacitance will adversely affect the frequency response at lower collector current densities.

·The expression for base transit time shows that it inversely proportional to the diffusion constant. Since holes have smaller
mobility as compared to electrons, a PNP transistor will have an inferior response time as compared to a similar NPN
transistor.

·With steady reduction of base thickness, the collector transit time has become as much and in some case even more
important than the base transit time.

·Apart from unity gain frequency, there is another important figure of merit called the maximum oscillation frequency
which is the frequency at which the unilateral gain becomes It can be expressed as:

where is the resistance of the base. The expression above indicates that base resistance is also very important for
obtaining good frequency response.

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