Lecture 5

Bipolar Junction
Transistors

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 Introduction
• The invention of transistor was the beginning of a
technological revolution that is still continuing
• Two basic types of transistors
- Bipolar junction transistor (BJT)
- Field effect transistor (FET)
• The BJT is used in two broad areas
- as a linear amplifier to boost or amplify signal
- as an electronic switch
• The term bipolar refers to use of both electrons and
holes as current carriers in transistor structure
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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Structure
• The BJT is constructed with three doped
semiconductor regions separated by two pn junctions.
• The three regions are called emitter, base and
collector.
- One type consists of two n regions separated by a p
region (npn)
- Other type consists of two p regions separated by a n
region (pnp)

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Symbols
• The base is a thin lightly doped region compared to the
heavily doped emitter and moderately doped collector
regions.

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Biasing
• BJT to operate properly as an amplifier, the two pn
junctions must be correctly biased with external dc
voltages.
• Base-Emitter (BE) -> forward biased
• Base-Collector (BC) -> reverse biased
• The collector is more positive than base, which is more
positive than emitter

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Biasing
• Base-Emitter (BE) -> forward biased
• Base-Collector (BC) -> reverse biased
• The voltages are reversed to maintain the forward
reverse bias.

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Bipolar Junction Transistor Operation (npn)

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Operation (npn)

• The heavily doped n-type emitter region has a very

high density of conduction-band (free) electrons.
• These free electrons easily diffuse through the forward
biased BE junction into the lightly doped and very thin
p-type base region (wide arrow).
• The lightly doped p-type base has a low density of
holes, which are the majority carriers (white circles).
• A small percentage of the total number of free
electrons injected into the base region recombine with
holes and move as valence electrons through the base
region, and holes into the emitter region as hole
current (red arrows). 8
 Bipolar Junction Transistor Operation (npn)
• When the electrons that have recombined with holes
as valence electrons leave the crystalline structure of
the base, they become free electrons in the metallic
base lead and produce the external base current.
• Most of the free electrons that have entered the base
do not recombine with holes because the base is very
thin (no enough holes).
• As the free electrons move toward the reverse-biased
BC junction, they are swept across into the collector
region by the attraction of the positive collector supply
voltage.
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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Operation (npn)
• The free electrons move through the collector region,
into the external circuit, and then return into the
emitter region along with the base current (IE = IC +
IB).
• The emitter current is slightly greater than the
collector current because of the small base current
that splits off from the total current injected into the
base region from the emitter (IE = IC + IB).

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Current
• The direction of conventional current is in the direction
of the arrow on the emitter terminal.
• The emitter current is the sum of the collector current
and the small base current i.e. I I +I

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Current
• When transistor is connected to dc bias voltage
- forward biases the base emitter junction
- reverse biases the base collector junction

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Current
• DC Beta ( )
- The dc current gain of a transistor is the ratio of the dc
collector current ( ) to the dc base current ( ) and is
designated dc beta ( ).
- Range value: 20 < < 200
=
• DC Alpha (α )
- The ratio of the dc collector current ( ) to the dc emitter
current ( ) is the dc alpha (α ).
- Range value: 0.95<α <0.99 or greater but << 1
- The reason is that IC is always slightly less than by
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the amount of i.e. ( = + ).
α =
 Bipolar Junction Transistor Current
Question: Determine the dc current gain and the
emitter current for a transistor where 50 µA and
3.65 mA ?

Solution:

.
= = = 73
µA

= + = 3.65mA + 50 µA = 3.70 mA
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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuit Analysis
: dc base current : dc emitter current : dc collector current
: dc voltage at base with respect to emitter
: dc voltage at collector with respect to base
: dc voltage at collector with respect to emitter
: forward biases the junction
: reverse biases the junction

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuit Analysis
• When the base-emitter junction is forward-biased it is forward-
biased diode and has forward voltage drop
V ≌ 0.7 V
Since emitter is ground (0V), KVL law, the voltage across
=
Also, by Ohms law , =
Substituting for , =
" #" $
Solving for , =
Voltage at collector w.r.t ground emitter is
= %
Drop across , =
Voltage at collector w.r.t emitter is
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=
Voltage across reverse biased collector base junction
=
 Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuit Analysis
Question: Determine I , I , I , V , V , and V , when
transistor has a β' = 150.

Solution:
V ≌ 0.7 V
Solving for I ,
()) #()$ # .+
I = = = 430µA
*) ,
I β' I = 150*430 = 64.5mA
I I + I 64.5mA + 430μA 64.9mA
Solving V and V ,
V =V I R 10-(64.5mA)(100Ω) 3.
V =V V =3.55-0.7=2.85V
Since the collector is at a higher voltage than the base, the 17
collector-base junction is reverse-biased.
 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• The collector characteristic curves show relationship of
the three transistor currents.

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• Consider point A on characteristic curve
- Assume V is set to produce value of I and V = 0
- Both BE and BC junction are forward biased then
transistor is in saturation region.
i.e. base is 0.7V while emitter and collector are at 0 V
- I is through BE junction

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• Consider point A and B on characteristic curve
- Saturation is the state of a BJT in which I has
reached a maximum and is independent of I .
- When V is increased, V increases as I increases.
- V remains less than 0.7 V due to the forward
biased BC junction

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• Consider point B and C on characteristic curve
- When V exceeds 0.7 V, the BC junction becomes
reverse biased and the transistor goes in active region.
- Once the BC junction is reverse-biased, I levels off and
remains essentially constant for a given value of I as
V continues to increase

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• Consider point C on characteristic curve
- When V reaches high voltage, the reverse-biased BC
junction goes into breakdown and I increases rapidly.
- A transistor should never be operated in this
breakdown region.

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• By setting up other values of base current, a family of
collector curves is developed.
• β' is the ratio of collector current to base current
I
β'
I
• Family of I versus V
curves for several values of
I (I , < I < < I , etc.)

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 Bipolar Junction Transistor
Collector Characteristic Curves
• The DC load line represents the circuit that is external to
the transistor. It is drawn by connecting the saturation
and cutoff points.
• The region between the saturation and cutoff points is
called the active region.

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