NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCES

BASIC ELECTRONICS
LAB#13
LAB TITLE
BJT as an Amplifier (Common Emitter)
The aim of this LAB experiment is to familiarize students with the
Lab Objective techniques required to design Common emitter, common collector and
common base configurations for amplification.
Lab Experiment 1. Design & Simulate Common emitter Amplifier
2. Check Output waveform on oscilloscope.
o 2N3904 transistor
o Capacitors
o Resistors
o Battery
Components
o Direct power supply
SET: R1=20kohm, R2=3.6kohm, RE=220 ohm, RC= 1.2kohm, C1=
1uF, CE=47uF, C3=10uF, Vcc=12v, Frequency of source supply= 50 hz,
Amplitude= 100m

INTRODUCTION (THEROY):
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical
power. It is composed of semiconductor material usually with at least three terminals for
connection to an external circuit.
Bipolar transistors are so named because the controlled current must go through two types of
semiconductor material: P and N. The current consists of both electron and hole flow, in different
parts of the transistor. Bipolar transistors consist of either a P-N-P or an N-P-N semiconductor
“sandwich” structure.
The Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is a current controlled valve. The 3 terminals are named
base, collector and emitter. It is a current controlled device because the base current controls
the current flow from the emitter to collector
The Bipolar junction transistor is a solid-state device and in the BJTs the current flow in two
terminals, they are emitter and collector and the amount of current controlled by the third
terminal
i.e. base terminal. A BJT is a current controlled device because its output characteristics are
determined by the input current.
 Figure 1.1: NPN Transistor

The transistor internally has two diodes (NPN ≡ N – P – N ≡ NP Junction + PN Junction and PNP
≡ P – N – P ≡ PN Junction + NP Junction).
i.e, Emitter to base is one PN junction (diode) and Base to collector another PN junction (diode).

SINGLE – STAGE BJT AMPLIFIER CONFIGURATIONS:

Three different amplifier circuit configurations can be obtained by selecting one of the transistor
terminals as a common between input circuit and output circuit. In the BJT circuits, figure 3
shows these configurations, which are known as Common Base (CB), Common Emitter (CE),
and Common Collector (CC). These amplifier circuit configurations lead to significant changes
in the amplifier characteristics. The most noticeable changes in CC (emitter follower)
configurations are: the input resistance becomes very high and the gain is close to the unity.
These specific characteristics are translated into a useful application known as buffer amplifier.
Figure 1.2: Configurations of CE, CB and CC

VCC VCC VCC

RL RL RL

Vo Vo Vo

Vi
Vi Vi

CE CB CC

Operation of an Amplifier
 Figure 1.3: Circuit diagram of CE Amplifier

Shown in the figure above is a CE, Common Emitter Amplifier. Two types of input are given to
this amplifier, of which one is the AC Input signal while the other one is DC input signal. The
primary or the most important component here is the NPN transistor. The purpose of this
amplifier is to amplify the AC input that is fed to it. This is achieved by biasing the base of the
transistor with the help of R1 and R2 resistors. This biasing is done with the help of DC input
signal. You may ask that why we need biasing. The answer to this lies in the fact that due to
DC biasing only we are able to achieve the desirable Q point (more on that when we study about
load line in paragraphs to follow). Once the desirable Q point is set it becomes possible to have
correct variations in base and collector currents when AC input is provided to the amplifier
which ultimately makes amplification possible and real.
Function of Coupling Capacitor:
A coupling capacitor is used to connect two circuits such that only the AC signal from the first
circuit can pass through to the next while DC is blocked. It ensures that the internal resistance of
the AC input generator does not affect the DC bias of the transistor circuit.
Function of Bypass Capacitor:
The function of Bypass Capacitor is to provide a very low impedance path for AC signals in-
between emitter and ground of the circuit. It holds the emitter at a constant voltage value. Thus
variations in base voltage causes direct variations in V (BE) across base emitter junction of the
transistor.
The Effect of AC Input Sine Wave:
The base of the transistor which is driven by AC input source causes Sinusoidal variations in I(B)
or base current. As a result of this we observe variations in collector current I(C). During the
positive half of the input Sine wave, there is an increase in the forward bias of the transistor
which causes I(B) and I(C) to increase. However during negative half of the input signal, all the
three circuit components, that is, forward bias, I(B) and I(C) decreases.

AC Current Gain of a Transistor:

It’s given by the formula
Curent gain I(C) = Beta = i(c)/i(b)
 Where Beta is the AC current gain and i(c) and i(b) are AC values of collector and base
current respectively.
 Voltage Gain of a Transistor Amplifier
 It’s given by the
formula A(v) =
V(out)/V(in)
 Where V(out) and V(in) are peak-to-peak output and input voltages respectively.
Amplifier Action:
A minute AC input voltage across the BE (Base-Emitter) junction causes a very large
change in the collector current I(C). This ultimately produces a magnified AC output
voltage at the collector.
Procedure:
 Connect the circuit as show below:
 Figure 1.4: Common emitter configuration

β (beta), the gain or amplification factor of a transistor, normally is given when solving a circuit
equation. However, if it is not given, it can be calculated if the currents, Ib (the base current) and
either Ie (the emitter current) or Ic (the collector current) are known.

β= Ic/Ib
 Figure 1.5: Schematic diagram of common emitter

Record the following values practically:

 VB VE VC IB IE IC 

 Observation and Calculations:

Input Voltage (Vi) Output Voltage (Vo) Gain= Av= (Vo/Vi)

20.00mV 1.90mV 0.095