BIPOLAR JUNCTION

TRANSISTORS
 Structure of power transistor
• A power transistor has a vertically oriented
four-layer structure of alternating p-type and n-
type doping . The transistor has three
terminals.
• The vertical structure is preferred for power
transistors because it maximizes the cross-
sectional area through which the current in the
device is flowing.
• This minimizes the on-state resistance and
thus the power dissipation in the transistor.
• In addition, having a large cross-sectional area
minimizes the thermal resistance of the
transistor, thus also helping to keep power
dissipation problems under control.
Structure of power transistor

• Practical power
transistors have
their emitters and
bases in interleaved
as narrow fingers.

• The base thickness is made as small as possible in

order to have good amplification capabilities, as
will be explained in later sections. However, if the
base thickness is too small, the breakdown voltage
capability of the transistor is compromised.
Darlington configuration
I-V characteristics
 Transistor Operation
E
• Electrons injected into the base from the emitter
are most likely to exit the base via the collector
rather than the base terminal for three reasons.
• Base region is made quite small compared with
the electron diffusion length
• The area of the collector is made much larger
than that of the emitter or the base contact so that
the electrons diffusing away from the emitter are
much more likely to encounter the collector than
anything else because of the short distance
between emitter and collector.
• The density of electrons at the C-B junction is
essentially zero, because the high electric fields in
the reverse-biased C-B junction sweep all the
diffusing electrons at the edge of the space charge
region across the junction and into the collector
region.
 Vcc RL
QUASI-SATURATION CB
• It is assumed that the transistor is initially in the active
region.
- + Ic
• As the collector current rises in response to the base current,
the C-E voltage drops because of the increased voltage drop
across the load.
• However, there is a simultaneous increase in the voltage
drop in the drift region as a result of its ohmic resistance
because of the increase in ic.
• This means that the reverse bias across the actual C-B
junction, the n-p junction, is getting smaller and at some
point the junction will become forward biased.
• When this occurs, injection of holes from the base into the collector
drift region commences.
• At the same time, space charge neutrality requires that electrons also
be injected into the drift region in about the same numbers as the holes.
• These electrons are conveniently obtained from the very large number
of electrons being supplied to the C-B junction via injection from the
emitter and subsequent diffusion across the base.
 Vcc RL
QUASI-SATURATION CB
• In quasi-saturation, double injection is occurring in the drift
region in a manner similar to that in the drift region of the
forward-biased power diode - + Ic
 Vcc RL
QUASI-SATURATION CB
• In quasi-saturation, double injection is occurring in the drift
region in a manner similar to that in the drift region of the
forward-biased power diode - + Ic
• As the injected carriers increase, the drift region is gradually shorted
out and the voltage across the drift region drops even though the
collector current is large.
• It is also apparent that as the hole injection from the base across the C-
B junction commences, the thickness of the effective or virtual base is
increasing. This means that the effective value of beta decreases and,
hence, the collector current magnitude that a given base current can
support must also decrease
SWITCHING CHARACTERISTICS
SWITCHING CHARACTERISTICS
 SECOND BREAKDOWN
• It appears on the output characteristics of the BJT as a
precipitous drop in the collector-emitter voltage at large
collector currents.
• As the collector voltage drops, there is often a significant
increase in the collector current and a substantial increase in
the power dissipation.
• What makes this situation particularly dangerous for the BJT
is that the dissipation is not uniformly spread over the entire
volume of the device
• But is concentrated in highly localized regions where the
local temperature may grow very quickly to unacceptably
high values.
• If this situation is not terminated in a very short time, device
destruction results.
Safe operating Area