DENE 1113 ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC PRINCIPLES 2020

COURSE : DMF
ASSINGMENT TITLE : DARLINGTON
TRANSISTOR
SUBJECT NAME : ELECTRICAL &
ELECTRONIC PRINCIPLES DENE1113
LECTURER : TS. DR. FAIZ ARITH

NAME OF GROUP MEMBER MATRICES CHAPTER & MARKS

NUMBER PART OF DOING
MUHD SYAKIR IQBAL BIN D052010013 Application
MUHD YUSOF

MUHAMAD AZMIN BIN AZAHAR D052010064 Introduction and

Literature review
NUR AMIRUL AMNAN BIN NUR D052010094 Discussion and
AZMAN Conclusion

MUHAMMAD KHAIRUL FAHMI D052010015 Description and

BIN MOHD NASIR Design

DATE OF SUBMISSION : 31st DECEMBER of

2020
Link to presentation : https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/dadee490-5327-4cda-
be43-70bace1f09e8

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 DENE 1113 ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC PRINCIPLES 2020

Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

ASSIGNMENT (DEN
PROGRAMME) – PO10 & PO12
Name/Matrix No. :MUHD SYAKIR IQBAL BIN MUHD YUSOF & D052010013

MUHAMAD AZMIN BIN AZAHAR & D052010064

NUR AMIRUL AMNAN BIN NUR AZMAN & D052010094

MUHAMMAD KHAIRUL FAHMI BIN MOHD NASIR & D052010015

Course/Code :DMF / DENE 1113

Title of Experiment : DARLINGTON TRANSISTOR

Section/Group : SECTION 2 Date: 31ST DECEMBER 2020

Very Weak (2) Modest (3) Good (4) Excellent (5)

No Description Weight Score PO
Weak
(1)
Introduction
Very little Some A good
complete and
backgroun introductory account and
No well written
d information nearly
1 Introduction introducti providing 2 /10
information but the some complete
on at all complete picture
provided or major with minor
with all the
information components omissions
background
is incorrect or points but not
principles
missing critical
Some errors Some errors Some errors All grammar
Many
made made made and spelling
Grammar errors and
2 sporadically sporadically sporadically are corrector 3 /15
& consistentl
but but but with one
Spelling y made
within 9-12 within 5-8 within 2-4 or two careless
PO10
errors per errors per errors per mistakes.
page page page
Tables
and
Tables and Tables and Text, Text, tables and
figures
figures are figures are tables, figures very
cannot be
readable clearly done figures are clearly labeled
3 Aesthetics read or 3 /15
but mixture but with clear and and easily
understoo
of different standard well labeled comprehensible
d,
fonts and fonts and with with
mixture
style style standard appropriate
of
fonts and enhanced style
different
style
fonts and
style
Conclusions
All the points in
with major
No effort Conclusions All the conclusion
points, but
put in to with many important are well
4 Conclusions poorly 2 /10
write the important points are expounded and
phrased
conclusion points clearly supported
indicating
s omitted. written and providing
lack
stated. conclusive
of
outcome
understandi
ng

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 DENE 1113 ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC PRINCIPLES 2020

Inadequate
Minor Relevant
list of Complete
inadequaci adequacie in
references or reference
es in references
references in section and
Irreleva references. with
5 References text. comprehensive. 3 /15
nt Consistent consistent
Inconsiste Consistent
reference referencing referencing
nt referencing
s. style. style. Include
referencin style. Include
Include only 4
g style. more than 5
only 3 references.
Include references.
references.
only 2
references.
PO12
Results are Results are
Results are Results are nearly Results are complete,
incomplete incompletely completed; mostly accurate and
and most presented fairly completed, neatly presented
6 Results 4 /20
data are and most accurate accurate and and all data are
missing or data are and all data correctly
incorrect. available; presented correctly recorded and
with minor and most recorded. presented
mistakes. data in a proper
are format.
correctly
recorded.
Moderate Good Excellent
investigation investigation investigation on
Slight
Very poor on complex on complex complex
Analysis investigatio
7 investigati engineering engineering engineering 3 /15
& n and
on problem but problem and problem with
Discussi discussion
element. lacking of valid critical
on conducted.
valid discussion. observation
discussion. and discussion.
Total /10
0

Long Report_Assignment_Assessment_version@2019-ETAC

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 DENE 1113 ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC PRINCIPLES 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1
1.1Introduction ……………………………………………………1 – 2
CHAPTER 2
2.1 Literature Review………………………………………………...3 - 5
CHAPTER 3
3.1 Description and Design…………………………………………..6 - 8
3.2 Application……………………………………………………...9 – 11
3.4 Discussion………………………………………………………12 - 13
CHAPTER 4
4.1 Conculsion………………………………………………………….14

References………………………………………………………………15

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CHAPTER 1
1.1 Introduction
Darlington transistor is a two transistor connected together so that the current amplified
by the first is amplified further by the second transistor. The overall current gain is equal to the
two individual gains multiplied together. Darlington Transisitor also knowing as Darlington
Pair and Darlington Circuit. Darlington pair current gain, h FE = hFE1 ! hFE2 that means they gains
current by through two transistor. This gives the Darlington pair a very high current gain, such
as 10000, so that only a tiny base current is required to make the pair switch on.

SIDNEY DARLINGTON

Sidney Darlington was an American electrical engineer and inventor of a transistor

configuration in 1953, the Darlington pair. He advanced the state of network theory, developing
the insertion-loss synthesis approach, and invented chirp radar, bombsights, and gun and rocket
guidance. But one of the most remembered invention is making of Darlington transistor or
Darlington pair, a simple circuit comprised of two or more transistors that behave as a much
improved single transistor. As is well known to the circuits and systems community, this idea
is widely used and has had a great impact on the design of integrated circuits.

A Darlington pair behaves like a single transistor with a very high current gain. It has
three leads (B, C and E) which are equivalent to the leads of a standard individual transistor.

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To turn on there must be 0.7V across both the base-emitter junctions which are connected in
series inside the Darlington pair, therefore it requires 1.4V to turn on. Darlington pairs are
available as complete packages but you can make up your own from two transistors; TR1 can
be a low power type, but normally TR2 will need to be high power. The maximum collector
current Ic(max) for the pair is the same as Ic(max) for TR2.

A Darlington pair is sufficiently sensitive to respond to the small current passed by your
skin and it can be used to make a touch-switch as shown in the diagram. For this circuit which
just lights an LED the two transistors can be any general purpose low power transistors. The
100kohm resistor protects the transistors if the contacts are linked with a piece of wire.

The Darlington Pair offers a number of advantages. It is primarily used because it

offers a particularly high current gain and this also reflects into a high input impedance for the
overall Darlington circuit when compared to a single transistor. The Darlington transistor pair
is a very useful circuit in many applications. It provides a high level of current gain which can
be used in many power applications. Although the Darlington pair has some limitations, it is
nevertheless used in many areas, especially where high frequency response in not needed. In
particular Darlington transistors are used for applications including audio outputs, power
supply outputs, display drivers and the like.

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CHAPTER 2

2.1 Literature Review

Use As An Amplifier

There a few research have been made about Darlington transistor. One of them is
anaylsis the Darlington transistor as amplifier for circuit. Amplification is one of the most
important concept and application of electronic, almost all electronic; analog, digital, or mixed
analog and digital system requires amplifier. Amplifying signal through Darlington pair is an
important phenomenon of electronic, mainly it is made of up two identical Bipolar junction
transistor in common collector – common emitter connection and its applications ranges from
small – signal amplifier to power amplifier circuits. However at high frequency the
performance of the Darlington pair become very poor (M. H. Ali, 2015).

Attempts are being made in order to overcome the poor performance of the circuit at
high frequency. They overcome this problem by adding some extra biasing resistor at the
emitter of the first transistor and by using triple Darlington pair topology in cascade
respectively. The work of [6] would suffer reduction in gain while that of [9] would suffer
bandwidth shrinkage. Use of the Darlington pair in a distributed amplifier configuration solved
the above problems.

As a result they found that use of conventional Darlington pair amplifier as an element
of distributed amplifier has a great improvement in both the gain and bandwidth as compared
to the conventional Darlington pair topology. This is seen from both the simulation and the
calculated result (Aliyu Sisa Aminu, 2015). Conventional Darlington pair topology as the gain
stage of the distributed amplifier solves the problem of poor response of the topology at high
frequency. As nowadays, broadband communication demand high data rate and large coverage,
the propose amplifier has great potential for broadband application and its can be used in
transceivers for vast application such as Wi – Fi, surveillance equipments etc.

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Bipolar Transistor as a Switch

The bipolar junction transistor, (BJT) can be made to operate as an ON-OFF switch as
shown. The research been made about this. As we know, When the base terminal of the NPN
transistor is grounded (0 volts), zero current flows into the base therfore Ib = 0. As the base
terminal is grounded, no current flows from the collector to the emitter terminals therefore the
non-conducting NPN transistor is switched “OFF” (cut-off). M. H. Ali (2015) , If we now
forward biased the base terminal with respect to the emitter by using a voltage source greater
than 0.7 volts, transistor action occurs causing in a much larger current to flow through the
transistor between its collector and emitter terminals. The transistor is now said to be switched
“ON” (conducting). If we operate the transistor between these two modes of cut-off and
conduction, the transistor can be made to operate as an electronic switch.

However, the transistors base terminal needs to be switched between zero and some
positive value much greater than 0.7 volts for the transistor to fully conduct. A higher voltage
causes an increased base current, Ib to flows into the device resulting in collector
current Ic becoming large while the voltage drop across the colletor and emitter
terminals, Vce becomes smaller. Then we can see that a smaller current flowing into the base
terminal can cause a much larger current to flow between the collector and the emitter.

In order to overcome the problem, A Darlington Transistor configuration, also known

as a “Darlington pair” or “super-alpha circuit”, consist of two NPN or PNP transistors
connected together so that the emitter current of the first transistor TR1 becomes the base
current of the second transistor TR2. Then transistor TR1 is connected as an emitter follower
and TR2 as a common emitter amplifier (M. H. Ali , 2015). So by doing that, it now can be
used as the switch.

Darlington’s Contributions to Transistor Circuit Design

Sidney Darlington’s name is well known to electronic circuit designers. He is credited

with the discovery and initial demonstration in the early 1950’s of what ever since has been
known as the Darlington transistor pair, or simply the Darlington transistor or Darlington pair
(David A. Hodges, 1999). Early silicon transistors suffered from low values of common-emitter
current gain , and large variations of from sample to sample. might range from 5 to 15 for good
samples of silicon grown-junction transistors. Given these nonideal active elements, electronic
circuit designers had difficulty designing circuits with reasonably stable and uniform overall
gain. They badly wanted transistors with larger current gain so negative feedback could be

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employed, at the sacrifice of some circuit gain, to stabilize overall circuit performance against
variations in operating conditions and transistor characteristics. Sid Darlington surely
understood this engineering problem at the time.

David A. Hodges (1999), Just after the transistor was invented at Bell Labs, Sidney
checked out for the weekend two of the few existing transistors from the head of Bell Labs.
Transistors were not generally available and the head of the Labs kept the few that had been
made in his desk. Sidney played with them at home on the weekend and discovered/invented
the Darlington pair. He realized that they could be put in one package (“on one chip”), and that
in fact any number of transistors could be put in one package. By creating that, Sid Darlington
have solved the problem that many engineering problem face at that time. The figures below
some of the early design of Darlington transistor.

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CHAPTER 3

3.1 DISCUSSION AND DESIGN

For a given base current, the darlington transistor configuration of two bipolar

transistors gives improved current switching. The PNP transistor emitter is attached to the

base of the other PNP transistor to create a high current gain sensitive transistor used in many

applications where it is crucial to turnoramplify.

This means that a small amount of current can be used to move a larger load from a

sensor, micro-controller or the like. This is done by compounding amplification, where by the

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first transistor amplifies the current and then the second transistor amplifies it more. As it only

has one emitter, collector, and base, this transistor acts as a single unit transistor. The

Darlington Transistor is made up of two back to back paired PNP transistors or NPN transistors.

If both PNP transistors are included in the Darlington pair, it produces the PNP Darlington

Transistor. And if both NPN transistors are made up of the Darlington pair, it makes the NPN

Darlington transistor. It is a single package with both transistors having a common collector

terminal. The first transistor's emitter terminal is connected to the second transistor's base

terminal. Therefore, only the first transistor is given the base supply, and the output current is

only taken from the second transistor.

Transistors have a feature referred to as current benefit. When the transistor is switched

on, the sum of current that can move through the load in the above circuit is load current =

input current X transistor gain (hFE). For different transistors, the current gain differs and

can be looked up in the system data sheet. This will usually be about 100 for a standard

transistor. This would mean that 100 times greater than the input to the transistor would be the

current available to drive the load. The amount of input current required to turn on a transistor

is very limited in some applications. This can mean that enough current required by the load

cannot be able to pass through a single transistor. If the input current cannot be increased, then

the transistor gain would need to be increased. By using a Darlington Pair, this can be done.

We can see that when opposed to a single transistor, this provides a significantly improved

current gain. This will therefore allow a very low input current to transfer to a much larger load

current. This value is doubled when two transistors are used in a Darlington Pair. If both PNP

transistors are included in the Darlington pair, it produces the PNP Darlington Transistor and

if both NPN transistors are made up of the Darlington pair, it makes the NPN Darlington

transistor.

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When the NPN transistor base terminal is grounded (0 volts), the zero current flows to

the base therefore Ib = 0. No current flows from the collector to the emitter terminals as the

base terminal is grounded, so the non-conducting NPN transistor is turned "OFF". By using a

voltage source greater than 0.7 volts, if we now forward biased the base terminal with regard

to the emitter, transistor operation occurs allowing the transistor to flow through a much larger

current between its collector and emitter terminals. Now it is said that the transistor turns to

"ON". The transistor can be made to act as an electronic switch if we operate the transistor

between these two cut-off and conduction modes.

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3.2 APPLICATION OF DARLINGTON TRANSISTOR

The applications of Darlington transistor pair involve where a high gain is required at a low
frequency like Power regulators, Audio amplifier output stages, Display drivers, Motor
controllers, Touch and light sensors and solenoid control.

Example of the Darlington transistor application:

- This transistor is used in various applications where a high gain is required at a low frequency.
Some applications are

- Power Regulators

- Audio Amplifier o/p stages

- Controlling of motors

- Display drivers

- Controlling of Solenoid

- Light and touch sensors.

Darlington Transistor Pair based Rain Alarm

The circuit diagram of rain alarm using a Darlington transistor pair (BC547 transistor) is shown
below. The rain alarm circuit is built with the following active components such as sensor using
two screws fitted over a plastic strip, Darlington transistor pair, piezo buzz, 9v battery, 0.22uF,
10K resistor. The configuration of this circuit is in the form of a standard Darlington transistor
pair. These transistors are mainly used to increase the capacity of current amplification
enormously. When water drops or rain drops fell on the sensor, then the base of the transistor
will connect to the positive supply to activate the alarm. Then finally it generates an alarm.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Darlington Transistor Pair in their application

The Darlington transistor pair has many advantages and disadvantages depending on its use.
They are

Advantages

- The current gain of this transistor is high

- The input impedance of this circuit is high

- These are widely available in a single package

- The circuit configuration is easy and very convenient

Disadvantages

- Switching speed is slow

- Narrow Bandwidth

- Base emitter voltage is high

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- Saturation voltage is high which can lead to high levels of power dissipation in certain
applications.

Led drivers

- The Darlington transistor circuit lends itself to use in small driver chips for LEDs and other
small devices.

- The high current gain of the Darlington circuit means that these small driver chips can be
used to interface LEDs and other devices to logic chips.

Darlington transistor in audio output circuit

- Another Darlington circuit application is within audio power amplifiers. In instances where
the output stages need to drive loudspeakers, high levels of current gain are needed as speakers
have a low impedance.

- Even for headphones the audio output stages for lower power devices can benefit from the
use of a configuration based on the Darlington circuit.

Photo-darlington circuit

- The Darlington configuration is used in many photo applications. Phototransistor

performance can be enhanced by using a photo-darlington, and as a result, the configuration is
often used in this application.

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3.3 DISSCUSSION

In electronic component a multi-transistor configuration called the Darlington

Configuration. The Darlington configuration is a compound structure of a particular design
made by two bipolar transistor connected in such a way. The first transistor amplified the
current and further amplified by a second transistor. A much higher current gain than each
transistor taken separately given by this configuration. 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. The Darlington transistor is a high power semiconductor device with individual current
and voltage ratings many times higher than a conventional small signal junction transistors. It
acts as a single transistor with high current gain. A small amount of current is used from a
microcontroller or a sensor to run a larger load.

In some application the amount of input current available to switch on a transistor is

very low. It is because a single transistor does not have the ability to be able to pass sufficient
current by the load. The input current times the gain of the transistor (hFE). If the input current
is not possible to be increase then the gain of the transistor will need to be increased. By the
use of Darlington pair, it can be achieved. The emitter of one transistor is connected to the base
of the other to produce a more sensitive transistor with a much larger current gain being useful
in applications where current amplification or switching is required. A one single device
commercially made in a single package with the standard (Base, Collector and Emitter)
connecting leads and are available in a wide variety of case style and voltage ratings in both
NPN and PNP versions.

A high current Darlington transistor array, each consist of seven NPN Darlington pairs
that feature high voltage outputs with common cathode clamp diodes for switching inductive
loads. The Darlington pairs may be paralleled for higher current compatibility. Darlington
devices are high voltage, high current switch arrays containing multiple open collector
Darlington pairs or multiple Darlington transistor with common emitters, and integral
suppression diodes for inductive load. The nominal current rating of each output is 500 mA for
the 7- and 8-output devices and up to 1.5 A for quad-output devices. The input are pinned
opposites the output to simplify the application board layout. These devices interface standard
logic families.

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The Darlington pair sometime referred as a super-alpha pair but this name is used less
these days. Having two or three transistors on a single chip where the emitter of one transistor
was connected to the base of the next and all the transistors in the Darlington configuration
shared the same collector. Darlington pair transistor circuits can be bought as individual
electronic components like two transistors or it is also possible to obtain them as a single
electronic component with the two transistors integrated onto one chip. Also many Darlington
arrays are also available whereas a few Darlington transistors pairs are contained with same
package. These contained within an IC package because they are often used to drive displays
and because of that it makes the Darlington transistor pair very easy to use and incorporate into
a new electrical design. However it also has a shortage where it is not suitable for all high gain
applications.

Many attributes can be given by the Darlington pairs such as the high current gain. It
show that the current gain by the Darlington pair is very high and figures in excess of several
thousand are often seen. Other than that is the base emitter voltage where the Darlington pair
indicate or showed a higher voltage the input base and the output emitter than a single
transistor. Next is the frequency response. For high frequency application it is not being
normally used by the Darlington pair transistor. It is naturally slow because of the base current
for the output transistor cannot be turn off immediately and in result the device is used in low
frequency application including power supplies or areas where a very high input impedance
needed to be used.

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CHAPTER 4

4.1 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Darlington transistor or a Darlington configuration commonly known
as Darlington is one of the one circuit configuration that can be used to very good effect in
many. It is primarily used because it offers a particularly high current gain and this also reflects
into a high input impedance for the overall Darlington circuit when compared to a single
transistor. A high input impedance transformation can alter a high impedance input or source
to low impedance load. These can be made by two separate transistor or comes with a single
package.

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REFERENCES
B. Van Zeghbroeck (2011) .Chapter 5: Bipolar Junction Transistors

David A. Hodges, Fellow, IEEE (1999). Darlington’s Contributions to Transistor Circuit

Design

M. H. Ali, Aliyu Sisa Aminu (2015) . Analysis of Darlington Pair in Distributed Amplifier
Circuit

Owen Bishop (2001). Understand Electronics (Second Edition), Pages 80-93

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/darlington-transistor.html

https://kitronik.co.uk/blogs/resources/how-a-darlington-pair-transistor-works

https://www.elprocus.com/darlington-transistor-working-with-applications/

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/darlington-transistor.html

https://kitronik.co.uk/blogs/resources/how-a-darlington-pair-transistor-
works#:~:text=8%20comments,to%20drive%20a%20larger%20load

https://www.electrical4u.com/darlington-transistor/

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