TOPIC 3

Transistors
“The secret to getting ahead is to get started”

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1. Explain the principle of operation for a bi-polar transistor.

2. Explain how a bi-polar transistor may be used as an electronic switch.
3. Differentiate the principle of operation of a Bi-Polar to a Field-Effect transistor.

DISCUSSION
Transistor
 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.
 A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of
terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor
can amplify a signal. The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in
modern electronic systems.
 Most transistors are made from very pure silicon or germanium, but certain other semiconductor materials can also be
used. A transistor may have only one kind of charge carrier, in a field effect transistor, or may have two kinds of charge
carriers in bipolar junction transistor devices. Compared with the vacuum tube, transistors are generally smaller, and
require less power to operate.

History

 In 1906, an American inventor and physicist, Lee De Forest, made the vacuum tube triode or
audion as he called it. Used in radios and early computers
 In 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain devised the first "point contact" transistor.
 The thermionic triode, a vacuum tube invented in 1907, enabled amplified radio technology and long-
distance telephony. The triode, however, was a fragile device that consumed a substantial amount of power.

 German physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925, which
was intended to be a solid-state replacement for the triode. The term transistor was coined by John R. Pierce as
a contraction of the term transresistance.
 The first high-frequency transistor was the surface-barrier germanium transistor developed by Philco in 1953,
capable of operating up to 60 MHz. These were made by etching depressions into an N-type germanium base
from both sides with jets of Indium(III) sulfate until it was a few ten-thousandths of an inch
thick. Indium electroplated into the depressions formed the collector and emitter.
IMPORTANCE

The transistor is the key active component in practically all modern electronics. Many consider it to be one of the
greatest inventions of the 20th century. Its importance in today's society rests on its ability to be mass-produced using a
highly automated process (semiconductor device fabrication) that achieves astonishingly low per-transistor costs.

TYPES

BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR (BJT)

 The term bipolar refers to the use of both holes and electrons as charge carriers in the transistor structure

 Bipolar Junction Transistors are transistors which are made up of 3 regions, the base, the collector, and the emitter.
Bipolar Junction transistors, unlike FET transistors, are current-controlled devices. A small current entering in the
base region of the transistor causes a much larger current flow from the emitter to the collector region.

 Bipolar junction transistors come in two main types, NPN and PNP. A NPN transistor is one in which the majority
current carrier are electrons. Electron flowing from the emitter to the collector forms the base of the majority of
current flow through the transistor. The other type of charge, holes, are a minority. PNP transistors are the opposite.
In PNP transistors, the majority current carrier are holes

 Overall, bipolar junction transistors are the only type of transistor which is turned on by current input (input into the
base). This is because BJTs have the lowest input impedance of all transistors. The low impedance (or resistance)
allows current to flow through the base of the transistor. Because of this low impedance also do BJTs have the
highest amplification of all transistors.

 The downside of BJTs is because they have low input impedance, they can cause loading in a circuit. Loading is when
a device can draw significant current from a circuit, thus disturbing a circuit's power source.
 Operation of an NPN Transistor

 Figure shows an NPN transistor biased in Forward active mode. (ie) the emitter base of a transistor is forward
biased and collector-base junction is reverse biased. If the Applied forward bias voltage is greater than the
barrier potential, the free electrons in the N type emitter flows towards the base region. This constitutes the
emitter current (IE). It may be noted that the direction of Conventional current is opposite to the flow of
electrons. Therefore electrons after reaching the base region tend to combine with the holes in the base. If
these free electrons combine with the holes in the base, they constitute base current (IB). However most of the
free electrons do not combine with the holes in the base. This is because of the fact that the base region is
lightly doped.

Operation of a PNP Transistor

 The operation of a PNP transistor is similar to that of an NPN transistor. However the current with in a PNP
transistor is due to the movement of holes, whereas in an NPN transistor it is due to the movement of free
electrons. Figure shows a PNP transistor with its emitter-base junction forward biased and collector base
junction as reverse biased.
Basic construction

Regions of a transistor

A transistor has three regions namely,

 Emitter- heavily doped

  Base- lightly doped

 Collector- moderately doped

Transistor symbols
FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR

 The field-effect transistor, sometimes called a unipolar transistor, uses either electrons (in n-channel FET) or holes
(in p-channel FET) for conduction. The four terminals of the FET are named source, gate, drain, and body (substrate).
Field Effect Transistors are transistors which are made up of 3 regions, a gate, a source, and a drain. Unlike bipolar
transistors, FETs are voltage-controlled devices. A voltage placed at the gate controls current flow from the source
to the drain of the transistor.
 Field Effect transistors have very high input impedance, from several mega ohms (MΩ) of resistance to much, much
larger values. This high input impedance causes them to have very little current run through them. (According to
ohm's law, current is inversely affected by the value of the impedance of the circuit. If the impedance is high, the
current is very low.) So FETs both draw very little current from a circuit's power source.
 Thus, this is ideal because they don't disturb the original circuit's power elements to which they are connected to.
They won't cause the power source to be loaded down. The drawback of FETs is that they won't provide the same
amplification that could be gotten from bipolar transistors.
 Bipolar transistors are superior in the fact that they provide greater amplification, even though FETs are better in
that they cause less loading, are cheaper, and easier to manufacture. Field Effect Transistors come in 2 main types:
JFETs and MOSFETs. JFETs and MOSFETs are very similar but MOSFETs have even higher input impedance values
than JFETs. This causes even less loading in a circuit.

FET circuits

 Field effect transistors are widely used in all forms of circuit from those used in circuits with discrete electronic
components, to those employed in integrated circuits.
 As the field effect transistor is a voltage operated device rather than a current device like the bipolar transistor, this
means that some aspects of the circuit are very different: the bias arrangements in particular. However electronic
circuit design with FETs is relatively easy - it is just a bit different to that using bipolar transistors.
 Using FETs, circuits like voltage amplifiers, buffers or current followers, oscillators, filters and many more can all be
designed, and the circuits are very similar to those for bipolar transistors and even thermionic valves / vacuum
tubes. Interestingly valves / tubes are also voltage operated devices, and therefore their circuits are very similar,
even in terms of the bias arrangements.

Field Effect Transistor types

There are many ways to define the different types of FET that are available. The different types mean that during the
electronic circuit design, there is a choice of the right electronic component for the circuit. By selecting the right device it
is possible to obtain the best performance for the given circuit.
FETs may be categorised in a number of ways, but some of the major types of FET can be covered in the tree diagram
below.

There are many different types of FET on the market for which there are various names. Some of the major categories
are detailed below.

 Junction FET, JFET:   The junction FET, or JFET uses a reverse biased diode junction to provide the gate connection.
The structure consists of a semiconductor channel which can be either N-type or P-type. A semiconductor diode is
then fabricated onto the channel in such a way that the voltage on the diode affects the FET channel.
 Insulated Gate FET / Metal Oxide Silicon FET MOSFET:   The MOSFET uses an insulated layer between the gate and
the channel. Typically this is formed from a layer of oxide of the semiconductor.
 Dual Gate MOSFET:   This is a specialised form of MOSFET that has two gates in series along the channel. This
enables some considerable performance improvements to be made, especially at RF, when compared to single gate
devices.
 MESFET:   The MEtal Silicon FET is normally fabricated using Gallium Arsenide and is often referred to as a GaAs FET.
Often GaAsFETs are used for RF applications where they can provide high gain low noise performance. One of the
drawbacks of GaAsFET technology results from the very small gate structure, and this makes its very sensitive to
damage from static, ESD. Great care must be taken when handling these devices.
 HEMT / PHEMT:   The High Electron Mobility Transistor and Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor are
developments of the basic FET concept, but developed to enable very high frequency operation. Although
expensive, they enable very high frequencies and high levels of performance to be achieved.
 FinFET:   FinFET technology is now being used within integrated circuits to enable higher levels of integration to be
achieved by allowing smaller feature sizes. As higher density levels are needed and it becomes increasingly difficult
to realise ever smaller feature sizes, FinFET technology is being used more widely.
 VMOS:   VMOS standard for vertical MOS. It is a type of FET that uses a vertical current flow to improve the
switching and current carrying performance. VMOS FETs are widely used for power applications.

SUMMARY:

1. A transistor is a device that regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a switch or gate for electronic signals.
Transistors consist of three layers of a semiconductor material, each capable of carrying a current.
2. A transistor regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a switch or gate for electronic signals.
3. A transistor consists of three layers of a semiconductor material, each capable of carrying a current. A
semiconductor is a material such as germanium and silicon that conducts electricity in a "semi-enthusiastic" way.
4. A Bipolar Junction Transistor (also known as a BJT or BJT Transistor) is a three-terminal semiconductor device
consisting of two p-n junctions which are able to amplify or magnify a signal. It is a current controlled device. The
three terminals of the BJT are the base, the collector and the emitter. A BJT is a type of transistor that uses both
electrons and holes as charge carriers.

5. The concept of the field effect transistor is based around the concept that charge on a nearby object can attract
charges within a semiconductor channel. It essentially operates using an electric field effect - hence the name. The
FET consists of a semiconductor channel with electrodes at either end referred to as the drain and the source. A
control electrode called the gate is placed in very close proximity to the channel so that its electric charge is able to
affect the channel.

REFERENCES:
1. https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/electronic_components/fet-field-effect-transistor/what-is-a-fet-
types-overview.php
2. https://www.electrical4u.com/bipolar-junction-transistor-or-bjt-n-p-n-or-p-n-p-transistor/