INTRODUCTION TO BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR

Reference: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by Robert L. Boylestad and Louis
Nashelsky, PHI

INTRODUCTION TO BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR

 A BJT is a three terminal device (emitter E, base B, and collector C) with three
separately doped regions. The regions are arranged either in n-p-n or p-n-p
arrangement. The former is called an npn-transistor while the latter is called a
pnp-transistor.
 The three regions of a transistor are not same and impurity doping concentration
in the regions are substantially different. For example, emitter layer is heavily
doped, the base is lightly doped, and collector is only lightly doped. The emitter
and collector layers have widths much greater than the base region.
 The arrangement of n- and p-layers in a transistor leads to two pn-junctions.
Since each pn junction has two modes (forward and reverse), a BJT has four
possible modes (or region of operation) based on bias conditions. For example, if
the BJT is used as an amplifying device, the base-emitter (B-E) junction is
forward biased and the base-collector (B-C) junction is reverse biased, in a
configuration called forward-active operating mode, or simply active region. DC
biasing is necessary for transistors to establish proper region of operation for ac
amplification.
 Current in the BJT is due to flow of both electrons and holes, hence they are
called Bipolar. The basic principle of BJT is that the voltage between two
terminals controls the current through the third terminal.
 A transistor can be operated in three configurations, namely, Common emitter,
common base, and common collector mode.

COMMON-BASE CONFIGURATION

 The common-base terminology is derived from the fact that the base is common
to both the input and output sides of the configuration. In addition, the base is
usually the terminal closest to, or at, ground potential.
 To fully describe the behavior of a three-terminal device such as the common-
base amplifiers requires two-sets of characteristics – one for the driving point or
input parameters and the other for the output side.
 The input set for the common-base amplifier relates an input current (IE) to an
input voltage (VBE) for various levels of output voltage (VCB). Typical input
characteristic of a transistor is shown below.
 The input characteristics reveal that for fixed values of collector voltage (V CB), as
base-to-emitter voltage increases, the emitter current increases in a manner that
closely resembles diode characteristics.

 The figure also reveals that, increasing levels of VCB have such a small effect on
the characteristics that as a first approximation the change due to changes in
VCB can be ignored (Fig. (a) below). If we then apply the piecewise-linear approach,
the characteristics of Fig. (b) results. Taking it a step further and ignoring the
slope of the curve and therefore the resistance associated with the forward-biased
 junction results the characteristics of (c). Fig. (c) implies once a transistor is in
the “on” state, the base-to-emitter voltage may be assumed constant (0.7 V for Si
transistor). Alternatively, we can now immediately specify that the voltage from
base-to-emitter is 0.7 V if the device is in the active region.
 The output set relates an output current relates to an output current (I C) to an
output voltage (VCB) for various levels of input current (IE), as shown below. The
output characteristics has three basic regions of interest, as shown, the active,
cutoff and saturation regions.

 The active region is the region normally employed for linear (undistorted)
amplifiers. In active region base-emitter junction is forward-biased, whereas the
collector-base junction is reverse biased.
 It may be noted from the figure that as emitter current increases above zero, the
collector current increases to a magnitude essentially equal to that of the emitter
current as determined by the basic transistor-current relations. It may be also
noted the VCB has negligible effect on the collector current for the active region.
 At the lower end of the active region the emitter current (IE) is zero, and the
collector current is simply that due to the reverse saturation current ICO (or ICBO).
The current ICBO is so small in magnitude compared to the vertical scale of IC (mA)
that it appears on virtually the same horizontal line as IC=0. ICBO for general-
purpose transistors (especially Si) in the low- and mid-power ranges is usually so
low that its effect can be neglected. However, for higher power units ICBO will still
appear in µA range. It may be noted that ICBO is temperature sensitive and
 therefore at higher temperatures the effect of ICBO may become an important
factor since it increases so rapidly with temperature.
 The cut-off region is defined as that region where the collector current is 0 A. In
the cut-off region the base-emitter and collector-base junctions of a transistor are
both reverse-biased.
 The saturation region is defined as that region of the characteristics to the left of
VCB = 0 V. In this region the base-emitter and collector-base junctions are forward
biased.

COMMON-EMITTER CONFIGURATION

 For common emitter configuration the input terminals are the base and emitter
terminal and the output is collector and emitter terminal. So emitter terminal is
common to both input and output.

 The input set for the common-emitter amplifier relates an input current (IB) to an
input voltage (VBE) for various levels of output voltage (VCE). Typical input
characteristic of a transistor is shown below.
 The input characteristics reveal that for fixed values of collector voltage (V CE), as
base-to-emitter voltage increases, the base current increases in a manner that
closely resembles diode characteristics.
 Like CB configuration, we can approximate that when the transistor is “on” or
active region the base-to-emitter voltage is 0.7 V. In this case the base-emitter
voltage is fixed for any level of base current.
 The output set relates an output current relates to an output current (I C) to an
output voltage (VCE) for various levels of input current (IB), as shown below. The
output characteristics has three basic regions of interest, as shown, the active,
cutoff and saturation regions.

 It may be noted from the characteristics that the magnitude of I B is in µA,

compared to mA of IC. Further the curves of IB are not as horizontal as those
obtained for IE in CB configuration. This indicates that VCE influences the IC.
 The active region for the common-emitter configuration is that portion of the
upper-right quadrant that has the greatest linearity, that is, that region in which
the curves for IB are nearly straight and equally spaced. In above figure this region
exists to the right of the vertical line at VCE, SAT and above the curve for IB=0. The
region to the left of VCE,SAT is called the saturation region.
 In active region of a common-emitter amplifier, the base-emitter junction is
forward-biased, whereas collector-base junction is reverse biased.
 The cut-off region for the common-emitter configuration is not as well defined as
for the common-base configuration as IC is not equal to zero when IB=0. This is
due to the fact that ICEO=ICBO/(1- B=0. Therefor if ICBO

ICEO = 0.25 mA. In general, for linear (least distortion) common-emitter amplifier,
cut-off is defined by IC=ICEO.
COMMON-COLLECTOR CONFIGURATION

 Common-collector configuration is used primarily used for impedance-matching

purpose since it has a high input impedance and low output impedance, opposite
to that of common-base and common-emitter configurations.

 In common-collector configuration the load is connected from emitter to ground.

 For the common-collector configuration the output characteristics are a plot of IE
versus VCE for a range of IB. The input current, therefore, is same for both the
common-emitter and common-collector characteristics. The horizontal voltage
axis for the common-collector configuration is obtained by simply changing the
sign of the collector-to-emitter voltage of common-emitter characteristics. Finally,
there is an almost unnoticeable change in the vertical scale of IC of the common-
emitter characteristics if IC is replaced by IE for the common-collector
≈1). Therefore, for all practical purposes, the output
characteristics of the common-collector configuration are the same as for the
common-emitter configuration and there is no need for a set of common-collector
characteristics.
 For common-collector configuration the common-emitter base characteristics are
sufficient for obtaining the required information.

SOME IMPORTANT TRANSISTOR RELATIONS

αIB I
IC  αIE  ICBO   CBO  βIB IE  IC  IB  β  1 IB
1 α 1 α

ICBO
ICEO   βICBO αac   IC IE V
1 α I CB Constant
B 0

β α
α β
1 β 1 α

βac   IC IB V αdc  IC IE βdc  IC IB

CE Constant