NPN TRANSISTOR:

The transistor in which one p-type material is placed between two n-type materials is known as NPN
transistor. The NPN transistor amplifies the weak signal enter into the base and produces strong amplify
signals at the collector end. In NPN transistor, the direction of movement of an electron is from the
emitter to collector region due to which the current constitutes in the transistor. Such type of transistor
is mostly used in the circuit because their majority charge carriers are electrons which have high
mobility as compared to holes.
An NPN transistor is the most commonly used bipolar junction transistor.
NPN transistor is exactly opposite of PNP transistor.

NPN transistor can be understood as a Negative-Positive-Negative transistor. This is because the N-type
layer of semiconductor consists of electrons as majority carrier.  As NPN transistor consists of the
emitter of N-type, the majority charge carriers in NPN transistor are electrons.

The equivalent circuit of an NPN transistor is as shown in the figure below.

EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT OF AN NPN TRANSISTOR

NPN TRANSISTOR SYMBOL:

The symbol of the NPN transistor is as shown in the below figure. The arrowhead shows the
conventional direction of Collector current (I C), Base current (IB) and Emitter current (IE).

CONSTRUCTION OF NPN TRANSISTOR:

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The NPN transistor has two diodes connected back to back. The diode on the left side is called an
emitter-base diode, and the diode on the right side is called collector-base diode. These names are given
as per the name of the terminals.

The NPN transistor has three terminals, namely emitter, collector and base.

The emitter and collector layers are wider compared to the base. The emitter is heavily doped.
Therefore, it can inject a large number of charge carriers to the base.

The base is lightly doped and very thin compared to the other two regions. It passes most of all charge
carriers to the collector which is emitted by the emitter.

The collector is moderately doped and collects charge carriers from the base layer.

The circuit diagram of the NPN transistor is shown in the figure below. The collector and the base circuit
is connected in reverse biased while the emitter and base circuit is connected in forward biased. The
collector is always connected to the positive supply, and the base is in negative supply for controlling the
ON/OFF states of the transistor.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF NPN TRANSISTOR

DIFFUSED JUNCTION TECHNIQUE:

In this technique, the alternate p-type and n-type impurities are gaseously diffuse into the wafer of
semiconductor material at high temperature for forming the emitter and collector junction. The
diffusion type silicon transistor is shown in the figure below.

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The n-type silicon wafer is used for making the collector terminal. On the surface of the silicon wafer,
Silicon oxide (SiO2) is grown. The silicon-di-oxide is an insulating material which does not allow the
impurities to enter through it.

For making the wafer, the acceptor type impurities are diffused into the wafer. For this, the SiO 2 layer is
removed from the area from where the base is to be spread. The born impurities are exposed in the
form of the vapour, and hence the impurity is added to the depth of the material as shown in the figure
below. Thus, the base region of P-type material develops.

The another layer of SiO2 material is grown over the entire wafer of the transistor.

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The part of SiO2 is grown over shown in the figure below. The layer of SiO 2 is again engraved over the
wafer of donor type impurities (e.g. Phosphorous). Thus, the n-type emitter region is built..

The metal contacts are engraved on the surface shown above in the figure. The wafer exhibit on the
suitable collector contacts and then cut into the required size.

The leads are then connected to the base emitter and collector shown above.

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WORKING OF NPN TRANSISTOR:
The base-emitter junction should be forward biased, and the collector-base junction should be reversed
biased. Therefore, the N-terminal of emitter-base junction is connected to the negative terminal of
VBE, and the P-terminal of the battery is connected to the positive terminal of the V BE.

To reverse bias the collector-base junction, the N-terminal is connected to the positive terminal of the
VCB and the P-terminal is connected to the negative terminal of the battery V CE. This will make the wide
depletion layer at the collector-base junction and narrow depletion layer at emitter-base junction.

When forward biased is applied to the emitter-base junction, the electrons in N-region will repel from
the negative terminal of the battery and will move towards the base region. The base region is very
small as compared to emitter and collector region. Besides, the doping intensity of base is lowest. Thus,
it consists of fewer holes.
Due to few holes in the base region, only a few electrons will recombine with holes. The other electrons
which have not recombined yet will move towards collector region. This will constitute current in the
circuit. The size of the collector is large so that it can collect more charge carriers and can dissipate heat.

The current in NPN transistor is due to electron because electrons are the majority charge carriers in
NPN transistor.

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The emitter current in NPN transistor is equal to the sum of base and collector current. Mathematically
it can be written as:

IE=IB+IC

NPN TRANSISTOR APPLICATIONS:

Here some applications of the NPN Transistors are listed:

 NPN transistors are primarily used in switching applications.

 NPN transistors are used in amplifying circuit applications.
 NPN transistors are used in the Darlington pair circuits for amplifying weak signals.
 NPN transistors are used in applications we need sinking current.
 NPN transistors are used in some classic amplifier circuits, the same as ‘push-pull’ amplifier
circuits.
 NPN transistors are used in temperature sensors.
 NPN transistors are used in very High-frequency applications.
 NPN transistors are used in logarithmic converters.