APPLIED ELECTRONICS

GM/MN/MR 162

TRANSISTORS

AMA BADUBA ASIEDU-ASANTE MSC,BSC,MIEEE,MIET, MIMS

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
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LECTURE OBJECTIVES
■ Understand the structure of a bipolar junction transistor
■ Understand transistor action for p-n-p and n-p-n types
■ Appreciate common-base, common-emitter and common-
collector transistor connections
■ Appreciate how the transistor is used as an amplifier estimate
current, voltage and power gains from transistor characteristics

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 INTRODUCTION
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■ The name transistor comes from the phrase “transferring an electrical signal
across a resistor.”
■ It acts as a variable valve which, based on its input voltage, controls the
current drawn by it from a connected voltage supply.
■ The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device which can be used for :
– amplification
– switching
– voltage stabilization
– signal modulation and many other functions.

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Types of Transistors
■ Bipolar junction transistor (BJT)
■ Field Effect Transistor (FET) and
■ Unijunction Transistors

■ The most widely used device is the bipolar transistor

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Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
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■ Formed by two individual diodes that are joined together end to end giving
two PN-junction connected together in series forming a three layer, two-
junction, three terminal device
■ The three terminals are known as the Emitter, Base and Collector
respectively
■ The term bipolar refers to the use of
both holes and electrons as current
carriers in the transistor structure

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Structure of a transistor. Unbiased transistor. (a) Depletion layers; (b) diode

equivalent.

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Biased transistor

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Emitter injects free electrons into base.

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Free electrons from base flow into collector

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 Types of Bipolar Transistors
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■ P-N-P
■ N-P-N

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Three transistor currents. (a) Conventional flow; (b) electron flow; (c) pnp currents.

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Constructional features
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 Transistor Action
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■ This describes the operational sequence of transistors

Transistor Action For NPN transistors

■ Emitter- base junction is forward biased

■ Collector-base junction is reversed biased

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 Transistor Action For NPN transistors – cont’d
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■ The majority carriers in the n-type emitter material are electrons

■ The base-emitter junction is forward biased to majority carriers hence the
electrons cross the junction and appear in the base region
■ The base region is very thin and only lightly doped with holes, so some
recombination with holes occur but many electrons are left in the base
region

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 Transistor Action For NPN transistors – cont’d
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■ The base-collector junction is reverse biased to holes in the base region

and electrons in the collector region, but is forward biased to electrons in
the base region; these electrons are attracted by the positive potential at the
collector terminal
■ A large proportion of the electrons in the base region cross the base
collector junction into the collector region, creating a collector current.

NOTE, the conventional current flow is

taken to be in the direction of hole flow,
that is, in the opposite direction to electron
flow, hence the directions of the
conventional current flow
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 Transistor Action For PNP transistors
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■ The majority carriers in the emitter p-type material are holes

■ The base-emitter junction is forward biased to the majority carriers and hence
the holes can cross the junction and appear in the base region
■ The base region is very thin and is only lightly doped with electrons so
although some electron-hole pairs are formed, many holes are left in the base
region

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 Transistor Action For PNP transistors – Cont’d
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■ The base-collector junction is reverse biased to electrons in the base region

and holes in the collector region, but forward biased to holes in the base
region; these holes are attracted by the negative potential at the collector
terminal
■ A large proportion of the holes in the base region cross the base-collector
junction into the collector region, creating a collector current; conventional
current flow is in the direction of hole movement.
Emitter Base Collector

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Transistor Currents
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■ For a p-n-p transistor, the base-collector junction is reverse biased for

majority carriers
■ A small leakage current, ICBO flows from the base to the collector due to
minority carriers
■ Base-collector junction is forward biased to these
minority carriers.
Emitter Base Collector

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Transistor Currents - Cont’d
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■ In an n-p-n transistor, the base-collector junction is reversed biased for

majority carriers,
■ A small leakage current, ICBO flows from the collector to the base due to
minority carriers
■ The base-collector junction is forward biased to these minority carriers.

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■ The total current flowing into the transistor must be equal to

the total current flowing out of it and hence the emitter
current IE is equal to sum of the collector and base current, Ic
and IB respectively, that is
IE = IC + IB
■ Typically, IC is equal to 0.99 IE so that IB is equal to 0.01 IE.

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Transistor Connections
■ Common-base Configuration - (a)
■ Common-emitter Configuration – (b)
■ Common-collector Configuration – (c)

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Transistor Static Characteristics
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■ The effect of changing one or more of the various voltages and currents
associated with a transistor can be shown graphically characteristics
curves
■ These give information on the value of current flowing into or out of one
terminal for either a given current flowing into or out of another terminal
or a given voltage applied between two terminals
■ These are:
– the input characteristic,
– the transfer characteristics,
– the output characteristics and
– the mutual characteristics.
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Common-base Configuration
■ Input Characteristic Output Characteristics

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Common-Emitter Configuration
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■ Input Characteristic Output Characteristics

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The Transistor as an Amplifier
■ If the current then flows through a load resistance, a voltage is developed.
This voltage can be many times greater than the input voltage which caused
the original current flow.
■ Common-base Amplifier

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 ■ ve = 100 mV and base-emitter circuit resistance be 50 
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■ IE = 100m/50 = 2 mA
■ RL = 2.5 K
■ About 0.99 of the emitter current will flow in RL. Hence the collector
signal current will be about 0.99 x 2mA = 1.98 mA
■ the signal voltage across the load will be 2500 x 1.98 x 10-3 = 4.95 V
■ Hence 100 mV has become 4950 mV
across the load

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 BJT Characteristics and Parameters
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■ BJT Circuit Analysis

IB: dc base current
IE: dc emitter current
IC: dc collector current
VBE: dc voltage at base with respect to emitter
VCB: dc voltage at collector with respect to base
VCE: dc voltage at collector with respect to emitter

■ VBB, forward-biases the base-emitter junction V ≅ 0.7V

■ VCC, reverse-biases the base-collector junction

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 ■ Since the emitter is at ground (0 V), by Kirchhoff’s voltage law, the voltage across RB
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is = −

■ Also, by Ohm’s Law, =

■ Substituting for yields = −
■ Solving for , =

■ The voltage at the collector with respect to the grounded emitter is = −

■ Since the drop across R is =
■ The voltage at the collector with respect to the emitter can be written as
= −

■ The Voltage across the reverse-biased collector-base junction is = −

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 ■ Cutoff
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– In this condition IB = 0 hence only a very small amount of
collector leakage current, ICEO
– Implying VCE =VCC

■ Saturation
– base-emitter junction is forward biased and the IB is increased

– the collector current also increases and VCE decreases as a

result of more drop across the collector resistor
(VCE = VCC - ICRC)

– VCE reaches its saturation value, VCE(sat), the base-

collector junction becomes forward-biased and IC can
increase no further even with a continued increase in IB.
VCE(sat)
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■ DC Load Line
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– The bottom of the load line is at ideal cutoff

where IC = 0 and VCE = VCC.
– The top of the load line is at saturation
where IC = IC(sat) and VCE = VCE(sat).

■ DC Beta (βDC) and DC Alpha (αDC)

– The dc current gain of a transistor is the ratio of the dc collector current (IC) to the dc
base current (IB) and is designated dc beta (βDC). =

– The ratio of collector current (IC) to emitter current (IE) is dc alpha (αDC). The alpha
is a less-used parameter than beta in transistor circuits. =

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SUMMARY
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■ The Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is a three-layer device

constructed to form two semiconductor diode junctions joined
together, one forward biased and one reverse biased.
■ There are two main types of bipolar junction transistors, the NPN
and the gate transistor.
■ The most common transistor connection is the Common-emitter
configuration.
■ A transistor can also be used as an electronic switch to control
devices such as lamps, motors and solenoids etc.
■ The NPN transistor requires the Base to be more positive than the
Emitter while the PNP type requires that the Emitter is more
positive than the Base.
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Calculations
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Find the dc current gain  DC and the emitter current I E for a transistor where
I B  50  A and I C  3.65 mA. b) Find  DC

A certa in tra n sisto r h a s a  D C o f 2 0 0 . W h en th e b a se cu rren t is 5 0  A .

F in d th e I C a n d  D C

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a)With the aid of the diagram below ve = 400 mV and base-emitter
circuit resistance be 42 . RL = 3.1k
b) From your analysis of the circuit results comment on the function of
the transistor.

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 F i n d I B , I C , I E , V B E .V C E i n t h e c i r c u i t o f f i g u r e b e l o w .
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T h e tr a n s is to r h a s a   150
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DC

Note: VBE=0.7 V

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 Sketch an ideal family of collector curves for the circuit in figure below
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for I B  5 Ato 25 Ain 5 Aincrements. Assume  DC  100 and that

VCE does not exceed breakdown.
Help : I C   DC I B

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Thank you
questions?

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