CHAPTER 14

THE COMMON COLLECTOR CIRCUIT

In the common collector circuit (Fig. 14.1) the collector connection is the
common base point for the input and output circuits because for a.c. voltage
"minus" is equal to "earth".

v'2

Fig.14.1

The fundamental circuit for the transistor, the common emitter circuit,
has been dealt with in detail. In contrast to this fundamental circuit, only
the load resistance has been moved from the collector to the emitter. If we
take into consideration this alteration in the fundamental equivalent circuit,
the same must also apply here (Fig. 14.2).
For comparison the common emitter circuit has again been shown in Fig.
8 ;,

v, 8 8 I; ;2
E
rj RL
"" +e 2 0~, v'1 V, V2
vi
z
vi M, RL M2
~ ~

ii
;, i2 E E

C C
Fig.14.2

H. E. Kaden, Transistors Applied

© N.V. Philips• Gloeilampenfabrieken, Eindhoven, The Netherlands 1965
122 THE COMMON COLLECTOR CIRCUIT [14
14.2 alongside the common collector circuit which appears as an adaptation
of the other .The only difference is that in the common collector circuit
the input voltage v' 1 lies between base and collector. Ifwe compare the plotted
current and voltage directions these agree with Fig. 14.1. The next aim of
the investigation is to find a simple equivalent circuit for the common collec-
tor circuit in the form of the fundamental equivalent circuit. If we look at
the common collector circuit with its three connection terminals this repre-
sents an equivalent transistor, i.e. a new transistor with changedcharacteris-
tic values can be imagined in relation to these three connection terminals.
These equivalent characteristic values are calculated below (Fig. 14.3).

i,
I
---------------'
Fig.14.3

Since these equivalent characteristic values correspond to the characteristic

values in the fundamental circuit, it is c1ear that the fundamental equivalent
is also valid with these equivalent characteristic values.
For the network Ml drawn in Fig. 14.2 we have :
v' 1 - VI - v'2 = 0
from which

The output voItage is therefore always less than the input voItage v' 1. It is
reduced through the control voltage VI appearing as voltage drop at '(.
The output voltage is equal to the voltage drop at RL, therefore

V'2 = (h + i2)·RL = i2C. + 1).RL = i'2·RL. (14.2)