2/28/2017

Electronic devices for

biomedical design

Bipolar Junction Transistors

Dr. Pham Thi Thu Hien

Feb. 2017

Contents

History
Physical structures

Models of operation

PNP & NPN transistors

BJT circuit applications

1
 2/28/2017

What is transistor?

 An electronic device made of a semiconductor

that can act as an insulator and a conductor.
 The ability to change from these two states
enables the device switch or amplify.
 It has of three components (for BJT):
 Emitter
 Collector
 Base

Importance

“The Transistor was probably the most important

invention of the 20th Century and the story behind the
invention is one of clashing egos and top secret research.”
Ira Flatow

 Transistors replaced vacuum tubes.

 Transistors are central to the Integrated Circuit, and
therefore, all electronic devices of the information
age, such as: pc’s, cellular phones, ipods, pda’s,
intelligent cars and buildings…….. are made possible.

2
 2/28/2017

History

1895
 John Ambrose Fleming
developed the Vacuum
Tube
 A device that modify a
Ambrose Fleming
signal by controlling the
movement of electrons in
an evacuated space.
 The electrons flow only
from filament to plate
creating a diode (a device
that can conduct current
only in one direction)

Vacuum Tube 5
◄

History

1898

Thomson discovered
the electron.

6
◄

3
 2/28/2017

History

1906
 Lee De Forest - Triode in
vacuum tube (amplify
signals) allowing farther
telephone conversations.
 The problems with this
Triode is that it was
unreliable and used a lot of
power.

7
◄

History

1928
 The first patents for the
transistor principle were
registered in Germany by
Julius Edgar Lilienfield.
 He proposed the basic
principle behind the MOS
field-effect transistor

Julius Edgar Lilienfield

8 ◄

4
 2/28/2017

History

1934

German Physicist Dr.

Oskar Heil patented
the field effect
transistor

Oskar Heil

9 ◄

History

1945
 Bill Shockley the team leader of
the solid state department (Hell’s
Bell Lab) hired Walter Brattain and
John Bardeen.
 He designed the first
semiconductor amplifier, relying
on the field effect.
 His device was a small cylinder
coated thinly with silicon,
mounted close to a small, metal
plate.
 The device didn't work, and
Shockley assigned Bardeen and
Brattain to find out why.
◄
10

5
 2/28/2017

History

1947
 Bardeen and Brattain built the point contact
transistor.
 They made it from strips of gold foil on a plastic
triangle, pushed down into contact with slab of
germanium.

11
◄

1947 cont.

12

6
 2/28/2017

1947 cont.

Dr. William Shockley

(seated); Dr. John Bardeen
(left); Dr. Walter H. Brattain.
(Courtesy of AT&T Archives
and History Center.)

All shared the Nobel Prize in 1956 for this contribution.

13

History

1947 cont.
 Shockley make the
Junction transistor
(sandwich).
 This transistor was more
practical and easier to
fabricate.
 The Junction Transistor
became the central
device of the electronic
age

14

7
 2/28/2017

History

1947 cont.
 A thin piece of semiconductor
of one type between two
slices of another type, is able
to control the flow of the
current between emitter and
the collector.
 Even if the input current is
weak, the transistor can
control a strong current.
 The effect accomplish is that
the current through the
collector mimics and amplify
the behavior of the current
through the Emitter.

15 ◄

History

1948

 Bells Lab unveil the transistor.

 They decided to name it transistor instead of
Point-contact solid state amplifier.
 John Pierce invented the name, combining
trans-resistance with the ending common to
devices, like varistor and thermistor.

16

8
 2/28/2017

History

1950’s
 Sony receives a license from
Bell Labs to build transistors
 In 1946 Sony produced
products for radio repair. In
1950 they decided to build
something for the mass
consumption; the transistor
radio.
 In United States they used
the transistors primarily for
computers and military uses.

◄
17

History

1955

Foundation of Shockley Semiconductor,

sowing the seeds of silicon valley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SJPan.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ShockleyBldg.jpg
18
◄

9
 2/28/2017

History

1957
 The traitorous eight abandoned Shockley
founding Fairchild Semiconductor.

Fairchild Semiconductor company

19
◄

History

1958
 Jack Kilby of Texas
Instruments – Invent the
Integrated Circuit (IC)
 It occurred to him that all
parts of a circuit could be
made out of the same
piece of silicon. Texas Instruments' first IC

 The entire circuit could be

built out of a single crystal
• Reducing the size
• Easier to produce

20
◄

10
 2/28/2017

History

1958 cont. - Integrated Circuit

 A single device that contains

an interconnected array of
elements like transistors,
resistors, capacitors, and
electrical circuits contained
in a silicon wafer.

21

History

1968
 Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore, two of the
traitorous eight together with Andy Grove, form
Intel Corporation

22
◄

11
 2/28/2017

Pictorial History of Transistors

http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/belllabs_transistor.html
23
◄

24

12
 2/28/2017

Bipolar transistor

Symbols for an NPN transistor (top)

and a PNP transistor (center and Samples of commonly used transistors
bottom). 25

Transistor construction

The transistor is a three-layer semiconductor device consisting of:

 Two n - and one p -type layers (npn transistor)
 Two p - and one n -type layers (pnp transistor)

26

13
 2/28/2017

Transistor construction

The abbreviation BJT (bipolar junction transistor)

 E for emitter
 C for collector
 B for base

27

Transistor construction

28

14
 2/28/2017

Transistor construction

29

Transistor operation

 The pnp transistor has been redrawn without the base-to collector bias.
 The depletion region has been reduced in width due to the applied
bias, resulting in a heavy flow of majority carriers from the p - to the n -
type material.

30

15
 2/28/2017

Transistor operation

Removing the base-to-emitter bias of the pnp transistor, recall that the flow of
majority carriers is zero, resulting in only a minority-carrier flow.
“One p–n junction of a transistor is reverse-biased, whereas the other is forward-
biased."

31

Transistor operation

In the Figure, both biasing potentials have been applied to a pnp transistor,
with the resulting majority- and minority-carrier flows indicated.

32

16
 2/28/2017

Transistor operation

 The larger number of these majority carriers will diffuse across the
reverse-biased junction into the p -type material connected to the
collector terminal.

I E  IC  I B
 The minority-current component is called the leakage current and
is given the symbol ICO( ICO current with emitter terminal Open).
The collector current, therefore, is determined in total by

IC  IC majority
 I CO minority

33

Basic circuits of BJT

34

17
 2/28/2017

Operation of BJTs

BJT will operates in one of following

four region
 Cutoff region (for digital circuit)
 Saturation region (for digital circuit)
 Linear (active) region (to be an amplifier)
 Breakdown region (always be a disaster)

35

Operation of BJTs

36

18
 2/28/2017

DC Analysis of BJTs

Transistor Currents:
IE = I C + I B
alpha (DC)
IC = DCIE
beta (DC)
IC = DCIB
 DC typically has a value between 20 and
200

37

DC Analysis of BJTs

DC voltages for the biased

transistor:
Collector voltage
VC = VCC - ICRC
Base voltage
VB = VE + VBE

 for silicon transistors, VBE = 0.7 V

 for germanium transistors, VBE = 0.3 V
38

19
 2/28/2017

Q-point

The base current, IB, is established by

the base bias.
The point at which the base current
curve intersects the dc load line is the
quiescent or Q-point for the circuit.

39

Q-point

40

20
 2/28/2017

DC Analysis of BJTs

The voltage
divider biasing is
widely used
Input resistance
is:
RIN  DCRE
The base voltage
is approximately:
VB  VCCR2/(R1+R2)

41

Common-base configuration
Notation and symbols used with the common-base configuration:
(a) pnp transistor; (b) npn transistor.

The arrow in the graphic symbol defines the direction of emitter current
(conventional flow) through the device. 42

21
 2/28/2017

Common-base configuration

The input set for the common-base

amplifier as shown in Figure
relates an input current (IE ) to an
input voltage (VBE ) for various
levels of output voltage (VCB ).

Input or driving point characteristics for a

common-base silicon transistor amplifier

43

Common-base configuration
 The output or collector set of characteristics has three basic
regions of interest: the active , cutoff , and saturation
regions.

Output or collector characteristics for a common-base

transistor amplifier
In the active region the base–emitter junction is forward-biased,
whereas the collector–base junction is reverse-biased. 44

22
 2/28/2017

Common-base configuration
Alpha (α)
DC mode: In the dc mode the levels of IC and IE due to the majority
carriers are related by a quantity called alpha and defined by the
following equation:

AC Mode

45

Common-base configuration

Biasing

Establishing the proper biasing

management for a common-base
pnp transistor in the active region.

Breakdown Region

As the applied voltage VCB increases there is a point where the curves take
a dramatic upswing.

46

23
 2/28/2017

Common-emitter configuration
 It is called the common-emitter configuration because the emitter is common to
both the input and output terminals (in this case common to both the base and
collector terminals).

Notation and symbols used with the common-emitter configuration: (a) npn
transistor; (b) pnp transistor 47

Common-emitter configuration

Characteristics of a silicon transistor in the common-emitter

configuration: (a) collector characteristics; (b) base characteristics.
48

24
 2/28/2017

Common-emitter configuration
Beta (β)
DC mode: In the dc mode the levels of IC and IB are related by a
quantity called beta and defined by the following equation:

AC Mode

A relationship

49

Common-collector configuration

Notation and symbols used with the common-collector configuration:

(a) pnp transistor; (b) npn transistor.
50

25
 2/28/2017

Limits of operation
The maximum dissipation level

51

Limits of operation

One must simply be sure that IC, VCE, and their product VCEIC fall into the
following range:

52

26
 2/28/2017

Transistor problems

 Power density increased

 Device variability
 Reliability
 Complexity
 Leakage
 Power dissipation limits device density
 Transistor will operate near ultimate limits of size
and quality – eventually, no transistor can be
fundamentally better

53
◄

Transistor terminal identification

Internal construction of a Fairchild transistor

54 in a TO-92 package

27
 2/28/2017

Transistor terminal identification

Type Q2T2905 Texas Instruments quad pnp silicon transistor:

(a) appearance; (b) pin connections.

55

Moore’s Law

 It’s an observation made by Gordon E.

Moore, in which he predicted that the
number of transistors, inside an
Integrated Circuit, could be doubled every
24 months.
 At the density that also minimized the
cost of a transistor.

56
◄

28
 2/28/2017

Transistor development

Transistor IC count versus time for the period 1960

57 to the present

How a Transistor Works

 The transistor can function as:

 An insulator
 A conductor
 The transistor's ability to fluctuate between these two
states that enables to switch or amplify.
 The transistor has many applications, but only two basic
functions: switching and modulation (amplification).
 In the simplest sense, the transistor works like a dimmer.
 With a push the knob of the dimmer, the light comes on and off. You
have a switch. Rotate the knob back and forth, and the light grows
brighter, dimmer, brighter, dimmer. Than you have a modulator.

58
◄

29
 2/28/2017

How a Transistor Works

 Both the dimmer and the

transistor can control
current flow.
 Both can act as a switch
and as a
modulator/amplifier.
 The important difference
is that the “hand”
operating the transistor is
millions of times faster.
dimmer

59 ◄

Transistor types

MOS - Metal Oxide Semiconductor

FET - Field Effect Transistor
BJT - Bipolar Junction Transistor

60
◄

30
 2/28/2017

Unijunction transistor

Schematic symbol for a

unijunction transistor (UJT)

The unijunction transistors at left and center are

becoming obsolete; the one at the right is a
programmable unijunction transistor (PUT).

Schematic symbol for a programmable

61
unijunction transistor (PUT).

How to use a transistor

This simple schematic can be used to Darlington pair: Multiplying the gain of the
breadboard-test a transistor empirically. first transistor by the gain of the second
gives62 the total gain of the pair.

31
 2/28/2017

How to use a transistor

Various packaging options for Darlington pairs

63

How to use a transistor

The basic schematic for a

common-collector amplifier The basic schematic for a common-
emitter amplifier.

64

32
 2/28/2017

BJT as an amplifier

Class A Amplifiers

Class B Amplifiers

65

BJT Class A Amplifiers

 In a class A amplifier, the transistor conducts

for the full cycle of the input signal (360°)
 used in low-power applications
 The transistor is operated in the active region,
between saturation and cutoff
 saturation is when both junctions are forward biased
 the transistor is in cutoff when IB = 0
 The load line is drawn on the collector curves
between saturation and cutoff

66

33
 2/28/2017

BJT Class A Amplifiers

67

BJT Class A Amplifiers

Three biasing mode for class A amplifiers

 common-emitter (CE) amplifier
 common-collector (CC) amplifier
 common-base (CB) amplifier

68

34
 2/28/2017

BJT Class A Amplifiers

A common-emitter (CE) amplifier

 capacitors are used for coupling ac without
disturbing dc levels

69

BJT Class A Amplifiers

A common-collector (CC) amplifier

 voltage gain is approximately 1, but current gain
is greater than 1

70

35
 2/28/2017

BJT Class A Amplifiers

The third configuration is the

common-base (CB)
 the base is the grounded (common)
terminal
 the input signal is applied to the emitter
 output signal is taken off the collector
 output is in-phase with the input
 voltage gain is greater than 1
 current gain is always less than 1

71

BJT Class B Amplifiers

 When an amplifier is biased such that it

operates in the linear region for 180° of the
input cycle and is in cutoff for 180°, it is a class
B amplifier
 A class B amplifier is more efficient than a class A
 In order to get a linear reproduction of the input
waveform, the class B amplifier is configured in
a push-pull arrangement
 The transistors in a class B amplifier must be biased
above cutoff to eliminate crossover distortion

72

36
 2/28/2017

BJT Class B Amplifiers

73

The BJT as a Switch

When used as an electronic switch, a

transistor normally is operated
alternately in cutoff and saturation
 A transistor is in cutoff when the base-emitter
junction is not forward-biased. VCE is approximately
equal to VCC
 When the base-emitter junction is forward-biased
and there is enough base current to produce a
maximum collector current, the transistor is
saturated

74

37
 2/28/2017

The BJT as a Switch

75

An example -- NOR

RTL basic NOR Gate

76

38
2/28/2017

39