Phys Educ 21 1986 Printed In Great Britain
where a is a constant of proportionality which de-
Measurement of
Boltzmann 'S
constant
D E Evans
Inman and Miller (1973) have shown how to use a
powertransistortomeasure eik, where e is the
magnitude of the electron charge, and k is Boltz-
mann'sconstant.Knowing e, theresultsmaybe
used to deducek . The purpose of this short articleis
to draw attention to this method and to show how
theexperimentmaybeperformed using cheap,
readilyavailableapparatus.Asthe basic equation
useddependsontheBoltzmanndistributionlaw,
thisimportantrelation is alsoverified.(Ogborn
mentions this aspectof the Inman andMiller experi-
ment in the revised Nuffield A-level course.)
A p n junction in asemiconductor is aregion
where the potential energy of an electron changes
due to what is essentially a contact potential differ-
ence between the p-type and the n-type regions. In
particular, the potential step is such that an electron
moving from the n- to the p-type region gains poten-
tial energyandloseskineticenergy (figure la). It
therefore follows that, for an electron to move from
the n- to the p-type region, it must have an energy
greater than eV,,, where V(,is the contact potential
difference. The number of electrons in the n-type
regionwithanenergygreaterthan eV(, is deter-
mined by exp(-eVo/kr).theBoltzmanndistribu-
tion law. Hence there will be diffusion of electrons
fromthe n- tothep-typeregion.resulting in an
electron current. ill, given by
exp(-eV(,/kT).
(1) &=a
DafyddEvans is alecturer in the Physics Depart-
ment of the University of Birmingham.He is a
graduate of the University of Wales and obtained his
P h D a t his present university. His research field is
high-resolution laser spectroscopy of' radioactive iso-
topes and he is an Awarder, Physics ( N u f j k l d ) A -
level.
0031-9120/86/050296+04%2.50@1986The lnstltuteof Physics
pends on V,,, Tand the natureof the semiconductor.
There is also an electron current from the p- to the
n-type region. The source of these electrons is the
freeing of electrons in thep-typeregion
breaking of bonds (i.e. the thermal creation
electron-holepair).Some
by the
of an
of theseelectrons will
diffusetothejunctionregion,wheretheelectric
field caused by the contact potential difference will
drive them across the junction. In equilibrium, the
magnitude of this reverse current must be equal to
the diffusion current.and so it is also given by
equation (1).
If now a forward bias, V, is applied to the junc-
tion. the height of the potential step now alters to
(V(,- v) andtheforwardelectroncurrent is now
proportional to exp[-e(Vl,-v)/kT] (figure lb). The
reverse current is unaffected by the change in bias.
so the observed electron current is now
I=a exp[-e(Vli-V)kT]-a exp(-eV(,lkr)
=i,,[exp(eV/kr)-l]. (2)
Thus measuring the forward current of a diode as a
function of the bias voltage V would seem to enable
one tofind experimentally the valueof eik. Unfortu-
nately, this is not the case, as it turns out there are
other contributions to the diode current, which have
the effect of modifying equation (2) to
I=i,,[exp(eVimkr)-l],
(3)
where the value of the number m can be anywhere
between l and 2.5, dependingondiodetypeand
also the bias voltage (Clayton 1979 p171, Neudeck
1983 ~ ~ 6 7 - 8 ) .
Fortunately, equation (2) can be applied directly
to a transistor circuit. The base-emitter junction is a
p n junction, and it is found that if thecollector
current I , is measuredasafunction of the base-
emitter voltage Vhc, with the collector-base voltage
v,, kept at zero then equation (2) holds exactlyt.
Themajoritycarrierandsurfacecurrenteffects
which give the factor of m in equation (3) are still
present and do contribute to the emitter current, but
these currents flow through the base contact of the
transistor. and so will not be measured. In fact. the
base current which must be supplied to a transistor
arisespartiallyfromtheneedtosupplytheseex-
traneousdiodecurrents.Equation (2) is, in this
context, called the Ebers-Moll equation.
For the values of v h c used in this experiment, it
turns out that exp (eVhc/kT)> > l . hence the collec-
tThe collector current will include a leakage current given
by equation (3) with V = Vch. By keeping V,,=O at all
times. this contribution to I , is always zero (Clayton 1979
p173).
 n- type P - type

Position-

n-type P - type I

Positron", e(V0-VI
E 4
Figure l a Graphs of (i) the potential energyof an electron and(ii) the Boltzmann distribution for a p-n junction with zero
bias, The number of electronswith sufficient energy tocross the junction is proportional to the shaded area.b Potential
energy and Boltzmann distribution graphsfor a p-n junction with a forward bias voltageV . The shaded areanow shows
that many more electrons can cross the junction

torcurrent is giventoagoodapproximation figure 2 (Inmanand Miller 1973). Somecareneeds

by
tobeexercised in thechoice of instrumentsto
I,=exp(eVb,/kT). (4) measure
these
quantities.
First,
a small change in
V,,, causes a large change in I,. Hence V,, has to be
A graph of In Z, against Vhe shouldthereforebemeasured to a high precision, typically f l rnV in
linear,
slope
with
a of eikT. about
200400mV (see figure 3).resolution
Such
a
Thecircuitusedtomeasure V,, and I, is shown in is beyondmostpointerinstrumentsandrequires

Figure 2 The circuit used. The feedback resistor R was varied between 1 MS1 and 10 kQ, depending on the currentto be
measured
R

297
either a digital meter or a sensitive light-beam gal- fromthecircuit.Thisvalue was subtractedfrom
vanometer with an appropriate series resistance. subsequent readings.
Secondly, it is essential that the ammeter used to The transistor used was a TIP29 power transistor.
measure the collector current beof very low (ideally because the heat sink ensures that the temperature
zero) impedance, else the potential drop across it of the emitter-base junctionis not significantly diffe-
will alter the baseecollector voltage, which will in- rent from ambient. To aid this, the transistor was
troduceanothersource of current.Anordinary immersed in insulatingoil, which addsthebonus
microammeter has too large a resistance, so an op thattheexperimentmay be repeatedatdifferent
amp current-to-voltage converterwas used (Clayton temperatures. I should imagine that any npn or pnp
1979 p7 and pp146-9). The output voltage (V2 in transistorwouldbesatisfactory,providednottoo
figure 2) is related to the current I , by the relation much power is dissipated in it.
V*=[$, where R is the value of the feedback resis- Resultsareshown in figure 3. Thethreesets
tor.Furthermore, as thecollector is connected correspondtovalues of feedbackresistor in the
directly to a virtual earth point, thereis no potential current-to-voltage converter of 1 M R , 100 kR and
drop across the collector-base junction. A 741 op 10kQ respectively. Using
millivoltmeter
a of
amp was found to be satisfactory, with no attempt 100 mV FSD with a resolution of ? 1mV means that
beingmadetocompensateforzerooffsets.The currents as low as 10"A canbemeasured.The
resultingzeroerror was measured by notingthe upper limit to the current measured with each range
reading with the input of the op amp disconnected resistor is set by op amp saturation, and corresponds

Figure 3 Resultsobtained
using three different values
of feedback resistor R: A .
R=lMQ;B,R=lOOkR:
C. R= 10 kR. (Note the
different vertical scales
corresponding to eachof
these ranges.) Thecircles
are points taken using an
Advance Alpha digital
multimeter for V,, the
squares are points taken
using an AVO MarkI1
analogue multimeter.
Ambient temperature was
1 t 290.1 K. The error bars
correspond to the ? 1 digit
resolution of the
multimeter. A digital
multimeter was also used
for V ,

B a s e - e m i t t e rv o l t a g e V,,/mV-

298
Phys Educ 21 1986 Prlnted In Great Brltaln
to V , (about 1OV). Note that each range overlapsits
neighbour by two decadesof current; corresponding
readingsoneachrangewerefoundtoagreeto
within the error of reading of the voltmeter. For
most readings an Advance Alpha digital multimeter
was used, but
readings
on
the
highest
range
(R=lOkQ. V2=1mV to lOV, f,=lO"A to lo-")
were repeated using an AVO Mark I1 multimeter.
The slope of the line A was calculated using a least
squares fitting routine. In this, the lowest value of I,
was omitted because of its low precision, the highest
valuebecause of evidencethattheopampwas
saturating. The lines B and C are drawn parallel to
line A.Notethatthelinearity is preservedover
nearly five orders of magnitude of current.The
departure from linearity just below 10-4A is prob-
ablyduetoohmicvoltagedropacrossthebulk
material of the transistor, though it is possible that
self heating at the junction could be present.
SOFTWARE REVIEW
Digital Electronics: A Computer-Aided Course
Unit 1 4 o d i n g Information R Sparkes 1986 London:
~ 0 201 1903 7 .
Addison-Wesley price f 1 4 . 9 S + v ~ISBN
Software for BBC B(32K) with 0.5. 1.0or later B A S I C I or
2 40 track disc
This is the first of three units which make up a computer-
aided course. The publishers claim that the courseis a
comprehensive and coherent introductionto the world of
modern microelectronics. Theslim text of about 20 pages
is accompanied by a disc of computer programswhich are
used to simulate simple microelectronic systems. The idea
is to remove the practical problemsof connecting the
devices together which so often impede understandingof
what the devices can actually do.
I agree with the author that the package should not be a
substitute for working with real devices, rather a short
introduction preceding such work. The material is
designed for self-study use, but one wonders how feasible
this would bein the ordinary school environment.
However, TVEI, ITECs and FE may well find the series
useful. The text has many questions, with answers given at
the back. The author believes that microelectronicsis not
just about connecting devices together but about
information. and the courseis an attempt to put this across.
This first unit could well be used by students from about
12 years through to I h + . The early parts could be used to
good effect in mathematics departments, and the later
parts by CDT or physics departments where controlis
taught. Working through the book,I found the software
easy and friendlyto use.
The first. introductory section deals with digital data.
Section 2 deals with analogue information and the
The final result of e/k=(1.132+0.002)
X 1 0 4 C KJ" differs
from
accepted
the
value of 1.160x104CKJ" by 3 % , which is within
thetolerance of themetersusedandthefeed-
backresistors in thecurrent-to-voltageconverter.
The
latter
wereordinary
radio
resistors
and
werenot specially selected.Thisdemonstration
shows that using simple equipment a good measure
of an important atomic constant may be achieved.
The good linearity attained also verifies the Boltz-
mann distribution law.
References
Clayton G B 1979 Operational Amplifiers (2nd edn)
(London: Newnes-Butterworths)
Inman F W and Miller C E 1973 Am. J . Phys. 41 349-51
Neudeck G W 1983 The PN Junction Diode (Reading.
Mass: Addison-Wesley)
Nufield Advanced Level Physics (Revised Version)
Teachers' Guide -7 (Harlow: Longman) p 2%
computer programis a simple aidto understanding.
However, I am not sure that the Inclusionof Ohm's law at
the beginning of this section is necessary for an
understanding of analogue information.
Section 3 about combining digital datais really just
about AND and O R gates. I liked the example for theA N D
gate and the computer programis very simple but
effective.
Section 4,on byte processes, is concerned with how
computers handle numbers. Thefirst part and the
computer program are easierto follow than the later part.
Section S on codes explains the need for them and then
goes on to explain A S C I Icoding.
The last section. on computers in control, is by far the
most interesting. It explains the difference between the
hardware and software approach and goes on to introduce
some of the basics of software engineering. A Lmo-like
language is used to assemble control sequences and
students are soon encouraged to set up their own
programs. It is a pity the programmer did not include an
edit facility as one error means the whole program must be
deleted and then re-entered. The note on page 16 warning
that thereis no edit facility will not be of any help to
students working on their own!
I gave the package to two students aboutto take 0-level
electronics. and they were not impressed by the it-
'rather simple' were their words. This confirmed my earlier
impressions that this would be more useful with junior
students (12+ on).It remains to be seen whether the
remaining two units are, as statedin the preface. 'for those
wishing to probe deeper'.
J F Percival
299