POWER ELECTRONICS

Lecture No. 4
BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR
• Power Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is the first semiconductor device to allow full
control over its Turn on and Turn off operations. It simplified the design of a large
number of Power Electronic circuits that used forced commutated thyristors at that time
and also helped realize a number of new circuits.

• Subsequently, many other devices that can broadly be classified as “Transistors” have
been developed. Many of them have superior performance compared to the BJT in some
respects. They have, by now, almost completely replaced BJTs. However, it should be
emphasized that the BJT was the first semiconductor device to closely approximate an
ideal fully controlled Power switch.
BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR
• Transistors are three terminal active devices made from different
semiconductor materials that can act as either an insulator or a conductor
by the application of a small signal voltage. The transistor’s ability to
change between these two states enables it to have two basic functions:
“switching” (digital electronics) or “amplification” (analogue electronics).
Then bipolar transistors have the ability to operate within three different
regions:

• Active Region   –   the transistor operates as an amplifier and Ic = β.Ib

• Saturation   –   the transistor is “Fully-ON” operating as a switch and Ic = I(saturation)
• Cut-off   –   the transistor is “Fully-OFF” operating as a switch and Ic = 0
BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR
WORKING PRINCIPLE OF BJT

• Figure shows an n-p-n transistor biased in the active region (See transistor
biasing), the BE junction is forward biased whereas the CB junction is reversed
biased. The width of the depletion region of the BE junction is small as
compared to that of the CB junction. The forward bias at the BE junction
reduces the barrier potential and causes the electrons to flow from the emitter
to base. As the base is thin and lightly doped it consists of very few holes so
some of the electrons from the emitter (about 2%) recombine with the holes
present in the base region and flow out of the base terminal.
WORKING PRINCIPLE OF BJT
•   This constitutes the base current, it flows due to recombination of electrons and
holes (Note that the direction of conventional current flow is opposite to that of flow
of electrons). The remaining large number of electrons will cross the reverse biased
collector junction to constitute the collector current. Thus by KCL,

• The base current is very small as compared to emitter and collector current.
• Here, the majority charge carriers are electrons. The operation of a p-n-p transistor
is same as of the n-p-n, the only difference is that the majority charge carriers are
holes instead of electrons. Only a small part current flows due to majority carriers
and most of the current flows due to minority charge carriers in a BJT. Hence, they
are called as minority carrier devices.
BJT CHARACTERISTICS
• Operation Modes of BJT
• Common Base (CB) mode
• Common Emitter (CE)
mode
• Common Collector (CC)
mode
THE COMMON BASE CIRCUIT

• As its name suggests, in the Common Base or grounded base configuration,

the BASE connection is common to both the input signal AND the output
signal with the input signal being applied between the base and the emitter
terminals. The corresponding output signal is taken from between the base
and the collector terminals as shown with the base terminal grounded or
connected to a fixed reference voltage point.
• Common Base Voltage Gain
APPLICATION

• The common base circuit is generally only used in single stage amplifier
circuits such as microphone pre-amplifier or radio frequency ( Rf ) amplifiers
due to its very good high frequency response.
THE COMMON EMITTER CIRCUIT
• In the Common Emitter or grounded emitter configuration, the input signal is applied
between the base and the emitter, while the output is taken from between the collector and
the emitter as shown. This type of configuration is the most commonly used circuit for
transistor based amplifiers and which represents the “normal” method of bipolar transistor
connection.
• In this type of configuration, the current flowing out of the transistor must be equal to the
currents flowing into the transistor as the emitter current is given as Ie = Ic + Ib.
• . A transistors current gain is given the Greek symbol of Beta, ( β ).
• As the emitter current for a common emitter configuration is defined as Ie = Ic + Ib, the
ratio of Ic/Ie is called Alpha, given the Greek symbol of α. Note: that the value of Alpha
will always be less than unity.
THE COMMON EMITTER CIRCUIT

• Where: “Ic” is the current

flowing into the collector
terminal, “Ib” is the current
flowing into the base terminal
and “Ie” is the current flowing
out of the emitter terminal.
THE COMMON COLLECTOR CIRCUIT

• In the Common Collector or grounded collector configuration, the collector is

now common through the supply. The input signal is connected directly to the base,
while the output is taken from the emitter load as shown. This type of configuration
is commonly known as a Voltage Follower or Emitter Follower circuit.
• The common emitter configuration has a current gain approximately equal to the β
value of the transistor itself. In the common collector configuration the load
resistance is situated in series with the emitter so its current is equal to that of the
emitter current.
THE COMMON COLLECTOR CIRCUIT