Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and

Technology, Topi, Pakistan

ME203
Circuits and Electronic Devices

Lecture No: 25

Instructor
Dr. Abid Imran
------Faculty of Mechanical Engineering------ Fall Semester
1 2020
Content

• The BJT as Switch

• The BJT as Amplifier.
• Dc load lines
Collector Characteristic Curves
BJT Characteristics

• Base current

IC
Breakdown
region
C
B Active region

Saturation
region

A
VCE
0 0.7 V VCE(max)
Collector Characteristic Curves
IC
Breakdown
BJT Characteristics region
C
B Active region

In active region
Saturation
region

A
VCE
In saturation region 0 0.7 V VCE(max)

Simple rule:
  If
In saturation mode

otherwise in active mode

BJT Switch

A BJT can be used as a switching device in logic circuits to turn on or off current to
a load. As a switch, the transistor is normally in either cutoff (load is OFF) or
saturation (load is ON).
BJT Switch

Conditions in Cutoff: Simple rule:

BC & BE: Reversed biased
  If
In saturation mode

otherwise in active mode

Conditions in Saturation:

 𝐼 𝐶 > 𝐼 𝐶 (𝑠𝑎𝑡)

 𝛽 𝐼 𝐵 > 𝐼 𝐶 (𝑠𝑎𝑡)

• The minimum value of base current needed to produce saturation is   𝐼 𝐶 (𝑠𝑎𝑡)

𝐼 𝐵>
𝛽
BJT Switch
 (a): For the transistor circuit in Figure, what is when ?
 (b): What minimum value of IB is required to saturate this transistor if DC is 200?
Neglect
  (c): Calculate the maximum value of when
Solution:
  • When , the transistor is in cutoff

  • Since is neglected (in saturation)

  Equal or greater than 50

  • When the transistor is on, The voltage across is

 • the maximum value of needed to

allow a minimum of 50 A
 A Simple Application of a Transistor
Switch
• A square wave input voltage with a period of 2 s
is applied to the input as indicated

• When the square wave is at 0 V, the transistor

is in cutoff;

• When the square wave goes to its high level, the

transistor saturates.
Example: The LED requires 30 mA to emit light. Therefore,
the collector current should be approximately 30 mA
Determine the amplitude of the square wave input voltage necessary to make sure that the
transistor saturates.
Use double the minimum value of base current as a safety margin to ensure saturation.
,  , ,
,

• Minimum base current

• To ensure saturation, use twice the value of IB(min), which is 1.29 mA

• Vin, by using the ohm law

  4.96V
BJT as a voltage amplifier
• Amplification is the process of linearly increasing the amplitude of an
electrical signal.
• When a BJT is biased in the active (or linear) region, the BE junction
has a low resistance due to forward bias and the BC junction has a
high resistance due to reverse bias.
 Voltage Amplification
• The base current in a transistor is very small compared to the collector
and emitter currents 𝐼  𝑒 ≅ 𝐼 𝑐
In Active region

• The ac collector current produces an ac voltage across RC,

•  An ac voltage (Input), , is superimposed on
• Produce, amplified, but inverted, reproduction of the ac
the dc bias voltage by capacitive coupling.
input voltage.
 Voltage Amplification
• The forward-biased base-emitter junction presents a
very low resistance to the ac signal
• The ac base voltage is:

• The ac collector voltage, VC equals the ac voltage

drop across RC

 • can be considered the transistor ac input voltage where

• Since voltage gain is the ratio of the output voltage to the input voltage
Voltage Amplification: Example
 Determine the voltage gain and the ac output voltage
in Figure if

Solution
• The voltage gain is

• Therefore, the ac output voltage is

Voltage Amplification

Active region
Dc load line:

0
• In cutoff region
  𝑉
  𝐶𝐸 =𝑉 𝐶𝐶

• In Saturation region.
0
  𝑉 𝐶𝐶
  𝐼 𝐶 (𝑎𝑠𝑡)=
𝑅𝐶
• Different operating point based on base current
  • Load line can be changed by changing the or

• Operating point need to be selected very carefully for amplification

Dc load line:
• we assign three values to IB and observe what happens to IC
and VCE.

  • Find  𝐼 𝐶 =𝐼 𝐵 𝛽 𝐷𝐶

  • Find  

𝐼  𝐶 =20 𝑚𝐴
  For
 

𝐼  𝐶 =30 𝑚𝐴
  For
 

𝐼  𝐶 =40 𝑚𝐴
  For
 
  For
𝐼  𝐶 =20 𝑚𝐴
 

  For

𝐼  𝐶 =30 𝑚𝐴
 

  For

𝐼  𝐶 =40 𝑚𝐴
 
BOOK: Electronic Devices, electron flow version.
SECTIONS: 4-4, 4-5, 5-1, 6-1

Relevant examples.

18