‫‪University of Palestine‬‬

‫جــــــــــامــــــــعـــــــــــــــــة فلســـطــيـــــــــــــن‬
‫كلية الهندسة التطبيقية وـالتخطيط العمرــاني‬
 1. Transistor Construction

There are two types of transistors: pnp

PNP and NPN

The terminals are labeled:

E - Emitter npn
B - Base
C - Collector
2. Transistor Operation

With the external sources, VEE and VCC, connected as shown:

1. The emitter-base
junction is forward
biased.

2. The base-collector
junction is reverse biased
3. Currents in a Transistor

Emitter current is the sum of the collector

and base currents:

I I I
E C B

The collector current is comprised of two

currents:
I I I
C C (majority ) CO (minority)
7. Operating Regions

A. Active
Operating range of the amplifier.

B. Cutoff
The amplifier is basically off. There is voltage, but
little current.

C. Saturation
The amplifier is fully on. There is current, but little
voltage.
4. Common-Base Configuration

The base is common to both input (emitter–base) junction

and output (collector–base) junction of the transistor.
5. Common-Base Amplifier

Input Characteristics

This curve shows the

relationship between of
input current (IE) to input
voltage (VBE) for three
output voltage (VCB)
levels.
6. Common-Base Amplifier
Output Characteristics

This graph demonstrates

the output current (IC) to
an output voltage (VCB)
for various levels of input
current (IE).
7. Approximations

Emitter and collector currents:

IC  IE

Base-emitter voltage:

VBE  0.7 V (for Silicon)

8. Alpha ()
A. Alpha () is the ratio of IC to IE :
IC
αdc 
IE

Ideally: =1
In reality:  falls somewhere between
0.9 and 0.998

B. Alpha () in the AC mode:

ΔIC
α ac 
ΔIE
9. Transistor Amplifier

V 200 mV
IE  I i  i   10 mA
Ri 20Ω
Currents and I I Voltage Gain:
C E
Voltages: I  I  10 mA
L i VL 50 V
Av    250
V  I R  (10 mA)(5 kΩ )  50 V Vi 200 mV
L L
10. Common-Emitter Configuration

The emitter is common to both

input (base-emitter) and output
(collector-emitter) circuits.

The input is applied to the base

and the output is taken from the
collector.
11. Common-Emitter Characteristics

Collector Characteristics Base Characteristics

Ch.3 Summary

Common-Emitter Amplifier Currents

Ideal Currents I E = I C + IB IC =  I E

Actual Currents IC =  IE + ICBO where ICBO = minority

collector current

ICBO is usually so small that it can be ignored, except in high

power transistors and in high temperature environments.

When IB = 0 A the transistor is in ICBO

cutoff, but there is some minority ICEO  I B 0 μA
1 α
current flowing called ICEO.
Ch.3 Summary

Beta ()
 represents the amplification factor of a transistor.

IC
In DC mode: βdc 
IB

IC
In AC mode: ac 
IB
VCE constant

ac is sometimes referred to as hfe, a term used in transistor

modeling calculations
Ch.3 Summary

Beta ()
Determining  from a Graph

( 3.2 mA  2.2 mA)

βAC 
( 30 A  20 A)
1 mA
 V 7.5 V
10 A CE
 100

2.7 mA
βDC  VCE  7 .5 V
25 A
 108
Ch.3 Summary

Beta ()
Relationship between amplification factors  and  :
β α
α β
β 1 α 1

Relationship Between Currents:

IC  βI B IE  (β  1)IB
Ch.3 Summary

Common-Collector Configuration

The input is on the

base and the
output is on the
emitter.
Ch.3 Summary

Common-Collector Configuration

The characteristics
are similar to those
of the common-
emitter amplifier,
except the vertical
axis is IE.
Ch.3 Summary

Operating Limits
VCE is maximum and IC is
minimum in the cutoff
region.
IC (max)  ICEO

IC is maximum and VCE is

minimum in the saturation
region.
VCE (max)  VCE ( sat )  VCEO

The transistor operates in the active region between saturation and cutoff.
Ch.3 Summary

Power Dissipation
Common-base:
PCmax  VCBIC

Common-emitter:
PCmax  VCE IC

Common-collector:
PCmax  VCE IE
Ch.3 Summary

Transistor Specification Sheet

Ch.3 Summary

Transistor Specification Sheet

Ch.3 Summary

Transistor Specification Sheet

Ch.3 Summary

Transistor Testing

Curve Tracer Provides a graph of the characteristic curves.

DMM Some DMMs measure DC or hFE.

Ohmmeter:
Ch.3 Summary

Transistor Terminal Identification