EEE102L: Basic Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Module – 6: Semiconductor Devices and Applications

Dr. Aarthy.M
Assistant professor senior,
Dept. of Micro & Nano Electronics, SENSE
VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, 632014

04/25/2023 Dr.Aarthy.M, Asst.Prof.Sr., SENSE, VIT 1

Transistor
s
 What is a Transistor?
• Atransistor is a three terminal device made of a
electronic semiconductor material

• Transistor has an ability to act as a conductor or insulator

• The ability to change from these two states enables the device switch
or amplify

• Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and are central to the

Integrated Circuit

• Essential part of many technological advances

 Bipolar Junction transistor
• BIPOLAR – Two types of charge carriers (Electrons and Holes involved in
current conduction)
• BIJUNCTION – Two junctions
• In short BJT.
• Principle:
• The voltage applied between two terminals controls the current through the
third terminal.
• Types:
• NPN & PNP
• Terminals:
• Emitter, Base & Collector
• Configurations:
• Common Emitter (CE), Common Base (CB) & Common Collector (CC)
In 1947, the transistor was
invented by John Bardeen,
Walter Brattain and
William
Shockley in Bell Laboratories
Types of Transistor
 Constructional Details of a BJT

• The transistor is a three terminal solid state device which is formed by

connecting two diodes back to back and it has got two PN junctions
• This type of connection offers two types of transistors: PNP and NPN
• The three terminals drawn from the transistor indicate Emitter,
Base and Collector terminals
 Structure of BJT

• Bipolar: both electrons and holes are involved in current flow

• Junction: has two p-n junctions
• Transistor: Transfer + Resistor
 Functions of Emitter
• The left hand side of the structure can be understood as Emitter

• This has a moderate size and is heavily doped as its main function is
to supply a number of majority carriers, i.e. either electrons or holes

• As this emits electrons, it is called as an Emitter

• This is simply indicated with the letter E

 Functions of Base
• The middle material in the above figure is the Base

• This is thin and lightly doped

• Its main function is to pass the majority carriers from the emitter to the
collector

• This is indicated by the letter B

 Functions of Collector
• The right side of the structure can be understood as a Collector

• Its name implies its function of collecting the carriers

• This is a bit larger in size than emitter and base

• It is moderately doped

• This is indicated by the letter C

Structure of npn and pnp
Structure of npn and pnp using
diodes
Symbol of NPN transistor
• The arrow indicates the
direction of current flow

• The current flows from collector to

emitter

• The arrow is drawn on the emitter

• The arrow always point

towards the n-type and so emitter
is n-type
Symbol of PNP transistor
• The arrow indicates the direction
of current flow

• The current flows from emitter to

collector

• The arrow always point towards

the n-type and so base is the n-
type
 Transistor Biasing

• Biasing is controlling the operation of the circuit by providing power supply

• A small forward bias is sufficient at the emitter junction whereas a high reverse bias
has to be applied at the collector junction
• The direction of current indicated in the circuits above, also called as the
Conventional Current is the movement of hole current which is opposite to the
electron current
 Modes of Operation

Active Mode – BJT operates as an Amplifier

Saturation & Cutoff – BJT operates as a switch (Logic gates)
 Transistor Currents

NPN Transistor PNP transistor

Types of Configurations
 Current Relationships

• Current gain in CE configuration: β=

IC/IB
• Current gain in CB configuration: α=
IC/IE
Active mode operation of PNP Transistor
Active mode operation of NPN Transistor
Saturation Region
Cutoff Region
Common Emitter Configuration
 Input and Output characteristics

Input Characteristics Output Characteristics