Bipolar Junction Transistor

Siddhant Sharma
Introduction
• Solid state transistor was invented by a team of scientists at Bell laboratories
during 1947-48

• It brought an end to vacuum tube era

• Advantages of solid state transistor over vacuum devices:

• Smaller size, light weight
• No heating elements required
• Lower power consumption and operating voltages
• Low price
Introduction
• Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is a sandwich consisting of three layers of two
different types of semiconductor

• Two kinds of BJT sandwiches are: NPN and PNP

• The three layers of BJT are called Emitter, Base and Collector

• Base is very thin compared to the other two layers

• Base is lightly doped. Emitter is heavily doped. Collector is moderately doped

• NPN – Emitter and Collector are made of N-type semiconductors; Base is P-type

• PNP – Emitter and Collector are P-type, Base is N-type

• Both types (NPN and PNP) are extensively used, either separately or in the same
circuit

3
Transistor Operation​

Operation of NPN transistor is discussed here; operation of

PNP is similar with roles of free electrons and holes
interchanged

For normal operation (amplifier application)

• EB junction should be forward biased
• CB junction should be reverse biased

Depletion width at EB junction is narrow (forward biased)

Depletion width at CB junction is wide (reverse biased)

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Transistor Operation
 Transistor Operation

• When EB junction is forward biased, free electrons from emitter region

drift towards base region

• Some free electrons combine with holes in the base to form small base
current

• Inside the base region (p-type), free electrons are minority carriers. So
most of the free electrons are swept away into the collector region due to
reverse biased CB junction

Department of Electronics and Communication

School
of Engineering, Manipal University Jaipur
Transistor Operation
• Three currents can be identified in BJT

1. Emitter current
• This is due to flow of free electrons from emitter to base
• Results in current from base to emitter

2. Base current
• This is due to combination of free electrons and holes in the base
region
• Small in magnitude (usually in micro amperes)

3. Collector current
• Has two current components:
• One is due to injected free electrons flowing from base to collector
• Another is due to thermally generated minority carriers
 Transistor Operation
C IC C IC

IB IB

B B
IE IE
E E

NPN PNP

• Note the current directions in NPN and PNP

transistors

• For both varieties: I E  I C  I B---(1)

+
Transistor Operation
• As noted earlier, collector current has two components:
• One due to injected charge carriers from emitter
• Another due to thermally generated minority carriers

• Both results in current in the same direction. Hence

I C   dc I E  I CBO --- (2)

αdc is the fraction of charge carriers emitted from emitter,

I C  I CBO
that enter into the collector region dc 
I E

ICBO is the reverse saturation current in CB diode

 Transistor Operation
• As approximation, we can neglect ICBO compared to IE and IC

• Hence approximate equations are: I C   dc I E

IC
 dc 
IE

• Like the reverse saturation current of ordinary diode, ICBO also doubles for every 10o C
rise in temperature.

• So ICBO cannot be neglected at higher temperatures

• The parameter αdc is called common-base dc current gain

• Value of αdc is around 0.99

Transistor Operation
• We have I C   dc I E  I CBO
I C   dc I C  I B   I CBO
• Substituting for IE, we get
(1   dc ) I C   dc I B  I CBO
 dc I CBO
IC  IB 
(1   dc ) (1   dc )

I C   dc I B  I CEO --- (4)

• Where  dc and I CBO
 dc  I CEO    dc  1I CBO
(1   dc ) (1   dc )
 Transistor Operation
• Equations (2) and (4) are two alternate forms of BJT current equation

• Since value of αdc is around 0.99, ICEO >> ICBO

• However, ICEO is still very small compared to IC

IC
• Hence approximation of (4) gives: I C   dc I B  
or dc I
B

• Parameter βdc is called common emitter dc current gain

• Values of αdc and βdc vary from transistor to transistor. Both αdc and βdc are
sensitive to temperature changes
Transistor Configurations
• Common Base configuration

• Base is common between input and output

– Input voltage: VEB Input current: IE
– Output voltage: VCB Output current: IC
Transistor Configurations

• CB Input characteristics
• A plot of IE versus VEB for
various values of VCB
• It is similar to forward biased
diode characteristics
• As VCB is increased, IE increases
only slightly
Transistor Configurations
• CB Output characteristics
• A plot of IC versus VCB for various values of
IE
• Three regions are identified: Active, Cutoff,
Saturation
• Active region:
• E-B junction forward biased

• C-B junction reverse biased

• IC is positive, VCB is positive

• IC increases with IE

• For given IE, IC is almost constant; increases only slightly with

increase in VCB. This is due to base-width modulation (Early effect)
Transistor Configurations
CE input characteristics

• Plot of IB versus VBE for

various values of VCE
• Similar to diode
characteristics
• As VCE is increased, IB
decreases only slightly
• This is due to base-width
modulation
Transistor Configurations
• CE output characteristics
• A plot of IC versus VCE for various values
of IB
• Three regions identified: Active, Cut-off,
Saturation
• Active region:
• Linear region in the output characteristics

• E-B junction forward biased

• C-B junction reverse biased

• IC increases with IB

• For given IB, IC increases slightly with increase in VCE; this is due to
base-width modulation (Early effect)
 Beta is dc current
PHYSICAL gain in common
FACTORS emitter configuration
ON WHICH
BETA BETA = 1/(Dp / Dn *
DEPENDS Na / Nd * W / Lp +
½ * W^2/Dn *tb)
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 Dp = hole diffusivity in the emitter

Dn = electron diffusivity in the base

PHYSICAL Na = doping concentration in base
FACTORS ON Nd = doping concentration in emitter
WHICH BETA W = width base
DEPENDS Lp = hole diffusion length in the emitter

Tb = minority carrier lifetime

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