Bipolar Junction Transistor:

A bipolar junction transistor is a three-terminal semiconductor device that

consists of two p-n junctions which are able to amplify or magnify a signal. It is a
current controlled device. The three terminals of the BJT are the base, the collector,
and the emitter. A BJT is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and holes as
charge carriers. A signal of small amplitude if applied to the base is available in the
amplified form at the collector of the transistor. This is the amplification provided
by the BJT. But it does require an external source of DC power supply to carry out
the amplification process.
Bipolar Junction Transistor Symbol:

There are two types of bipolar junction transistors – NPN transistors and PNP
transistors. A diagram of these two types of bipolar junction transistors is given
below.

Types of Bipolar Junction Transistor:

There are two types of bipolar junction transistors:
PNP bipolar junction transistor
NPN bipolar junction transistor
Operation of Bipolar Junction Transistor:
There are three operating regions of a bipolar junction transistor:

• Active region: The region in which the transistors operate as an amplifier.

• Saturation region: The region in which the transistor is fully on and
operates as a switch such that collector current is equal to the saturation
current.
• Cut-off region: The region in which the transistor is fully off and collector
current is equal to zero.
NPN Bipolar Junction Transistor:
In an n-p-n bipolar transistor one p-type semiconductor resides between two n-
type semiconductors the diagram below an n-p-n transistor is shown

Now IE, IC is emitter current and collect current respectively and VEB and VCB are
emitter-base voltage and collector-base voltage respectively
According to the convention if for the emitter, base and collector current IE, IB and
IC current goes into the transistor the sign of the current is taken as positive and if
current goes out from the transistor then the sign is taken as negative. We can
tabulate the different currents and voltages inside the n-p-n transistor.
PNP Bipolar Junction Transistor:
Similarly for p-n-p bipolar junction transistor, an n-type semiconductor is
sandwiched between two p-type semiconductors. The diagram of a p-n-p transistor
is shown below.

For p-n-p transistors, current enters into the transistor through the emitter
terminal. Like any bipolar junction transistor, the emitter-base junction is forward
biased and the collector-base junction is reverse biased. We can tabulate the
emitter, base and collector current, as well as the emitter-base, collector base and
collector-emitter voltage for p-n-p transistors also.

Working of Transistor (BJT)

Practically the working of a transistor is very simple, it can be used as a switch or as
an amplifier. But for basic understanding lets start with how transistor as a switch
works in a circuit. When a control voltage is provided to the base pin, the required
base current (IB) flows into the base pin which is controlled by a base resistor. This
current turns on the transistor (switch is closed) and allows the current to flow from
collector to emitter. This current is called the collector current (IC) and the voltage
across the collector and emitter is called VBE. As you can see in the image, we are
using a low-level voltage like 5V to drive a higher voltage load of 12V using this
transistor. Now for the theory, consider an NPN transistor, the BE junction is forward
biased and the CB junction is reverse biased. The width of the depletion region at
the Junction CB is higher when compared with the depletion region of the Junction
BE. When the BE junction is forward biased it decreases the barrier potential, hence
the electrons start flowing from the emitter to the base. The base region is very thin
and it is lightly doped when compared with other regions, hence it consists of a very
small number of holes, the electrons that are flowing from the emitter will
recombine with the holes present in the base region and start to flow out of the
base region in the form of the base current. A large number of electrons that are
left will move across the reverse bias collector junction in the form of the collector
current.

Based on the Kirchoff’s Current Law, we can frame the current equation as
IE = IB + IC
The base current is very small as compared to emitter and collector current
Therefore IE ~IC
Where, IE, IB, and IC are the emitter, base, and collector current respectively.
Similarly, when you consider the PNP Transistor, they operate in the same way as
the NPN transistor, but in NPN transistors the majority charge carriers are holes
(Positively charged particle) but in the NPN transistor the charge carriers are the
electrons (negatively charged particle).
Bipolar Junction Transistors Characteristics:
Transistor Characteristics are the plots which represent the relationships between
the current and the voltages of a transistor in a particular configuration. By
considering the transistor configuration circuits to be analogous to two-port
networks, they can be analysed using the characteristic-curves which can be of the
following types
Input Characteristics: These describe the changes in input current with
the variation in the values of input voltage keeping the output voltage
constant.
Output Characteristics: This is a plot of output current versus output
voltage with constant input current.
BJT can be connected in three different configurations by keeping one terminal
common and using the other two terminals for the input and output. These three
types of configurations respond differently to the input signal applied to the circuit
because of the static characteristics of the BJT.
The three different configurations of BJT are listed below.

• Common Base (CB) configuration

• Common Emitter (CE) configuration
• Common Collector (CC) Configuration
Among these, the Common Base configurations will have voltage gain, but no
current gain, whereas the Common Collector Configuration has current gain, but no
voltage gain and the Common Emitter Configuration will have both current and
voltage gain.
[Link] Base (CB) Configuration:
The Common Base configuration is also called as the grounded base
configuration, where the base of the BJT is connected as a common between
both the input and output signal. The input to the BJT is applied across the Base
and Emitter Terminals and the output from the BJT is obtained across the Base
and Collector terminal. The input current (IE) flowing through the emitter will
be quite higher when compared with both the Base current (IB) and the Collector
Current (IC) as the emitter current is the sum of both the Base current and
Collector current. Since the collector current output is less than the Emitter

Input characteristics:
The input Characteristic curve for the Common Base configurations is drawn
between the emitter current IE and the voltage between the base and emitter VEB.
During the Common base configuration, the Transistor gets forward biased hence it
will show characteristics similar to that of the forward characteristics of a p-n diode
where the IE increases for fixed VEB when VCB increases.
This leads to the expression for the input resistance as:

Output Characteristics:
The output characteristics of the Common Base configuration are given between
the collector current IC and the voltage between the collector and base VCB, here
the emitter Current IE is the measuring parameter. Based on the operation, there
are three different regions in the curve, at first, the active region, here the BJT will
be operating normally and the emitter junction is reverse biased

Next come the saturation region where both the emitter and collector junctions are
forward biased. Finally, the cut off region where both emitter and the collector
junctions are reverse biased

From the graph the output resistance can be obtained as

[Link] Emitter (CE) Configuration:
The Common Emitter Configuration is also called the grounded emitter
configuration where the emitter acts as the common terminal between the input
applied between the base and emitter and the output obtained between the
collector and the emitter. This configuration produces the highest current and
power gain when compared with the other two types of configurations, this is
because of the fact that the input impedance is low as it is connected to a forward-
biased PN junction whereas the output impedance is high as it is obtained for the
reversebiased PN junction.

Input Characteristics:
The input characteristics of the Common Emitter configuration are drawn between
the base current IB and the voltage between the base and emitter VBE. Here the
Voltage between the Collector and the emitter is the most common
parameter. If we observe see there will not be much difference between
the characteristic curve of the previous configuration except for the
change in parameters.
From the graph the input resistance of the transistor can be obtained as

Output Characteristics:
The output characteristics are drawn between the Collector Current IC
and the voltage between the collector and the Emitter VCE. The CE
configuration also has the three different regions, in the active region the
collector junction is reverse biased and the emitter junction is forward
biased, in the cut-off region, the emitter junction is slightly reverse biased
and the collector current is not completely cut off, and finally, in the
saturation region, both the collector and the emitter junctions are
forward biased.

From the graph shown, the output resistance can be obtained as:

3. Common Collector (CC) Configuration

The Common Collector Configuration is also called the grounded
Collector configuration where the collector terminal is kept as the
common terminal between the input signal applied across the base and
the emitter, and the output signal obtained across the collector and the
emitter. This configuration is commonly called as the Voltage follower or
the emitter follower circuit. This configuration will be useful for
impedance matching applications as it has very high input impedance, in
the region of hundreds of thousands of ohms while having relatively low
output impedance.

Input Characteristics:
The input characteristics for CC configuration which describes the
variation in IB in accordance with VCB, for a constant value of Collector-
Emitter voltage, VCE.

Output Characteristics:
The output characteristics for the CC configuration which exhibit the
variations in IE against the changes in VCE for constant values of IB.