Difference Between Linear Electronics and Power Electronics

Electronics has now become the core component in the development of the technology. The
fast processing computers with there compact size and high efficiency became possible due
to the virtue of advancement in the field of electronics.
The electronics is sub divided into two types namely
(1) Linear Electronics
(2) Power Electronics
We often mix up with these two words and sometimes use them interchangeably. But
according to engineers these two have clearly distinguished from each other.

Linear Electronics
It is the branch of electronics in which we operate the devices in there active mode of
operation. We know that the evolution of electronics started with the invention of Transistor.
The two PN junctions placed side by side happened to the discovery of a BJT Transistor.
Now we know that the operations of a BJT transistor can be shown by its current-voltage
characteristic curve.

Now from the above figure it is clear that BJT has three regions of Operation

1. Cut-Off Region
2. Saturation Region
3. Active Region

In linear electronics, we operate the transistor in its active region which can also be called
ohmic region in which there is a relation-ship between current and the voltage with some gain
value. This region is used in amplifiers circuits where we want to vary the current from
collector to the emitter according to our need. In active region, the transistor itself also draws
some power and hence causes power loss in it, which in return decrease the efficiency of the
device.
Power Electronics
In power electronics, we deal with the cut-off and the saturation region of the transistor.
Hence the transistor becomes a switch. When it is in cut off region, no current flows from
collector to emitter ideally and it acts as an Off Switch. When it is in saturation region,
rated current can flow from collector to emitter, hence act as an On Switch.
This the key difference between the mode of operation of transistor which gives rise to a
complete new field in electronics called power electronics. The main feature of power
electronics is high efficiency power conversion because in either On state or Off state the
power drawn by the transistor is zero (ideally), and hence high efficient devices can be built
with efficiency as high as 96%.
The switching converters which are the core of the power electronics actually use high speed
switching transistors like MOSFETs and IGBTs which are also capable of sustaining voltages
upto 1200 V and high currents. So these power devices help in the manufacturing of high
speed devices.

Hope this article would be helpful.

How to characterize a Transistor ? : I-V Curve

One of the typical ways to characterize a transistor would be to construct and analyze
the I-V curve (or Characteristic curve) that you might have seen in almost any
electronics book. The graph may look simple, but it took me very long time to start
understanding the real meaning of the curves. And I keep adding only small pieces one-
by-one as I repeat the analysis. It never occurred to me for me to understand any new
concept just by single look.)

The first step to understand any kind of graph is to understand the meaning of each
axis. Each of axis in transistor I-V curve represent followings.

 Horizontal Axis : Collector Emittor Voltage. It means the voltage measured across
the transistor.
 Vertical Axis : Collector Current. It means the current measured at collector,
meaning the current flowing into the collector.
 Curve (Blue graph) : The relationship between Collector Emittor Voltage and
Collector Current at a specific base current.
Just by brief look, you may think V_ce is an independent variable and I_c is a dependent
variable for this curve, but in reality both V_ce and I_c are dependent variable. Then
what is the independent variable ?
The independent variable for this curve is Vcc. So the correct mathematical
representation of the curve is a parametric fuction like f(Vcc) = [I_c(Vcc), V_ce(Vcc)].
Don't get panic on the math things.. you just repeat the following procedure and that is
how you get this graph.

Taking the Graph (A) as an example,

i) Fix the current flowing into Base to be 10 uA (Think of how you can provide this
fixed current)
ii) Set the Vcc to be 0
iii) Read Current Flowing into C (Ic) and Voltage across C-E (Vce) and put a point
at (Ic,Vce)
iv) Increment Vcc by a little bit (e.g, 0.1 V)
v) Go to step iii)

Now let's take a specific curve and follow the meaning of the curve.

Let's take the curve (A).

This shows how much current flows into collector (flow through the transistor) when we
increment 'Collector Emitter Voltage' at the condition where the base current (current
flowing into base) is 10 uA and the base current is maintained same over all the
measurement period. Now let's split this curve into a couple of sectors and look at the
characteristics of the sectors.
 Sector (o)-(a) : This shows
o the current flowing through the transistor (Ic) gets almost linearly increase
as you increase the voltage applied to the transistor (Vcc).
o the voltage measured between C and E gets increased as well.
o Don't forget that the base current remain same during the whole period.
 Sector (a)-(e) : This shows
o the current flowing through the transistor does not change (in reality may
be a little increase)
o On the contrary, the voltage measured between C and E keep increasing.
o Again, the base current remain same during the whole period.
You would see the exactly same pattern in Curve (B), (C), (D) and you can interpret in
the same way as you did for curve (A).
Then what is the difference among the curve (A),(B),(C),(D) ? As you see, the difference
is the slope of (o)-(a),(o)-(b),(o)-(c),(o)-(d).
What the slope mean ? it means 'how much collector current changes when you change
the collector emitter voltage ?
Why we have this difference ? It is because the base current is different.

Now let's compare the point (a), (b), (c), (d). What kind of information you can get from
the comparision ?
As you see, the 'collector emitter voltage' at (a), (b), (c), (d) are all the same. Then
what are differences ? The base current and collector current are different. From this,
you can say "With a same collector emittor voltage, if you change the base current, the
collector current also changes." For example, "With a same collector emittor voltage, if
you increase the base current, the collector current also increase." This same rule
applies to the whole region over the curve (A), (B), (C), (D).

Transistor As A Switch
If the circuit uses the BJT transistor as a switch, then the biasing of the transistor, either NPN
or PNP is arranged to operate the transistor at the both sides of the I-V characteristics curves
shown below. A transistor can be operated in three modes, active region, saturation region and
cut-off region. In the active region, transistor works as an amplifier. The two operating regions
of transistor Saturation Region (fully-ON) and the Cut-off Region (fully-OFF) were used to
operate a transistor switch.

Operating Regions

We can observe from the above characteristics, the pink shaded area at the bottom of the curves
represents the Cut-off region and the blue area to the left represent the Saturation region of the
transistor. these transistor regions are defined as
I-V Characteristics

Cut-off Region

The operating conditions of the transistor are zero input base current (IB=0), zero output
collector current(Ic=0), and maximum collector voltage (VCE) which results in a large
depletion layer and no current flowing through the device. Therefore the transistor is switched
to “Fully-OFF”. So we can define the cut-off region when using a bipolar transistor as a switch
as being, bother the junctions of NPN transistors are reverse biased, VB< 0.7v and Ic=0.
Similarly, for PNP transistor, the emitter potential must be –ve with respect to the base of the
transistor.
 Cut-off Region

Then we can define the “cut-off region” or “OFF mode” when using a bipolar transistor as a
switch as being, both junctions reverse biased, IC = 0 and VB < 0.7v. For a PNP transistor, the
Emitter potential must be -ve with respect to the Base

Saturation Region

In this region, the transistor will be biased so that the maximum amount of base current(IB) is
applied, resulting in maximum collector current(IC=VCC/RL) and then resulting in the
minimum collector-emitter voltage(VCE ~ 0) drop. At this condition, the depletion layer
becomes as small as the possible and maximum current flowing through the transistor.
Therefore the transistor is switched “Fully-ON”.
 Saturation Region

The definition of “saturation region” or “ON mode” when using a bipolar NPN transistor as a
switch as being, both the junctions are forward biased, IC = Maximum and VB > 0.7v. For a
PNP transistor, the Emitter potential must be +ve with respect to the Base.