Engineering

and
Architecture
Analog
Electronics
Fundamentals
EEE223
Lec 9
Transistors

Lecturer: Rayan Jaber

Transistors

– Transistors are semiconductor devices that act as either

electrically controlled switches or amplifier controls. With a
transistor, a small voltage and/or current applied to a control
lead acts to control a larger electric flow through its other
two leads.
– Transistors are used in almost every electric circuit you can
imagine. For example, you find transistors in switching
circuits, amplifier circuits, oscillator circuits, current-source
circuits, voltage-regulator circuits, power-supply circuits,
digital logic ICs, and almost any circuit that uses small control
signals to control larger currents.
 Transistors Types

Transistor type

BJT FET

MOSFET JFET
NPN PNP

N-Type P-Type N-Type P-type

Types of transistors:

– There are two types of transistor:

– Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
– Field Effective Transistor (FET)
Bipolar Junction
Transistor (BJT)

– The BJT is constructed with three doped semiconductor

regions separated by two pn junctions. The three regions
are called emitter, base, and collector.
– Physical representations of the two types of BJTs are shown
in the figure below. One type consists of two n regions
separated by a p region (npn), and the other type consists
of two p regions separated by an n region (pnp).
– The term bipolar refers to the use of both holes and
electrons as current carriers in the transistor structure.
npn and pnp structure Standard BJT Symbols
Basic BJT Operation

– In order for a BJT to operate properly as an amplifier, the

two pn junctions must be correctly biased with external dc
voltages.
– The npn transistor will be used mainly for illustration. The
operation of the pnp is the same as for the npn except that
the roles of the electrons and holes, the bias voltage
polarities, and the current directions are all reversed.
Biasing

Forward-reverse bias of a BJT

 Biasing

Biased Un Biased
transistor transistor
Operation

– The heavily doped n-type emitter region has a very high

density of conduction-band (free) electrons.
– These free electrons easily diffuse through the forward
biased BE junction into the lightly doped and very thin p-
type base region.
– The base has a low density of holes, which are the majority
carriers.
– A small percentage of the total number of free electrons
injected into the base region recombine with holes and
move as valence electrons through the base region and
into the emitter region as hole current.
– When the electrons that have recombined with holes as
valence electrons leave the crystalline structure of the
base, they become free electrons in the metallic base lead
and produce the external base current.
– Most of the free electrons that have entered the base do not
recombine with holes because the base is very thin.
– As the free electrons move toward the reverse-biased BC junction,
they are swept across into the collector region by the attraction of
the positive collector supply voltage.
– The free electrons move through the collector region, into the
external circuit, and then return into the emitter region along with
the base current.
– The emitter current is slightly greater than the collector current
because of the small base current that splits off from the total
current injected into the base region from the emitter.
Illustration of BJT Action
Transistor Currents

– The directions of the currents in an npn transistor and its

schematic symbol are as shown in figure (a); those for a
pnp transistor are shown in figure (b).
– Notice that the arrow on the emitter inside the transistor
symbols points in the direction of conventional current.
– These diagrams show that the emitter current
(IE) is the sum of the collector current (IC) and
the base current (IB)

IE = I C + I B

• IB is very small compared to IE or IC.

• The capital-letters subscripts indicates dc values.
Transistor Characteristics
and Parameters

– When a transistor is connected to dc bias voltages, for both

npn and pnp types, VBB forward-biases the base-emitter
junction, and VCC reverse-biases the base-collector
junction.
DC Beta ( βDC) and DC
Alpha ( αDC)

– The dc current gain of a transistor is the ratio of the dc

collector current (IC) to the dc base current (IB) and is
designated dc beta (βDC).
βDC = IC / IB
– Typical values of βDC range from less than 20 to 200 or
higher. βDC is usually designated as an equivalent hybrid (h)
parameter, hFE, on transistor datasheets.
hFE = βDC
– The ratio of the dc collector current (IC) to the dc emitter
current (IE) is the dc alpha (αDC).
αDC = IC / IE
– values of αDC range from 0.95 to 0.99 or greater, but αDC is
always less than 1.
EXAMPLE

Determine the dc current gain βDC and the

emitter current IE for a transistor where
IB=50 µA and IC=3.65 mA.

Solution

βDC = IC / IB = 3.65mA/50 µA=73

IE = IC + IB = 3.65 mA + 50 µA = 3.70 mA
EXAMPLE

– A transistor has a collector current of 10

mA and a base current of 40 A. What is
the current gain of the transistor?
EXAMPLE

A transistor has a collector current of 2 mA. If the

current gain is 135, what is the base current?

A transistor has a collector current of 2 mA. If the

current gain is 135, what is the base current?
BJT Circuit Analysis

– Consider the basic transistor bias circuit configuration in

the figure. Three transistor dc currents and three dc
voltages can be identified.

Transistor currents and voltages.

– The base-bias voltage source, VBB, forward-biases the base-
emitter junction, and the collector-bias voltage source, VCC,
reverse-biases the base-collector junction.
– When the base-emitter junction is forward-biased, it is like
a forward-biased diode and has a nominal forward voltage
drop of
VBE =~ 0.7 V
– The characteristic of the base-emitter junction is the same
as a normal diode curve.
– Since the emitter is at ground (0 V), by Kirchhoff’s voltage law,
the voltage across RB is
VRB = VBB – VBE
– Also, by Ohm’s law,
VRB = IBRB
– Substituting for VRB yields
IBRB = VBB – VBE
– Solving for IB,
IB = (VBB – VBE)/RB
– The voltage at the collector with respect to the grounded emitter is
VCE = VCC - VRC
– Since the drop across RC is
VRC = ICRC
– the voltage at the collector with respect to the emitter can be
written as
VCE = VCC – ICRC
where IC = βDCIB
– The voltage across the reverse-biased collector-base junction is
VCB = VCE – VBE
EXAMPLE

Determine IB, IC, IE, VBE, VCE, and VCB in the

circuit of the figure. The transistor has a βDC =
150.
Solution

VBE = 0.7 V. Calculate the base, collector, and emitter currents

as follows:
IB =(VBB – VBE) /RB = (5 V - 0.7 V)/10KΩ= 430 µA
IC = βDCIB = (150)(430 µA) = 64.5 mA
IE = IC + IB = 64.5 mA + 430 µA = 64.9 mA
Solve for VCE and VCB
VCE = VCC - ICRC = 10 V - (64.5 mA)(100 Ω) = 10 V - 6.45 V = 3.55
V
VCB = VCE - VBE = 3.55 V - 0.7 V = 2.85 V
Thank You