Lab 7 Report

Characterization of the BJT

Kevin Bradshaw & Yuan Tian
ECEN 325-503
Instructor: Sebastian Hoyos
October 21, 2015
Items
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Pre-lab
Title Page
Intro /Theory / Procedure
Summary
Experimental Results /
Analysis / Discussion
Problems Encountered
Conclusion
Questions
Total

Grade Assigned
20%
5%
10%
40%
5%
5%
15%
100%

Student's Grade

Objectives

Understand the characteristics of the BJT amplifier configurations.

Evaluate the DC operating point of a single transistor amplifier.
Analyze the AC parameters of an NPN bipolar transistor.

Procedure
In this lab, the BJT transistor circuit (Figure 1) from the pre-lab was built with
the values measured in Table 1. The input voltage was set to 2 Volts and the
potentiometer was adjusted according to the voltage across Rc (Resistance at
the Collector terminal of the BJT) at approximately 5 Volts. Then Rb
(Resistance at the Base terminal of the BJT) was measured. The respective
currents to these resistances were both calculated by using Ohm's law with
the values measured. Afterwards, the current-gain was calculated. These
calculations are also shown in Table 1.
Figure 1: BJT Transistor Circuit

Keeping the input voltage the same, the transistor was then warmed by
placing a thumb on the top part of this package. By doing this, the voltage at
the collector started to rise linearly by about 0.003 Volts per second. Lastly,
the potentiometer was then set to its maximum resistance and the baseemitter voltage was changed from 0.4 to 0.8 V in increments of 0.25 V in
order to sweep the input voltage. These observations are recorded in Table 2.

Data Tables
Table 1: BJT Circuit Configuration

Components

Value

RC

1 k

RB

62.13 K

IB

21.75 A

IC

4.9 mA

227.17
Table 2: Measurements
Sweeping Vin

Vin (V)

VBE (V)

VC

RB

0.40
0.65
0.90
1.15
1.40
1.65
1.90
2.15
2.40
2.65
2.90
3.15
3.40
3.65
3.90
4.15
4.40
4.65

0.4075
0.5793
0.6131
0.6262
0.6336
0.6391
0.6422
0.6454
0.6490
0.6524
0.6559
0.6545
0.6634
0.6692
0.6713
0.6775
0.6815
0.6830

0.3370 mV
0.2133 V
0.8134 V
1.4820 V
2.1710 V
2.9040 V
3.6240 V
4.3280 V
5.0190 V
5.6190 V
6.3480 V
7.0430 V
7.6617 V
8.2570 V
8.8340 V
9.3340 V
9.7560 V
9.8100 V

28.87 k

Table 3: Calculated Ic
and Ib

Applicable Calculations
I C =I S (e

V BE
n V th

1)
I E =I C + I B
=

IC
IB

R =RBE =

V BE
Ib

Rout =R CE=

gm=

V CE
Ic

IC
V BE

Discussion
1. Computing Forward Current Gain:
The following equation was used to find the base current using KVL:
2V I B R B V BEon =0
I B=21.75 A
After the base current was calculated, the collector current was found
using Ohm's law with the known collector voltage and resistance:
4.941V
IC =
=4.9 mA
1000
Lastly, the forward current gain was used to calculate using both of
these currents:
I
= C =225.29
IB
2. Current Gain and Temperature Relationship:
As the temperature increases, we observed that the collector voltage
increased linearly. Since the resistance at the collector was kept at the
same value, this means that the current through the collector
increased which increases with it.
3. Input Voltage vs. Base-Emitter Voltage and Collector Voltage:
Figure 1: VBE
vs. Vin

Figure 2: VC vs.
Vin

4. Base Current and Collector Current:

Figure 3:

I c vs . I b

5. Impedances, Transconductance, and Current Gain Calculations:

Using the formulas above with the measurements taken in Table 2, we

calculated the following approximate values:
Input Impedance (Rin) = 18,578.88
Output Impedance (Rout) = 1,000
Transconductance (gm) = 0.15513 S
Current Gain () = 191.79
6. Measurements vs. Pspice Simulations:
The measured values obtained were much more realistic for a BJT that
operates in the three different modes. This is because observing the
cutoff, active, and saturation regions is easier since the current-gain
() is actually affected by temperature. The actual measurements in
the experiment also showed the limitations to each region and how the
nodes of the BJT are not ideal.
Problems Encountered
The main problem for this lab was getting the correct connections for the BJT
on the breadboard. After looking at the proper datasheet for the 2N2222
Transistor, we were able to connect the BJT correctly. Also, when we were
sweeping our input voltage to change the base-emitter voltage linearly, our
input never reached 10 Volts. The BJT would saturate at about 0.68 Volts for
the base-emitter voltage. We were still able to collect a good amount of data
points for the measurements.
Conclusion
The purpose of this lab was to understand the fundamental concepts and
characteristics of BJT circuits. We learned how to analyze BJT's in three
different modes of operation by using circuit analysis tools that have been
used before. We calculated the relative parameters to determine how each
individual node influenced each other in the circuit. The graph of input
voltage versus the base-emitter voltage showed us how the active region
transitions to the saturation region. The graph of the input voltage versus the
collector voltage showed us how there is a linear relationship between the
input and output of the BJT if it were connected in a control system. The
graph of the collector current versus the base current also shows the linear
relationship of basic control systems. BJT's are very important in control
systems because they bridge the gap between microcontrollers and heavy
loads such as AC/DC motors.