J. of Active and Passive Electronic Devices, Vol. 1, pp. 61-67 © 2005 Old City Publishing, Inc.

Reprints available directly from the publisher Published by license under the OCP Science imprint,
Photocopying permitted by license only a member of the Old City Publishing Group

Derivations of the h-Parameters for the BJT

Amplifier Using its Characteristics

ADNAN AL-SMADI AND QASSEM AL-ZOBI

Department of Electronics Engineering, Hijjawi Faculty for Engineering Technology,

Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

Transistors are active devices with highly nonlinear characteristics.

Therefore, to analyze and design a transistor circuit, a model for the tran-
sistor is required. Under small signal conditions, bipolar junction tran-
sistors (BJTs) are approximately linear in the forward-active and in the
inverse-active regions. The key to transistor small signal analysis is the
use of equivalent circuits (or models). Once the ac equivalent circuit has
been determined, this model can replace the graphical symbol of the
transistor. Then, the basic methods of ac circuit analysis can be used to
determine the response of the amplifier. The industrial and educational
institutions rely heavily on the hybrid parameters (or h-parameters)
equivalent circuit. The manufacturers continue to specify the h-parame-
ter for a particular operating region on the specification sheets. However,
specification sheets can not provide parameters for an equivalent circuit
at every possible operating point. Hence, the parameters defined at an
operating point may or may not reflect the actual operating conditions of
the amplifier. This paper addresses a new graphical method for the deri-
vations of the h-parameters.

Keywords: BJT transistor, h-parameters, Two-port system, Graphical method

*Corresponding Author: E-mail: smadi98@yahoo.com

61
62 AL-SMADI AND AL-ZOBI

1. INTRODUCTION

Linear amplifiers constitute a major class of electronic circuitry and are

primary component in many applications. Linear amplifiers typically
operate within a region of incremental linearity. That is, a region where
small variation in the input produces linearly amplified variation in the
output. Hence, the use of linear models is referred to as small signal
analysis. The term small signal amplifier refers to the use of signals that take
up a relatively small percentage of an amplifier’s operational range. That is,
signals that use only a small portion of the load line. Device operating on
small signals are found in almost every electronic system, such as
preamplifiers and operational amplifiers, for example, and they are therefore
of major importance. The small signal approximations are made in the form
of approximate models that take the form of two-port systems.
Electronic amplifiers are a subset of the system class commonly
identified as two-port systems. A two-port is a circuit that communicates
with the “outside world” only through input and output ports. In a two-port
electronic circuit, signals are fed into a pair of terminals, amplified by the
system, and finally extracted at another pair of terminals. Each pair of
terminals is referred to as a port. The parameters of paramount importance
in an electronic two-port system are the relationships between input port and
output port voltages and currents. Following are the restrictions upon which
two-port analysis techniques are based [1]:

1) The network must be linear and time invariant.

2) External connections may be made only to port terminals.
3) All currents entering one terminal of a port must exit the other terminal
of that port.
4) Sources and loads must be connected directly across the two terminals
of a port.

Transistors are active devices with highly nonlinear characteristics.

Therefore, to analyze and design a transistor circuit, a model for the
transistor is required. Bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) in the forward-
active region and in the inverse-active region are approximately linear in
nature. That is, under small signal conditions, we can model transistors as
incrementally linear device. Transistors are three-terminal devices.
However, the common terminal can be extended to both of the ports and
becomes the reference terminal to each port. Hence, transistors can be
 DERIVATIONS OF THE H-PARAMETERS FOR THE BJT AMPLIFIER 63

modeled using two-port techniques. Therefore, two-port analysis can be

used in the linear operation region for the modeling of electronic circuits.
The parameters of the two-port network completely describe its behavior in
terms of the voltage and current at each port [2].
The key to transistor small signal analysis is the use of equivalent circuits
(or models). Once the ac equivalent circuit has been determined, this model
can replace the graphical symbol of the transistor. Then, the basic methods
of ac circuit analysis can be used to determine the response of the amplifier.
The industrial and educational institutions rely heavily on the hybrid
parameters (or h-parameters) equivalent circuit [3]. The hybrid equivalent
circuit continues to be very popular in the analysis of small-signal ac
response of the BJT amplifier. This h-parameter realization is a common
representation for small signal, low frequency BJT operation [4].
Manufacturers continue to specify the h-parameters for a particular
operating region on specification sheets. The two-port network is
represented in Figure 1. The general two-port system has the following set
of equations that relates the four variables of interest.

(1)

FIGURE 1
Two-port network.

Figure 2 shows an npn BJT transistor as a two-port network with the

emitter terminal as common. In this figure, the input port is the base-emitter
junction whereas the output port is the collector and common terminals.
The general form of the h-parameter equivalent circuit for a common
emitter BJT transistor configuration is shown in Figure 3. The quantities hie,
hre, hfe, and hoe are called the hybrid parameters and are the components of
the ac small signal model.
64 AL-SMADI AND AL-ZOBI

FIGURE 2
BJT transistor as a two-port network.

FIGURE 3
The h-parameters circuit model for the common emitter BJT.

The input resistance is hie and appears in series at the input. The reverse
voltage ratio is hre and is multiplied by the output voltage to produce an
equivalent voltage source in series with the input. The forward current gain
is hfe and is multiplied by the input current to produce an equivalent current
source in the output. The output conductance is hoe and appears across the
output terminals.
It is noteworthy that for low frequency models, the input impedance of a
BJT transistor amplifier is purely resistive in nature [3].

2. BJT TRANSISTOR MODELING

The governing equations for the h-parameter model for the common
emitter BJT transistor are

vbe = hieib + hrevce (2)

ic = hfeib + hoevce (3)

 DERIVATIONS OF THE H-PARAMETERS FOR THE BJT AMPLIFIER 65

The h-parameters for the small signal transistor model can be obtained
using partial derivatives as follows.

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

where ∆ refers to a small change in that quality around the quiescent point
of operation. Const refers to constant values of Vce and Ib. These conditions
must be met when the various parameters are determined from the output
and input characteristics of the transistor.
In this paper, we propose a method for determining all of the h-
parameters using one compact single graph. The Q-point is determined by
selecting I b | const . Then, we can determine all the h-parameters in the
amplifier at the assumed Q-point.
Notice that hre is normally a relatively small quality. Hence, hre ≅ 0, then
the dependent source in Figure 3 hreVce = 0. That is, the source hreVce is
replaced by a short circuit equivalent [1,3,4]. Also, the output conductance

h oe is relatively large quantity. Thus, the resistance is often small

enough to be ignored and replaced by an open circuit.
The proposed single graph is constructed in Figure 5 as follows:

1) Draw the Input (base) characteristics as in Figure 4.a.

2) Draw the output (collector) characteristics as in Figure 4.b.
3) Now replicate Figure 4.a to the first quadrant and flip it 450 to the third
quadrant of Figure 5.
4) Draw Figure 4.b in the first quadrant of Figure 5.
5) Quadrant II of Figure 5 forms a relationship between IC and IB; that is
hfe = β which is linear in the active region.
66 AL-SMADI AND AL-ZOBI

6) The fourth quadrant forms a relationship between VCE and VBE. This is
a mirror of the first quadrant; that is, this quadrant is a projection of the
IB parameter in first quadrant.

Now, the h-parameters can be obtained using Equations 4 through 7 as

follows. The input resistance, hie, is obtained from the third quadrant. The

FIGURE 4
(a) The input (base) characteristics, (b) The output (collector) characteristics.

FIGURE 5
The compact graph for determining all of the h-parameters.
 DERIVATIONS OF THE H-PARAMETERS FOR THE BJT AMPLIFIER 67

reverse voltage ratio, hre, is obtained from the fourth quadrant. The forward
current gain, hfe, is obtained from the second quadrant; while the output
conductance, hoe, is obtained from the first quadrant.

3. CONCLUSION

A graphical method for determining the h-parameters was described.

This graph is constructed using the basic input characteristics and the basic
output characteristics. Namely, the base current with base-emitter voltage is
used as the input characteristics; while the collector current with collector-
emitter voltage is used as the output characteristics. The compact graph is
simple and easy to use to determine the h-parameters.

REFERENCES

[1] T.F. Schubert and E.M. Kim, Active and Non-linear Electronics, John Wiley, New York,
1996.
[2] J.D. Irwin, Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis, Macmillan Publishing Company, New
York, 1993.
[3] R. Boylestad and L. Nashelsky, Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory, Prentice Hall,
New Jersey, 1999.
[4] A.S. Sedra and K.C. Smith, Microelectronic Circuits, Oxford University Press, New
York, 1998.