Technological University of the Philippines

College of Engineering
Electronics Engineering Department

ELE 8L INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, LAB

Assignment No. 1
TYPES OF TRANSISTORS

Timpoc, Marielle B.

BS ECE 4B

Engr. Ma. Victoria C. Padilla

Instructor

January 08, 2015

2nd Semester S.Y 2015-2016

1. BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTORS (BJT)

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is consists of three-layer sandwich of doped
(extrinsic) semiconductor materials which comes in two different polarity biasing: NPN and
PNP. As the name itself, it is consists of two P-N junction similar to diode thus, it can be either
forward biased or reversed biased. The NPN device has one p region between two n regions
and the PNP device has one n region between two p regions.
BJT has three terminals known as Emitter (E), Base (B) and Collector (C). Each region
differs in both geometrically and in terms of doping concentration therefore, Emitter and
Collector are not electrically symmetric and terminals cannot be interchanged.

Operation of a Bipolar Junction Transistor

Considering a NPN transistor, the Base-Emitter (B-E) junction is forward biased and
Base-Collector (C-E) junction is reversed biased. The electrons move from the base to emitter
and the holes moves toward the base thus, recombination occur that allows a current to flow
across the B-E junction. However, the doping level in the base is very low and thin. This means
the most of the electrons are able to travel across this region without recombining with the holes.
As a result the electrons migrate towards the collector, because they are attracted by the positive
potential. In this way they are able to flow across what is effectively a reverse biased junction,
and current flows in the collector circuit.
The collector current is significantly higher than the base current, and because the
proportion of electrons combining with holes remains the same the collector current is always
proportional to the base current. In other words varying the base current varies the collector
current.
Same principle is applied in PNP transistor except that the majority carrier is holes
instead of electrons and voltages are reversed.

Characteristic Curve of a Bipolar Junction Transistor

Characteristic Curve of BJT

Application/Uses Bipolar Junction Transistor
Switch
Transistors may be used as switching elements to control DC power to a load. The
switched (controlled) current goes between emitter and collector; the controlling current goes
between emitter and base. When a transistor has zero current through it, it is said to be in a state
of cutoff (fully non-conducting). When a transistor has maximum current through it, it is said to
be in a state of saturation (fully conducting).

Logic Gates

Transistor transistor logic (TTL) is a digital logic design in which bipolar transistors act
on direct current pulses. It implements logical function such as NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR
and others.

Amplifier
When used as amplifier, transistor is operated in active region in which input junction will be
forward biased and output junction will be reverse biased. There are three types of operating
modes of amplifier i.e. Common Base (CB) amplifier, Common Emitter (CE) amplifier and
Common Emitter (CE) amplifier. Other region inverse active region is of less importance in
practice.

2. FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS (FET)

Field Effect Transistor is a unipolar transistor. The current is transported by carriers of
one polarity (majority), whereas in the conventional bipolar transistor carriers of both
polarities (majority and minority) are involved. The family tree of FET devices may be divided
into two main branches, Junction FETs (JFETs) and Metal-Oxide Semiconductor FETs
(MOSFETs). Junction FETs are inherently depletion-mode devices, and are available in both
n- and p-channel configurations. MOSFETs are available in both enhancement and depletion
modes, and also exist as both n- and p-channel devices. The two main FET groups depend on
different phenomena for their operation. FET is consist also of three terminals: Gate (G), Drain
(D) and Source (S).

Operation of Field Effect Transistor

Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET)

The current in the channeled is controlled by the gate voltage. The control of the
current in one part of the device by the voltage in another part of the device is the basic
transistor action. The p-n JFET is a normally on, or depletion mode, device; that is, a voltage
must be applied to the gate terminal to turn the device off. Consider the situation in which the
gate voltage is zero, the drain voltage changes. As the drain voltage increases to more positive,
the gate-to-channel p-n junction becomes reverse biased near the drain terminal, and the spacecharge region widens, extending farther into the channel. The channel acts essentially as a
resistor, and the effective channel resistance increases as the space-charge region widens;
therefore the slope of the ID and VDS characteristics decreases. The effective channel resistance
now varies along the channel length, and since the channel current must be constant, the
voltage drop through the channel becomes independent on position.
If the drain voltage increases further, the channel undergo pinch off condition which
isolates the source and drain terminals thus, drain current is zero and the drain voltage is
saturated.

Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET)

With zero bias applied to the gate, the source and drain terminal is separated by the ptype region, thus, current is essentially zero. If large enough positive gate voltage is applied, an
electron inversion layer is created at the oxide-semiconductor interface connecting the nsource and n-drain hence, current is generated between the terminals. Since a voltage is
applied to the gate to create the inversion layer (electrons), it is an enhancement-mode nchannel MOSFET. The source terminal supplies carrier that flows through the channel and the
drain terminal allows the carrier to drain from the channel. For NMOS transistor, the electrons
flow from the source to the drain with an applied drain-to-source voltage, which means that
the conventional current enters the drain and leaves the source. The magnitude of the current is
a function of the amount of charge in the inversion layer, which is in turn a function of the
voltage in the gate terminal. Since the gate is insulated by an oxide, there is no gate current as
well as the substrate. Same principle is applied to PMOS but reversed in polarity.
Characteristic Curve of FET

Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) Characteristic Curve

Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) Characteristic Curve

Application/Uses Bipolar Junction Transistor
Switch

The p-n JFET is a normally on device; that is, a voltage must be applied to the gate
terminal to turn the device off. For MOSFET, the device is on at saturation region and off at
cut-off region.

Chopper
A direct-coupled amplifier can be built by leaving out the coupling and bypass
capacitors and connecting the output of each stage directly to the input of next stage. Thus
direct current is coupled, as well as alternating current. The major drawback of this method is
occurrence of drift, a slow shift in the final output voltage produced by supply transistor, and
temperature variations.

Multiplexer

An analog multiplexer, a circuit that steers one of the input signals to the output line, is
shown in figure. In this circuit each JFET acts as a single-pole single-throw switch. When the
control signals (V1, V2 and V3) are more negative than VGS(0FF) all input signals are blocked.
By making any control voltage equal to zero, one of the inputs can be transmitted to the
output.

Amplifier
JFETs operating in the current saturation region make excellent amplifiers. Note that in
the ohmic region both VGS and VDS control the channel current, while in the current saturation
region VDS has little effect and VGS essentially controls ID.

Phase-Shift Oscillator

JFET can incorporate the amplifying action as well as feedback action. It, therefore,
acts well as a phase shift oscillator. The high input impedance of FET is especially very
valuable in phase-shift oscillators in order to minimize the loading effect.

Current Limiter
JFET current limiting circuit is shown in figure.

Almost all the supply voltage

therefore appears across the load. When the load current tries to increase to an excessive level
(may be due to short-circuit or any other reason), the excessive load current forces the JFET
into active region, where it limits the current to 8 mA. The JFET now acts as a current source
and prevents excessive load current.

3. UNIJUNCTION TRANSISTOR (UJT)

UJT is also called the double-base diode is a 2-layer, 3-terminal solid-state switching
device. It is consists of a lightly doped N-type silicon bar with a small piece of heavily doped
P-type material alloyed to its one side to produce single p-n junction. The three terminals are
Base-1 (B1), Base-2 (B2) and Emitter (E). The emitter region is usually located closer to base-2
than Base-1 for asymmetry.

Operation of Unijunction Transistor

When the voltage between the emitter and Base 1 is zero, the UJT is in non-conducting
state therefore, the N-Type bar act as resistor and a small leakage current flows due to reverse
bias junction. Increasing the emitter voltage, the resistance between emitter and Base 1
decrease and also the reverse current decreases. As the emitter voltage reaches the enough
level to forward-biased the junction, the current starts to flow.
Characteristic Curve of Unijunction Transistor

Application/Uses of Unijunction Transistor

Speed Control
One typical application of the unijunction transistor circuit above is to generate a series of
pulses to fire and control a thyristor. By using the UJT as a phase control triggering circuit in
conjunction with an SCR or triac the speed of a universal DC or AC motor can be controlled.
To control the motors speed, simply change the frequency of the sawtooth pulse, which is
achieved by varying the value of the potentiometer.

Multivibrator
This standard circuit can be turned up-side-down if needed. The animation below
shows how one side of the multivibrator turns on then the other side to activate each LED. In
the circuit above, the multivibrator takes the 47k to the positive rail, to activate the tone
circuit.

4. SILICON-CONTROLLED RECTIFIER (SCR) or THYRISTOR

The SCR is a four-layer, three-junction and a three-terminal device. The end P-region is
the anode, the end N-region is the cathode and the inner P-region is the gate. The anode to
cathode is connected in series with the load circuit. Essentially the device is a switch.

These two devices can be recognized as two transistors. The upper left one is P-N-P
transistor and the lower right N-P-N type. Further it can be recognized that the base of the PN-P transistor is joined to the collector of the N-P-N transistor while the collector of P-N-P is
joined to the base of N-P-N transistor, as illustrated in fig. c. The gate terminal is brought out
from the base of the N-P-N material. This construction has been conceived merely to explain
the working of SCR, otherwise in physical shape the SCR has four solid layers of P-N-P-N
type only.
Operation of Silicon-Controlled Rectifier

When the gate current is zero or the gate terminal is open, the only current in
circulation is the leakage current, which is very small in case of silicon device specially and
the total current is a little higher than sum of individual leakage currents. Under these
conditions P-N-P-N device is said to be in its forward blocking or high impedance off state.
As soon as a small amount of gate current is given to the base of transistor Q2 by applying
forward bias to its base-emitter junction, it generates the collector current as 2 times the base
current. This collector current of Q2 is fed as input base current to Q: which is further
multiplied by 1 times as ICl which forms input base current of Q2 and undergoes further
amplification. In this way both transistors feedback each other and the collector current of
each goes on multiplying. This process is very quick and soon both the transistors drive each
other to saturation. Now the device is said to be in.on-state. The current through the on-state
SCR is controlled by external impedance only.
Characteristic Curve of Silicon-Controlled Rectifier

Application/Uses of Silicon-Controlled Rectifier

Power Control

In ac circuits the SCR can be turned-on by the gate at any angle with respect to applied
voltage. This angle is called the firing angle and power control is obtained by varying the
firing angle. This is known as phase control. The SCR will turn-off by natural commutation
when the current becomes zero.
Power control in dc circuits is obtained by varying the duration of on-time and off-time of
the device and such a mode of operation is called on-off control or chopper control
Switch
Thyristor, being bistable device is widely used for switching of power signals owing to
their long life, high operation speed and freedom from other defects associated with
mechanical and electro-mechanical switches.

Pulse Circuit
SCRs are used for producing high voltage/current pulses of desired waveform and
duration. The capacitor C is charged during the positive half cycle of the input supply and the
SCR is triggered during the negative half-cycle. The capacitor will discharge through the
output circuit, and when the SCR forward current becomes zero, it will turn-off.

Over-Voltage Protection
SCRs can be employed for protecting other equipment from over-voltages owing to their
fast switching action. The SCR employed for protection is connected in parallel with the load.
Whenever the voltage exceeds a specified limit, the gate of the SCR will get energized and
trigger the SCR. A large current will be drawn from the supply mains and voltage across the
load will be reduced. Two SCRs are usedone for the positive half-cycle and the other for
negative half-cycle.