Prof.

Jasprit Singh
Fall 2001
EECS 320

Solutions to Homework 9
Problem 1 Consider a npn Si-BJT at 300 K with the following parameters:

= 1018 cm;3
= 1017 cm;3
= 1016 cm;3
= 30:0 cm2 =s
= 10:0 m
= 1:0 m
= 10 cm2 =s
= 10:0 m
Emitter thickness = 1:0 m
Device area = 4:0  10;6 cm2
Calculate the emitter eciency and gain  when the EBJ is forward biased at
1.0 V and the BCJ is reverse biased at 5.0 V. Calculate the output conductance
of the device dened by
go =

VIC
CB
To solve this problem we need to calculate the neutral base width in the
device. Also note that since the emitter thickness is small compared to the
carrier diusion length in the emitter, we will use the narrow diode theory to
calculate the emitter eciency.
Using the parameters given, the built in voltage it the BCJ is
 17 16 
:10
k
T
B
Vbi = e ln 210
:25  1020 = 0:757 V

Nde
Nab
Ndc
Db
Lb
Wb
De
Le

The depletion width on the base side of the BCJ is found to be

W (5:0 V ) = 8:296  10;6 cm
and
W (6:0 V ) = 8:981  10;6 cm
Thus the neutral base width is
Wbn (5:0 V ) = 9:17  10;5 cm
1

The emitter eciency is (for a narrow emitter of width We )

e = 1 ; pne0 DDe WWbn = 0:969
b0 b e
We nd that the base transport factor is
2
bn = 0:996
B =1; W
2L2b
This gives
 = e B = 0:9656
and the current gain is
 = 1 ;  = 28
The collector current is
 
 
 
 
b nb0 exp eVBE ; 1 ; eADb nb0 Wbn exp eVBE ; 1
IC = eAD
Wbn
kB T
2L2b
kB T
with the second part being negligible.
We nd that
IC (5:0 V ) = 23:79 A
We now calculate the neutral base width when the BCJ is reverse biased at 6.0
V. This is
Wbn (6:0 V ) = 9:1  10;5 cm
This gives
IC (6:0 V ) = 23:973 A
The output conductance is now
go = 0:183
;1
Problem 2: Consider a npn Si-BJT at 300 K with the following parameters:
Nde = 1018 cm;3
Nab = 1017 cm;3
Ndc = 1016 cm;3
Db = 30:0 cm2 =s
Lb = 10:0 m
Wb = 1:0 m
De = 10 cm2 =s
Le = 5:0 m
electron mobility in the emitter = 500 cm2 V;1 s;1
area = 5:0  10;7 cm2
2

Calculate the emitter eciency and gain  when the EBJ is forward biased at
1.0 V and the BCJ is reverse biased at (a): 5.0 V and (b) 10.0 V.
For high-speed operation, it is found that the BJT discussed above has too
large an emitter resistance. The device designer wants to limit the emitter resistance (keeping the area unchanged) to 2.0
. Calculate the emitter eciency
and  for the new device using the case (a) given above.
In this problem, for the rst part we need to calculate the neutral base width

Wbn and use this value in the calculations for  . To nd this we must calculate
the depletion on the base side for the BCJ,
W . We will not worry about the

depletion on the EBJ since the junction is forward biased. The built-in voltage
on the BCJ is
N N 
k
T
B
Vbi = e ln abn2 dc = 0:757 V
i
Using the Vbi value we nd that:

W (V = 5 V ) = 8:3  10;6 cm

W (V = 10 V ) = 1:134  10;5 cm
Wbn (V = 5 V ) = 9:17  10;5 cm
Wbn (V = 10 V ) = 8:87  10;5 cm
For the rst case the emitter eciency is
e (V = 5 V ) = 1 ; pne0 DDe WLbn
b0 b e
= 1 ; 6:11  10;3
= 0:9938
The base transport factor is
2
bn
B (V = 5 V ) = 1 ; W
2L2b
= 0:996
This gives for the value of 
(V = 5 V ) = e B = 0:9898
and the gain is
 (V = 5 V ) = 97:04
Similarly for the 10 volt reverse bias at the BCJ we get
e = 0:9941
B = 0:9961
 = 0:9902
 = 101:3
3

The gain  is slightly larger since at a higher reverse bias, the neutral base
width has decreased slightly.
Next we consider the case where the emitter resistance is only 2
. To
get the small resistance the emitter thickness has to decrease. The resistance
is in general controlled by the length, area and conductivity. To change the
conductivity one needs to change the carrier mobility or the carrier density.
This would need a change in doping of the emitter. In practice the simplest
thing to do is to change the emitter thickness Lem since this can be done by
simply etching down the emitter.
The emitter thickness needed is given by

Lem = RAnen

= (2
)(5  10;7 cm2 )(1018 cm;3 )(1:6  10;19 C)(500 cm2 =Vs)
= 8:0  10;5 cm

Since the emitter thickness is small compared to the emitter minority carrier
diusion length, we will use the equations derived for a narrow diode to calculate
the hole current injected into the emitter. This essentially means that instead
of the diusion length Le in the equation for the emitter eciency, we need to
use the emitter length. This gives us

e (V = 5 V ) = 0:962
The base transport factor is unaected. We get for the current gain

(V = 5 V ) = 0:958 ;  (V = 5 V ) = 22:8
We see that the attempt to reduce the emitter thickness extracts a sti penalty
on the gain of the device.

Problem 3: In a particular BJT the base transit time is 20 % of the total

delay time of charge transport. The base width is 0.5 m and the diusion
coecient is Db = 20 cm2 =s. Calculate the cuto frequency of the device.
The base transit time is
; 4 )2
;11
b = (02:52010cm2cm
=s = 6:25  10 s
The total time of transit is then

ec = 5  6:25  10;11 s

and

fT = 21 = 509 MHz

ec

Problem 4: Using Eqn. 7.111 of the text calculate the maximum emitter
doping beyond which the emitter eciency of a npn BJT starts to decrease
when the base doping is 1017 cm;3 . Assume that (T=300 K)
De = 10 cm2 =s; Db = 20 cm2 =s; Wbn = 1:0 m; Le = 4:0 =mum
The emitter eciency is given by the model as

Eg =Kb T
e = 1 ; Nab DeNWbnDe L
de b e

Assuming that the neutral base width is approximately the same as the physical
base width we get

Eg =Kb T
e = 1 ; e 8x
where
Nab
x= N
de
We nd that the eciency increases as doping increases upto  61018 cm;3
and then starts to decrease.
Problem 5: Consider a npn silicon bipolar transistor in which Wb = 2:0
m; Le = Lb = 10:0m and De = Db = 10cm2sec;1 . Assume that Nab = 1016
cm;3 . What is the emitter injection eciency for Nde = 1018; 1019 and 1020
cm;3 when a) bandgap narrowing is neglected, b) when bandgap narrowing is
included?
In the absence of bandgap narrowing, the emitter eciency is given by

e = 1 ; pneo DDe WLbn

bo b e

We assume that Wbn = Wb . We have

2
2
peo = Nni ; nbo = Nni
Thus, (using Wb = 0:2Le )

de

ab

Nab
e = 1 ; 0:2 N
de
e (Nde = 1018 cm;3 ) = 0:998
e (Nde = 1019 cm;3 ) = 0:9998
e (Nde = 1020 cm;3 ) = 0:99998
If the bandgap shrinks, the value of peo will start to decrease according t o the
equation
 E 
g
peo (Eg ;
Eg ) = peo (Eg ) exp

kB T
5

The bandgap shrinkage values are

Eg (Nde = 1018 cm;3 ) = 22:5 meV

Eg (Nde = 1019 cm;3 ) = 71:1 meV

Eg (Nde = 1020 cm;3 ) = 225 meV
This gives

peo (Nde = 1018 cm;3 ) = 5:23  102 cm;3

peo (Nde = 1019 cm;3 ) = 3:39  102 cm;3
peo (Nde = 1020 cm;3 ) = 1:26  104 cm;3
The emitter eciency becomes

e (Nde = 1018 cm;3 ) = 0:995

e (Nde = 1019 cm;3 = 0:997
e (Nde = 1020 cm;3 ) = 0:885
Thus we see that the emitter eciency starts to decrease as the emitter doping
becomes too high. As noted in the text the expression used by us overestimates
the decrease in e at high doping.