PHYS 2300 – Transistor Lab

Transistor Junctions are Diodes

Here is a method for spot-checking a suspected bad transistor: the transistor
must look like a pair of diodes when you test each junction separately.
CAUTION: do not take this as a description of the transistor’s mechanism when
operating! It does not behave like two back-to-back diodes, like the right hand
side of the figure below.

Get a 2N3904 NPN transistor, identify its leads, and verify that it looks like the
object shown to the left in the figure above.
Use the DVM’s diode test function (usually represented by a diode symbol) to
measure the voltage across the BC and BE junctions. The diode test applies a
small current and the meter reads the junction voltage. You can even distinguish
the BC and BE junctions this way. The BC junction is the larger of the two; the
lower current density is revealed by a slightly lower voltage drop.

Emitter Follower
Wire up an NPN transistor as an emitter follower, as shown below.
Drive the follower with a sine wave that is symmetrical about zero volts (this is
referred to as “no DC offset”). Use the oscilloscope to observe the output. Can
you explain the output?
If you increase the waveform amplitude you will begin to see bumps below
ground. How do you explain these?
Now try to connect the emitter return, labeled VEE, to -15V instead of ground and
look at the output. Explain the improvement.

Input and Output Impedance of a Follower

Measure Zin and Zout for the follower below:

In your previous circuit, replace the small base resistor with a 10k resistor. This
will simulate a signal source of moderately high impedance, i.e., low current
capability.

a) Measure Zout, the output impedance of the follower, by connecting a 1k load to

the output and observing the drop in signal amplitude. You should use a small
input signal, <1V. You should also use a blocking capacitor – Why? (HINT: in this
case, you could get away with omitting the blocking cap, but often you could not.)

SUGGESTIONS FOR MEASURING Zout

If you view the emitter follower’s output as a signal source in series with Vout –
Thevenin, then the 1k load forms a divider at signal frequencies, where the
impedance of the blocking capacitor is negligibly small.

The attenuations are likely to be small. To measure them we suggest you take
advantage of the percent markings on the scope screen as follows:

1) Center the waveform on the 0% mark

2) AC couple the signal to the scope input, to ensure centering
3) Adjust amplitude to make the peak just hit the 100%
4) Now load the circuit and read the amplitude in percent.

  2  
b) Remove the 1k load. Now measure Zin, which here is the impedance looking
into the transistor’s base, by looking alternately at both sides of the 10k input
resistor. For this measurement, the 3.3k emitter resistor is also the “load”. Again,
use a small signal. Does the result make sense?

Now that you have measured Zin and Zout, infer your transistor’s β.

Single-Supply Follower

The figure above shows a properly biased emitter follower circuit, operating from
a single positive power supply voltage. Wire up this circuit and check that it has
the capability of generating large output swings before the onset of clipping. For
largest dynamical range, amplifier circuits should exhibit symmetrical clipping.
Why are the bias resistors not symmetrical, i.e., the same value?

Common-Emitter Amplifier

  3  
Wire up the common-emitter amplifier shown above. What should its voltage gain
be? Is the signal’s phase inverted?
Is the collector quiescent operating point right (i.e., it resting voltage)? How about
the amplifier’s low frequency 3dB point? What should the output impedance be?
Check it by connecting a resistive load, with blocking cap (the blocking cap,
again, lets you test impedance at signal frequencies without messing up the
biasing scheme).

Current Source

Construct the current source above (to be more exact, this is really called a
current “sink”).
Slowly vary the 10k variable load, and look for changes in measured current.
What happens at the maximum resistance? Can you explain, in terms of voltage
compliance of the current source?
Even within the compliance range, there are detectable variations in output
current as the load is varied. What causes these variations? Can you verify your
explanation b making appropriate measurements? (HINT: Two important
assumptions were made in the initial explanation of the current source in Sec.
2.06 and Fig. 2.21 in The Art of Electronics).

  4