Electrical Sciences

EEE F111

Dr. A. Amalin Prince

BITS - Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Lecture – 28,29,30,31
Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT): pnp and npn transistors, cutoff and
saturation, output characteristics and load line, BJT Biasing, BJT amplifiers

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First - BJTs

“The Transistor was

probably the most
important invention of
the 20th Century, and
the story behind the
invention is one of
clashing egos and top
secret research.”

Ira Flatow

Reference:
Bell Labs Museum
B. G. Streetman & S. Banerjee „Solid State Electronic Devices‟, Prentice Hall 1999. 3
The Early Days

• 1874 Ferdinand Brown proposed a solid state point

contact rectifier

Theoretical development of quantum

• 1920’s mechanics

• 1926 Julius Lilienfeld patented the FET concept

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Arrival of the Three Unknowns

• 1929 Walter Brattain joined from the University of

Minnesota

William Shockley joined from the Massachusetts

• 1936 Institute of Technology

• 1945 John Bardeen came from the University of

Minnesota after having done rounds at
Princeton and Harvard

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The Bell Labs Initiative

 1936 Mervin Kelly decided to start a solid state

device group

Kelly assembled another team headed by

 Jan 1946 William Shockley and Stanley Morgan to make
a solid state switch

 Dec 1947 Bardeen and Brattain create the first point

contact transistor

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The Transistor goes public

June 30, 1948

Bell Labs held a press
conference in New York to
demonstrate to the world
their new discovery

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Interesting story…

Picture shows the workbench of John

Bardeen (Stocker Professor at OU) and Walter
Brattain at Bell Laboratories. They were supposed
to be doing fundamental research about crystal
surfaces.

The experimental results hadn't been very

good, though, and there's a rumor that their boss,
William Shockley, came near to canceling the
project. But in 1947, working alone, they switched
to using tremendously pure materials.

It dawned on them that they could build

the circuit in the picture. It was a working
amplifier! John and Walter submitted a patent for
the first working point contact transistor.

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Point-Contact Transistor – first
transistor ever made

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10
Qualitative basic operation of point-
contact transistor

Problems with first transistor…

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First Bipolar Junction Transistors

W. Shockley
invented the p-n
junction transistor
The physically
relevant region is
moved to the bulk
of the material

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Interesting story…

Shockley was furious and took their work and

invented the junction transistor and submitted a
patent for it 9 days later.
The three shared a Nobel Prize in 1955. Bardeen
and Brattain continued in research (and Bardeen
later won another Nobel).

Shockley quit to start a semiconductor company

in Palo Alto. It folded, but its staff (Robert Norton
Noyce) went on to invent the integrated circuit (the
"chip“ called Integrated Circuits) and to found
Intel Corporation.

By 1960, all important computers used transistors

for logic, and ferrite cores for memory.
Robert Norton Noyce (IC) (nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley) co founder of Fairchild and Intel.

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) (Along with Robert Noyce who independently made a similar circuit a few
months later), Kilby is generally credited as co-inventor of the integrated circuit . Kilby also made the first
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handheld calculator.
Transistor/switch/amplifier – a
3 terminal device
Source Vein Artery

Valve

Gate

Drain

Dam Heart

Emitter Collector
Ion Channel

Base

BJT MOSFET Axonal conduction

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All of these share a feature with…

• Output current can toggle between large and small

(Switching  Digital logic; create 0s and 1s)

• Small change in „valve‟ (3rd terminal) creates Large

change in output between 1st and 2nd terminal

(Amplification  Analog applications; Turn 0.5  50) 15

All of these share a feature with…

force – voltage/current
water flow – current
- amplification

Understanding of BJT 16
The Transistor Three

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Transistor Trivia

The terms emitter, base and collector were coined by

Bardeen
The gain properties of these devices were described as
output voltage over input current – hence the name
transresistance
A science fiction writer named J. R. Pierce proposed the
term transistor
Shockley kept the invention of the BJT a secret for only 2
months

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Bipolar Junction Transistor

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Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
 A Bipolar Junction Transistor
(BJT) has three terminals
connected to three doped
semiconductor regions.
 In an npn transistor,
 a thin and lightly doped p-
type material is sandwiched
between two thicker n-type
materials;
 while in a pnp transistor,
 a thin and lightly doped n-
type material is sandwiched
between two thicker p-type
materials.
 In the following we will only
consider npn BJTs. (Why?)
Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
Construction of Bipolar junction
transistors

Emitter-base Base region

junction (very narrow)

Emitter region Collector

Collector region
Emitter

Base Collector-base
junction
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Construction of Bipolar junction
transistors

NPN BJT shown

• 3 terminals: emitter, base, and collector
• 2 junctions: emitter-base junction (EBJ) and collector-base junction (CBJ)
– These junctions have capacitance (high-frequency model)
• BJTs are not symmetric devices
– doping and physical dimensions are different for emitter
and collector

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Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
 The three terminals of a transistor
are typically used as the input,
output and the common terminal
of both input and output.
 Depending on which of the three
terminals is used as common
terminal, there are three different
configurations:
 common emitter (CE),
 common base (CB) and
 common collector (CC).
 The common emitter (CE) is the
most typical configuration:
Transistor Operation

 Active Regions
 EB junction is FB and CB Junction is RB
 Reverse-active region
 EB junction is RB and CB Junction is FB
 Saturation Region
 EB junction is FB and CB Junction is FB
 Cut-off Region
 EB junction is RB and CB Junction is RB
Transistor Operation
 Active Region
BJT in Active Mode

Two external voltage sources set the bias conditions for active mode
– EBJ is forward biased and CBJ is reverse biased

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BJT in Active Mode

IE＝IEN＋IEP IEN

Forward bias of EBJ injects electrons from emitter into base (small number of
holes injected from base into emitter)

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BJT in Active Mode

IB ＝IBN＋ IEP

• Most electrons shoot through the base into the collector

across the reverse bias junction
• Some electrons recombine with majority carrier in (P-type)
base region

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BJT in Active Mode

IC = ICN + ICBO

Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across the
CBJ depletion region to the collector.

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BJT in Active Mode

IE＝IEN＋IEP IEN IC = ICN + ICBO

IE = IB + IC

Let ICN＝IE

IB＝IBN＋IEP

IC IC = IE + ICBO
 ---common-base current gain
IE

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Transistor Operation
 Active Region

Model: Active
Region

PNP ?

 Other Region
 Recall p-n junction
P N N P

W W +
+ - -
Vappl > 0 Vappl < 0

Forward bias, + on P, - on N Reverse bias, + on N, - on P

(Shrink W, Vbi) (Expand W, Vbi)

Allow holes to jump over barrier Remove holes and electrons away
into N region as minority carriers from depletion region

I I

V V

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So if we combine these by fusing their
terminals…
P N N P

W W +
+ - -
Vappl > 0 Vappl < 0

Holes from P region (“Emitter”) of 1st PN junction

driven by FB of 1st PN junction into central N region (“Base”)

Driven by RB of 2nd PN junction from Base into P region of

2nd junction (“Collector”)

• 1st region FB, 2nd RB

• If we want to worry about holes alone, need P+ on 1st region

• For holes to be removed by collector, base region must be thin

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Transistor Configuration

 CB
CB CE CC
 CE Input-Output Phase
0 degrees 180 degrees 0 degrees
 CC Difference
High Very High Approx. unity
Voltage Gain
≈150 ≈500 ≈1
Approx. unity High Very High
Current Gain
≈1 ≈50-100 ≈ 80-100
Power Gain Low High Medium
Low Medium Very High
Input Resistance
≈100Ω ≈800Ω ≈ 800 k Ω
Very High Medium Very Low
Output Resistance
≈500 kΩ ≈50 kΩ ≈50Ω

Table 1. Comparison of the CB, CE, and CC Configurations

CB configuration of PNP and NPN
Transistor

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C B Configuration

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(b) Input characteristics (c) Output characteristics
Practice Problem

For the CB circuit shown in figure, determine the values of IB and IC. Given that
the value of alpha is 0.95

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CE configuration of PNP and NPN
Transistor

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C E Configuration

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C E Configuration
BJT in Active Mode

IE＝IEN＋IEP IEN IB＝IBN＋IEP IC=ICN+ICBO IE=IB+IC

IC
 IC (1－)= IB+ICBO
IE

Let  I C   I B  (1   ) I CBO
IC = IE + ICBO 1
IC
Beta:  ---common-emitter current gain
IB

I E  I C  I B  (1   ) I B

I C   I B  I CEO   I B
I  I
 C E

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Practice Problem

For the circuit in figure, find the values of IE, IC and IB. it is given that Beta =50, VBE=0.7 and ICO=0
micro A

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C C Configuration
Transistor Configuration

 CB
CB CE CC
 CE Input-Output Phase
0 degrees 180 degrees 0 degrees
 CC Difference
High Very High Approx. unity
Voltage Gain
≈150 ≈500 ≈1
Approx. unity High Very High
Current Gain
≈1 ≈50-100 ≈ 80-100
Power Gain Low High Medium
Low Medium Very High
Input Resistance
≈100Ω ≈800Ω ≈ 800 k Ω
Very High Medium Very Low
Output Resistance
≈500 kΩ ≈50 kΩ ≈50Ω

Table 1. Comparison of the CB, CE, and CC Configurations

Practice Problem
(P7.5) For the circuit shown in figure RE = 2 kΩ and VEE= 5V. Assume that the transistor is in
active region and α ≈ 1. Find iE, vCB, and vEC for the case (a) RC=0 Ω, Vcc= 0 V; (b) RC=0 Ω, Vcc= 5
V; (c) RC=2 kΩ, Vcc= 5 V.
Practice Problem
(P7.5) (b) RC=0 Ω, Vcc= 5 V
Practice Problem
(P7.5) RC=2 kΩ, Vcc= 5 V.
Practice Problem
(P7.7) For the circuit showin in figure, VBB=5V and VEE=10V. Assume that the transistor is in the
active region and that α ≈ 1. (a) Find iE. vCB, and VEC for the case that RC=1 k Ω and RE=2 k Ω. (b)
Find RC and RE for the case that IE= 5mA and vCB = -2.5 V

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Practice Problem
(P7.7) For the circuit showin in figure, VBB=5V and VEE=10V. Assume that the transistor is in the
active region and that α ≈ 1. (a) Find iE. vCB, and VEC for the case that RC=1 k Ω and RE=2 k Ω. (b)
Find RC and RE for the case that IE= 5mA and vCB = -2.5 V

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Practice Problem
(P7.7) For the circuit showin in figure, VBB=5V and VEE=10V. Assume that the transistor is in the
active region and that α ≈ 1. (a) Find iE. vCB, and VEC for the case that RC=1 k Ω and RE=2 k Ω. (b)
Find RC and RE for the case that IE= 5mA and vCB = -2.5 V

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The End
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