Unijunction transistors are three-lead transistors

that act exclusively as electrically controlled

switches; they are not used as amplifiers.
This differs from other transistors in that general
transistors usually provide the ability to act as a
switch and also as a an amplifier. But a unijunction
transistor does not provide any decent type of
amplification because of the way it is constructed.
It's simply not designed to provide a sufficient
voltage or current boost.

 The basic operation of a UJT is relatively simple. When

no potential difference (voltage) exists between its

emitter and either of its base leads (B1 or B2), only a very
small current flows from B2 to B1. However, if a
sufficiently large positive trigger voltage- relative to its
base leads- is applied to the emitter, a larger current
flows from the emitter and combines with the small B2to-B1 current, thus giving rise to large B1 output current.
Unlike other transistors- where the control leads provide
little additional current- the UJT is just the opposite. Its
emitter current is the primary source of current for the
transistor. The B2 to B1 current is only a very small
amount of the total combined current. This means that
unijunction transistors are not suitable for amplification
purposes, but only for switching.

 The Unijunction emitter current vs voltage

characteristic curve shows that as VE increases,

current IE increases up IP at the peak point. Beyond
the peak point, current increases as voltage
decreases in the negative resistance region. The
voltage reaches a minimum at the valley point. The
resistance of RB1, the saturation resistance is lowest
at the valley point.
IP and IV, are datasheet parameters; For a 2n2647,
IP and IV are 2A and 4mA,
respectively. [AMS] VP is the voltage drop across
RB1 plus a 0.7V diode drop. VV is estimated to be
approximately 10% of VBB.

(a) emitter characteristic curve, (b) model for VP

 Explanation of Characteristics Curve

Cutoff- This is the region where the unijunction transistor doesn't yet
receive enough voltage to turn on. The voltage hasn't yet reached the
triggering voltage, so the transistor will not turn on.
Negative Resistance Region- After the transistor has reached the
triggering voltage, VTRIG, it now will turn on. After a while if the
applied voltage still increases to the emitter lead, it will peak out at
VPEAK. From VPEAK to the Valley Point, the applied voltage drops
while the current, though, increases. The current increases but the
voltage decreases, which is why it's called negative resistance.
Saturation- After the negative resistance region which saw an increase
in current comes the saturation region. This is the region where if the
applied voltage to the emitter still increases, the current and voltage
will rise.

 The most common application of a unijunction

transistor is as a triggering device for

SCRs and Triacs but other UJT applications
include saw toothed generators, simple oscillators,
phase control, and timing circuits. The simplest of
all UJT circuits is the Relaxation Oscillator
producing non-sinusoidal waveforms.

 When a voltage (Vs) is firstly applied, the unijunction

transistor is OFF and the capacitor C1 is fully discharged but

begins to charge up exponentially through resistor R3. As the
Emitter of the UJT is connected to the capacitor, when the
charging voltage Vc across the capacitor becomes greater than
the diode volt drop value, the p-n junction behaves as a normal
diode and becomes forward biased triggering the UJT into
conduction. The unijunction transistor is ON. At this point
the Emitter to B1 impedance collapses as the Emitter goes into
a low impedance saturated state with the flow of Emitter
current through R1 taking place.
As the ohmic value of resistor R1 is very low, the capacitor
discharges rapidly through the UJT and a fast rising voltage
pulse appears across R1. Also, because the capacitor discharges
more quickly through the UJT than it does charging up
through resistor R3, the discharging time is a lot less than the
charging time as the capacitor discharges through the low
resistance UJT.

 When the voltage across the capacitor decreases

below the holding point of the p-n junction

( VOFF ), the UJT turns OFF and no current flows
into the Emitter junction so once again the
capacitor charges up through resistor R3 and this
charging and discharging process
between VON and VOFF is constantly repeated while
there is a supply voltage, Vs applied.

 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, we can adjust
the speed of a universal AC or DC motor as shown.

 Using the circuit above, we can control the speed of a

universal series motor (or whichever type of load we

want, heaters, lamps, etc) by regulating the current
flowing through the SCR. To control the motors speed,
simply change the frequency of the sawtooth pulse,
which is achieved by varying the value of the
potentiometer.