Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) 22/12/17 12:15 am

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Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)

(External reference on Wikipedia)

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 base is sandwiched between a heavily doped N-type emitter and another N-type collector; while in a PNP transistor, a thin and lightly
doped N-type base is sandwiched between a heavily doped P-type emitter and another P-type collector. In the following we will only consider NPN
BJTs.

In many schematics of transistor circuits (especially when there exist a large number of transistors in the circuit), the circle in the symbol of a
transistor is omitted. The figures below show the cross section of two NPN transistors. Note that although both the collector and emitter of a
transistor are made of N-type semiconductor material, they have totally different geometry and therefore can not be interchanged.

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All previously considered components (resistor, capacitor, inductor, and diode) have two terminals (leads) and can therefore be characterized by the
single relationship between the current going through and the voltage across the two leads. Differently, a transistor is a three-terminal component,
which could be considered as a two-port network with an input-port and an output-port, each formed by two of the three terminals, and characterized
by the relationships of both input and output currents and voltages.

Depending on which of the three terminals is used as common terminal, there can be three possible configurations for the two-port network formed
by a transistor:

Common emitter (CE),

Common base (CB),
Common collector (CC).

Common-Base (CB) configuration

Two voltages and are applied respectively to the emitter and collector , with respect to the common base , so that the
BE junction is forward biased while the CB junction is reverse biased.

Note that the polarity of and direction of associated with the PN-junction between E and B are the same as those associated with a

diode, voltage polarity: positive on P, negative on N, current direction: from P to N, but and the direction of associated with the PN-
junction between the base and collector are defined oppositely.

The behavior of the NPN-transistor is determined by its two PN-junctions:

The forward biased base-emitter (BE) PN-junction allows the free electrons in emitter to go through the PN-junction to arrive at the

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base, forming the emitter current .

As the P-type base is thin and lightly doped, only a small number of the electrons from the emitter are combined with the holes in base
to form the base current .
Most of the electrons coming from the emitter become minority carriers in the P-type base, and they go through the reverse biased
collector-base PN junction to arrive at the collector.
The percentage of those electrons that arrive at the collector out of the electrons from the emitter is defined as (e.g.,
, depending on the doping and geometry of the material). The total collector current is therefore .

The current gain or current transfer ratio is defined as the ratio between the emitter (input) current and the collector (output) current :

The base current is:

The CB configuration can be considered as a 2-port circuit. The input port is formed by the emitter and base, the output port is formed by the
collector and base. The relationships between the current and voltage of both the input and output ports are described by the following input
and output characteristics.

Input characteristics:

The input current is a function of as well as the input voltage , which is much more dominant:

where

This relationship between and as the EB junction is very similar to the relationship of and of a diode. Also, we also

note higher can slightly increase .

Output characteristics:

The output current is a function of the output voltage as well as the input current , which is much more dominant:

Here the approximation is based on the assumption that (in linear region). As , i.e., the CB junction is

reverse biased, the current depends totally on . When , is the current caused by the minority carriers
crossing the PN-junction. This is similar to the diode current-voltage characteristics seen before, except both axes are reversed (the
polarity of and the direction are oppositely defined). When is increased, is increased correspondingly.

Higher can slightly increase . As , CB configuration does not have current-amplification effect. However,

if is held constant, and therefore will also be held constant, i.e., CB transistor circuit can be used as a current source.

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Common-Emitter (CE) configuration

Two voltages and are applied respectively to the base and collector with respect to the common emitter . As typically

, the BE junction is forward biased but the CB junction is reverse biased, same as the CB configuration. The voltages of CB
and CE configurations are related by:

The base current is treated as the input current, and the collector current is treated as the output current:

Solving this equation for , we get the relationship between the output and the input :

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where we have defined the CE current gain, the ratio of the output current and the input current :

The two parameters and are related by any of the following:

For example, if , then .

The CE configuration can be considered as a 2-port circuit. The input port is formed by the base and emitter, the output port is formed by the
collector and emitter. The relationships between the current and voltage of both the input and output ports are described by the following input
and output characteristics.

Input characteristics:

Same as in the case of common-base configuration, the EB junction of the common-emitter configuration can also be considered as a
forward biased diode, the current-voltage characteristics is similar to that of a diode:

has little effect on .

Output characteristics:

Higher can slightly increase .

The CB junction is reverse biased, the current depends on the current . When , , the current caused

by the minority carriers crossing the PN-junctions. When is increased, is correspondingly increased by fold.

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The relationship between the input and output currents of both CB and CE configurations is summarized below:

CB

CE

The collector characteristics of the common-base (CB) and common-emitter (CE) configurations have the following differences:

In CB circuit is slightly less than , while in CE circuit is much greater than .

In CB circuit, when ; while in CE circuit when (as has the effect of suppressing

).

Increased will slightly increase but more greatly increase , thereby causing more significantly increased .

in CB is a function of two variables and , but the former is much more significant then the latter. in CE is a function of

two variables and , but the former is much more significant then the latter.

in CB is a function of two variables and . When is small, its slight increase will cause significant increase of . But its

further increase will not cause much change in due to saturation (all available charge carriers travel at the saturation velocity to arrive at

collector C), is mostly determined by .

in CE is a function of two variables and . When is small ( ), its slight increase will cause significant increase of

. But when , its further increase will not cause much change in due to saturation (all available charge carriers travel at

the saturation velocity to arrive at collector C), is mostly determined by .

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Various parameters of a transistor change as functions of temperature. For example, increases along with temperature.

next up previous
Next: DC operating point Up: ch4 Previous: Diodes
Ruye Wang 2017-07-19

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