Chapter 4 BJT

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
The transistor is a three-layer semiconductor device consisting of either two n or one p -type layers of
material or two p and one n -type layers of material.
There are two types of transistors, namely:
(i) n-p-n transistor

(ii) p-n-p transistor
The 3 layers are Emitter (E), Base (B) and Collector (C). The base is much thinner than the emitter
while collector is wider than both but for convenience, the emitter and collector are shown as equal in
size. The emitter is heavily doped so that it can inject a large number of charge carriers (electrons or
holes) into the base. The base is lightly doped and very thin and it passes most of the emitter injected
charge carriers to the collector. The collector is moderately doped. During transistor operation, much
heat is produced at the collector junction. The collector is made larger to dissipate the heat.The term
bipolar refers to the use of both holes and electrons as current carriers in the transistor structure.
Structure and Symbols
(a) pnp (b) npn
Fig 1 Fig 2
Fig 1 (a) and (b) shows the structure of a pnp and npn BJT and Fig 2 (a) and (b) shows the respective
BJT symbol.
The pn junction joining the base region and the emitter region is called the base-emitter junction. The
pn junction joining the base region and the collector region is called the base-collector junction.
Operation
NPN transistor
The emitter-base junction is forward biased and collector-base junction is reverse biased.The forward
bias causes the electrons in the n-type emitter to flow towards the base. This constitutes the emitter
current IE. As these electrons flow through the p-type base, they tend to combine with holes. As the
base is lightly doped and very thin, therefore, only a few electrons combine with holes to constitute
base current IB.The remainder cross over into the collector region to constitute collector current IC.
The reasons that most of the electrons from emitter continue their journey through the base to
collector to
form collector current are :
(i) The base is lightly doped and very thin. Therefore, there are a few holes
which find enough time to combine with electrons.
(ii) The reverse bias on collector is quite high and exerts attractive forces on these electrons
In this way, almost the entire emitter current flows in the collector circuit. It is clear that emitter
current is the sum of collector and base currents i.e.
IE = IB + IC
Fig 3
The arrow on the emitter indicates the direction of the conventional flow of current.
PNP transistor
The forward bias causes the holes in the p-type emitter to flow towards the base. This constitutes the
emitter current IE. As these holes cross into n-type base, they tend to combine with the electrons. As
the base is lightly doped and very thin, therefore, only a few holes combine with the electrons. The
remainder cross into the collector region to constitute collector current IC. In this way, almost the
entire emitter current flows in the collector circuit. It may be noted that current conduction within pnp
transistor is by holes. However, in the external connecting wires, the current is still by electrons.
Fig 4
The resistance of emitter diode (forward biased) is very small as compared to collector diode (reverse
biased). Therefore, forward bias applied to the emitter diode is generally very small whereas reverse
bias on the collector diode is much higher.
Transistor configurations
A transistor can be connected in a circuit in the following three ways:

i. common emitter configuration
ii. common base configuration
iii. common collector configuration
The input is fed between this common terminal and one of the other two terminals. The output is
obtained between the common terminal and the remaining terminal.
NB: regardless of circuit connection, the emitter is always forward biased, while the collector always
has a reverse bias.
Common Emitter (CE) configuration

The input is applied between base and emitter and output is taken from the collector and emitter. The
emitter of the transistor is common to both input and output circuits and hence the name common
emitter configuration. This is most frequently encountered transistor configuration.
Fig 5
Fig 5 (i) shows an npn transistor in CE configuration while (ii) is the CE configuration of a pnp
transistor.
Two sets of characteristics are needed to fully describe the behaviour of the common-emitter
configuration: one for the input or base–emitter circuit and one for the output or collector–emitter
circuit
Fig 6
The circuit (Fig 6) is used to determine the input and output characteristics of the CE configuration.
IB: dc base current

IE: dc emitter current
IC: dc collector current
VBE: dc voltage at base with respect to emitter
VCB: dc voltage at collector with respect to base
VCE: dc voltage at collector with respect to emitter
Input characteristics
It is the curve between base current IB and base-emitter voltage VBE
at constant collector-emitter voltage VCE.
The input characteristics of a CE connection are determined as follows:
Keeping VCE constant, note the base current IB for various values of VBE. Then plot the
readings obtained on the graph, taking IB along yaxis and VBE along x-axis. This gives the input
characteristic at that particular value of VCE. Following a similar procedure, a family of input
characteristics can be drawn.
Fig 7
The following points may be noted from the characteristics:

(i) The characteristic resembles that of a forward biased diode curve (expected since the
base-emitter section of transistor is a diode and it is forward biased).
(ii) As compared to CB arrangement, IB increases less rapidly with VBE. Therefore, input
resistance of a CE circuit is higher than that of CB circuit.
Input resistance
It is the ratio of change of 𝑉𝐵𝐸 to change of 𝐼𝐵 for 𝑉𝐶𝐸 constant.
The value of this input resistance of the CE configuration is around a few hundred ohms.
Output characteristics
It is the curve between collector current IC and collector-emitter voltage VCE at constant base current
IB.
A family of collector characteristic curves is produced when IC versus VCE is plotted for
several values of IB.
From the output characteristics curves, 3 important regions of the transistor operation can be noted,
namely:
Cutoff, active/linear and saturation regions.
Saturation region
This region is characterised by:
- Base–emitter junction forward-biased
- Base–collector junction forward-biased
When both junctions are forward biased, transistor will be in saturation region and collector current
will be maximum and is independent of IB. on the graph its denoted by the region between points A-
B.
Active region
Ideally, when VCE exceeds 0.7 V, the base-collector junction becomes reverse-biased
and the transistor goes into the active, or linear, region of its operation. Once the base collector
junction is reverse-biased, IC levels off and remains essentially constant for a
given value of IB as VCE continues to increase. Actually, IC increases very slightly as VCE
increases due to widening of the base-collector depletion region. This results in fewer
holes for recombination in the base region which effectively causes a slight increase in
bDC. This is shown by the portion of the characteristic curve between points B and C in
Figure 4–10(b). For this portion of the characteristic curve, the value of IC is determined
only by the relationship expressed as IC bDCIB

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What are the different regions of operation of a BJT?

What are the three common configurations of connecting a transistor in a circuit?

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)

(i) n-p-n transistor

Structure and Symbols

(a) pnp (b) npn

A transistor can be connected in a circuit in the following three ways:

Common Emitter (CE) configuration

IB: dc base current

The following points may be noted from the characteristics:

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