Electronic Devices

KEEE 2224
Lecture 2
Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
Dr. Ghafour Amouzad Mahdiraji
September 2012

p and n Junctions

Current Fellow in the Space Charge Region of

a pn Junction at Zero Bias

Particle flow

Current

Hole diffusion
Hole drift
Electron deffusion
Electron drift
Total current

Current Fellow in the

Space Charge Region
of a pn Junction at
Forward Bias
Ip(xp): Majority carrier hole current from source.
Ip(xn):Hole diffusion current.
In(xn):Majority carrier electron current from source.
In(xp):Electron defusion current.

Particle flow
Hole diffusion
Hole drift
Electron deffusion
Electron drift
Total current

Current

Current Fellow in the

Space Charge Region
of a pn Junction at
Reverse Bias
n xp

Generated by thermal energy

and injected majority carriers

np

p xn

pn

Minority carrier
distribution in p
side

xp

The rate of carrier drift across the

junction (reverse saturation current/
dark current) depends on the rate at
which holes arrive at xn0 and electrons
at xp0 and cross the depletion region.
These minority carriers are supplied by
thermal generation and some supplied
from reverse bias.

Minority carrier
distribution in n
side

xp0

Particle flow
Hole diffusion
Hole drift
Electron deffusion
Electron drift
Total current

xn

xn0
Current

pn Junction under Reverse Bias as a Capacitor

pn Junction
Capacitance

1
C
W

A pn junction can
be viewed as
capacitor where
its capacitance
decreases by
increasing applied
voltage due to the
increment of
depletion width.

Current Limitation of pn
Junction under Reverse Bias

The drift current is relatively insensitive to the height of the potential barrier.
Because, the drift current is limited not by how fast carriers are swept down
the barrier, but rather how often.
E.g. minority carrier electrons on the p side which wander into the transition
region will be swept down the barrier by the E-field, giving rise to the electron
component of drift current. However, this current is small not because of the
size of the barrier, but because there are very few minority electrons in the p
side to participate.
Every electron on the p side which diffuses to the space charge region (or
transition region) will be swept down the potential energy hill, whether the hill
is large or small.
Similar comments apply regarding the drift of minority holes from the n side to
the p side of the junction.

How to Increase Reverse Bias Current

The reverse saturation current through the pn junction depends on the rate at
which minority carriers are generated in the neighborhood of the junction.
The reverse current due to holes being swept from n to p is essentially
independent of the size of the junction E-field and hence is independent of the
reverse bias. Because, the hole current depends on how often minority holes
are generted by electron-hole pair (EHP) creation within a diffusion length of
the junction, not upon how fast a particular hole is swept across the depletion
layer by the field.
Therefore, it is possible to increase the reverse current through the diode by
increasing the rate of EHP generation.
One convenient method for accomplishing this is optical excitation of EHPs
with light (hv > Eg).
If the dark saturation current in pn junction is neglighible, the reverse current
is directly proportional to the optical generation rate (gop); not depend on the
reverse bias voltage.

LED and Photodiode

hv

LED

Photodiode

How to Increase Reverse Bias Current

i

Light or
photon (hv)

Is it possible to increase minority carriers in to the neighborhood of the junction

electrically instead of optically?

hv

Hypothetical Minority Carrier Injector

If we can inject holes at a

predetermined rate into the n side
of the junction, the effect on the
junction current will be the same
as the effects of optical generation.
The current from n to p will
depend on the hole injection rate
and will be essentially
independent of the bias voltage.
In this way, we could control the junction reverse current simply by varying the rate
of minority carrier injection.
There are several obvious advantages to such external control of a current; for
example, the current through the reverse-biased junciton would vary very little if the
load resistor RL were changed, since the magnitude of the junction voltage is
relatively unimportant.
Thererfore, such an arrangement should be a good approximation to a controllable
constant current source.
Can practically make such system?

The 'Short' Diode

So far, we assumed p and n region of a pn

junction were long compared with the
minority carrier diffusion lenghts.
In many pn junction structures, one region
may, in fact, be short compared with the
minority carrier diffusion length.
In a short diode, the diffusion current density is larger that for a long diode.
Because, recombination of minority carriers in the short region is much lower than
the long region.

1
I p ( x)
Wn

Unequal Doping Concentration in pn Junctions

If the p material is very heavily doped and the n region is lightly doped, the
minority carrier concentration on the p side (np) is negligible compared with the
minority carrier concentration on the n side (pn).

Such desing can be done by not doubleing the p doping, but rather reduce the n-type
doping by a factor of 2.
This structure is called a p+-n junction, where the + superscript simply means heavy
doping.
Another characteristic of the p+-n or n+-p structure is that the transition region
extends primarily into the lightly doped region.

Reverse Bias in p+-n Junction

Forward Bias in
p+-n Junction

The total current at the junciton is

dominated by injection of carrier
from the more heavily doped side
into the side with lesser doping.

Since the current due to holes

injected from p+ region into the
n region is predominated, this
structure under the forward bias
can be used as the hole
generator.

xp0

xn0

In(xn): Majority carrier electron current supplied from source to support not only the
recombination near xn0, but also injection of electrons into the p region. This
current is higher than the majority carrier hole current need to be supplied from
source, Ip(xp).
In(xp): Electron defusion current. It is much less than the hole defusion current, Ip(xn).
Ip(xp): Majority carrier hole current supplied from source.
Ip(xn): Hole diffusion current.

p+-n Combined with n-p Junction

p+

p+-n junction under forward bias

If we make the n side of the worward-biased junction the same as the n side of the
reverse-biased junction, the p+-n-p structure results.

With this configuration, injectio of holes from the p+-n junction into the center n region
supplies the minority carrier holes to participate in the reverse current through the n-p
junction.
Of course, it is important that the injected holes do not recombine in the n region before
they can diffuse to the depletion layer of the reverse-biased junction. Thus, we must
make the n region narrow compared with a hole diffusion length, same as 'short diode'.

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)

Common base
configuration

IB
IE
+

IC

The forward-biased junction which injects holes into the center n region is called
emitter junction, and the reverse-biased junction which collects the injected holes is
called the collectro junction.
To have a good p-n-p transistor, we would prefer that almost all the holes injected by
the emitter into the base be collected. This is satisfied by making the n region short.
The 2nd requirement is that the current IE crossing the emitter junction should be
composed almost entirely of holes injected into the base, rathere than electrons
crossing from base to emitter. This is satisfied by doping the base region lightly.

Summary of Hole and

Electron Flow in a p-n-p
Transistor
I E IC I B
I E I Ep I En
IE

Majority

IE

Minority

(1) Injected holes lost to recombination in the base.

(2) Holes reaching the reverse-biased collector junction.
(3) Thermally generated electrons and holes making up the reverse saturation current of
the collector junctioon.
(4) Electrons supplied by the base contact for recombination with holes.
(5) Electrons injected across the forward-biased emitter junction.

BJT Base Current (IB)

a)

b)

c)

Some of the injected holes into the base will be recombined with the majority
electrons in the base, even if the width of n region is too short. The lost electrons in
the recombination process need to be supplied through the base contact or current.
Some of the electrons will be injected from n to p in the forward bias emitter
junctioon, even if the emitter is heavily doped. These electrons must also be supplied
by IB.
Some small amount of electrons are swept into the base at the reverse-biased
collector junction due to thermal generation in the collector. This small current
(equivalent to the reverse bias saturation current) reduces IB by supplying electrons
to the base.
The dominant sources of IB are (a) recombination in the base and then (b) injection
into the emitter region. Both of these effects can be greatly reduced by device design.
In a well-designed transistor, IB will be a very small fraction (perhaps onehundredth) of IE.
In a n-p-n transistor the three currrent directions are reversed, since electrons flow
from emitter to collector and holes must be supplied to the base.

BJT

BJT is one of two major types of transistors.

It is used extensively in analog electronic circuits because of its high
current gain.
Two complementary configurations of BJTs, the pnp and npn can be
fabricated.
Electronic circuit design become very versatile when the two types of
devices are used in the same circuit.
Typical impurity doping concentrations in the emitter, base, and collector
may be on the order of 1019, 1017, and 1015 cm-3, respectively.

npn BJT Circuit

B-E junction is forward biased and

B-C junction is reverse biased in the
normal configuration.
This configuration is called the
forward-active operation mode.

Fig (a) Biasing of a npn bipolar

transistor in the forward-active
mode,
Fig (b) minority carrier distribution
in a npn bipolar transistor
operating in the forward-active
mode, and
Fig (c) energy-band diagram of the
npn bipolar transistor under zero
bias and under a forward-active
mode bias.

Cross Section of npn Bipolar Transistor