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KEEE 2224
Lecture 3
BJT
Modes of Operation, Current Amplifications,
I & V Characteristics
Dr. Ghafour Amouzad Mahdiraji
September 2012
BJT Operation
Transistor Configurations
There are three possible configurations for BJT transistor:
Common-base
Common-collector
Common-emitter
Common-Base Configuration
CommonEmitter Configuration
CommonCollector Configuration
The input is on the base and the output is on the emitter.
When the B-E junction is forward biased, an emitter current will be generated,
and the injection of electrons into the base results in a collector current. This
condition is referred as the forward-active operating mode.
Inverse active region is opposite of the Forward Active Region, when B-E
junction is reversed biased and the B-C junction is forward biased.
In this case, transistor is operating "upside down", the role of emitter and
collector are reversed.
Since the transistor is not a symmetrical device; therefore, the inverseactive characteristics will not be the same as the forward-active
characteristics.
BJT
Amplifications
in Different Configurations
Collector Current
VBE
nB (0) 0 eDn ABE
dn( x)
I C eDn ABE
eDn ABE
nB 0 exp
dx
xB
0 xB
Vt
where e is magnitude of electronic charge (C), Dn is minority carrier electron diffusion coefficient
(cm2/s), ABE is the cross sectional area of the B-E junction (cm2), nB0 is the thermal-equilibrium
electron concentration in the base, and Vt is the thermal voltage.
Collector Current
VBE
I C I s exp
Considering only the magnitude:
Vt
The collector current is controlled by the B-E voltage; it means, the current
at one terminal of the device is controlled by the voltage applied to the other
two terminals of the device. This is the basic transistor action.
The collector current is made up entirely of those injected at the emitter,
which are not lost to recombination in the base.
Thus, IC is proportional to a fraction (B) of the holes component of the
IB
emitter current IE2 , plus the saturation current
e- flow
I
BI
E1
CO
E1
E1
I
4
1
IE
Hole
p+
n
IEp or IE1
E2
IEn or IE2
IC
IC
Emitter Current
IB
e- flow
1
IE
IE IE
Majority
IE
Minority
I E1 I E 2
Hole
p+
n
IEp or IE1
IC
IEn or IE2
IE2 is only for B-E junction current so this component of emitter current is
not part of the collector current.
IC
Emitter Current
Input Characteristics
This curve shows the relationship between
input current (IE) to input voltage (VBE) for
three output voltage (VCB) levels.
At a fixed VCB, by increasing VBE, IE will be
increase in a manner like diode
characteristics, where after around 0.7 V, the
transistor goes to the 'On' state.
On the other hand, increasing VCB have very
small effect on characteristics of transistor,
which can be ignored.
Approximation: once a transistor is in the
'on' state, the base-to-emitter voltage will be
assumed to be
Common-Base Characteristics I
Ideally: = 1
E1
B In reality: is between 0.9 and 0.998
I
I
E1
E2
Common-Base Characteristics II
Output Characteristics
This graph demonstrates the output current (IC) to an output
voltage (VCB) for various levels of input current (IE).
Example
a) using the characteristics curves, determine the resulting collector current if
IE = 3 mA and VCB = 10 V.
Answer: IC IE = 3 mA
Answer: IC = 3 mA
Answer:
VBE = 0.74 V
vi
IB
+
I
V
RL
IC
Voltage Gain:
Av
VL
Vi
50V
200mV
250
I 10 mA
i
I R (10 ma )(5 k) 50 V
L
Typical values of amplification for the common-base configuration vary from 50 to 300.
The current amplification (IC/IE) is always less than 1 for common-base configuration.
Base Current
I B I E 2 (1 B ) I E1
Beta ()
BI
B I E1 I E1 I E 2
C
E1
I
I
(1 B ) I
1 B I E1 I E1 I E 2
B
E2
E1
I
I
C
B
B
1 B
Common-Emitter Characteristics
Collector Characteristics
Base Characteristics
Example: Beta ()
Determining from a
Graph at VCE = 7.5 and
IB = 25 A
2.7 mA
25 A
108
VCE 7.5
CommonCollector Characteristics
The characteristics are
similar to those of the
common-emitter
configuration, except the
vertical axis is IE.
Opposite to common-base
and common-emitter
configuration, the commoncollector is used primarily for
impedance-matching
purposes since it has a high
input impedance and low
output impedance.
IE (mA)
Power Dissipation
Common-base:
PCmax VCB I C
Common-emitter:
PCmax VCE I C
Common-collector:
PCmax VCE I E
Transistor Testing
Curve Tracer
Provides a graph of the characteristic curves.
DMM
Some DMMs measure DC.
Ohmmeter