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2 Function
BJTs come in two types, or polarities, known as PNP
and NPN based on the doping types of the three main
terminal regions. An NPN transistor comprises two
semiconductor junctions that share a thin p-doped anode
region, and a PNP transistor comprises two semiconductor junctions that share a thin n-doped cathode region.
n++
E
iE
iE
iEn
iEp
n+
iC
electrons
holes
iB1
iB2
recombination
C
iC
B
vBE
iB
vCB
2.1
FUNCTION
Another important parameter is the common-base current gain, F. The common-base current gain is approximately the gain of current from emitter to collector in the
forward-active region. This ratio usually has a value close
to unity; between 0.980 and 0.998. It is less than unity
due to recombination of charge carriers as they cross the
base region.
3.1
NPN
Alpha and beta are more precisely related by the follow- operation. The reason the emitter is heavily doped is to
ing identities (NPN transistor):
increase the emitter injection eciency: the ratio of carriers injected by the emitter to those injected by the base.
For high current gain, most of the carriers injected into
IC
IC
the emitterbase junction must come from the emitter.
F = ,
F =
IE
IB
F
F
F =
F =
1 + F
1 F
Structure
n
p
n
Die of a KSY34 high-frequency NPN transistor. Bond wires connect to the base and emitter
The low-performance lateral bipolar transistors sometimes used in CMOS processes are sometimes designed
symmetrically, that is, with no dierence between forward and backward operation.
NPN is one of the two types of bipolar transistors, consisting of a layer of P-doped semiconductor (the base)
between two N-doped layers. A small current entering
the base is amplied to produce a large collector and
emitter current. That is, when there is a positive potential
dierence measured from the emitter of an NPN transistor to its base (i.e., when the base is high relative to the
emitter) as well as positive potential dierence measured
from the base to the collector, the transistor becomes active. In this on state, charge ows between the collector and emitter of the transistor. Most of the current is
carried by electrons moving from emitter to collector as
minority carriers in the P-type base region. To allow for
greater current and faster operation, most bipolar transistors used today are NPN because electron mobility is
3 STRUCTURE
3.2
PNP
p
p
The heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is an improvement of the BJT that can handle signals of very high
frequencies up to several hundred GHz. It is common in
modern ultrafast circuits, mostly RF systems.[7]
[8]
C
The symbol of a PNP BJT. A mnemonic for the symbol is "points
in proudly.
Heterojunction transistors have dierent semiconductors for the elements of the transistor. Usually the emitter
is composed of a larger bandgap material than the base.
The gure shows that this dierence in bandgap allows
the barrier for holes to inject backward from the base
into the emitter, denoted in the gure as , to be made
large, while the barrier for electrons to inject into the base
is made low. This barrier arrangement helps reduce
minority carrier injection from the base when the emitterbase junction is under forward bias, and thus reduces base
current and increases emitter injection eciency.
The improved injection of carriers into the base allows
the base to have a higher doping level, resulting in lower
resistance to access the base electrode. In the more traditional BJT, also referred to as homojunction BJT, the
eciency of carrier injection from the emitter to the base
is primarily determined by the doping ratio between the
emitter and base, which means the base must be lightly
doped to obtain high injection eciency, making its re-
Ic
B
IB
E
IE
Cut-o In cut-o, biasing conditions opposite of saturation (both junctions reverse biased) are present.
There is very little current, which corresponds to a
logical o, or an open switch.
sistance relatively high. In addition, higher doping in the
base can improve gures of merit like the Early voltage
Avalanche breakdown region
by lessening base narrowing.
Symbol for NPN Bipolar Transistor with current ow direction.
4 REGIONS OF OPERATION
In terms of junction biasing: (reverse biased base the base, making a current through the base connection to
collector junction means V < 0 for NPN, opposite for form the base current, IB. As shown in the diagram, the
PNP)
emitter current, IE, is the total transistor current, which
Although these regions are well dened for suciently is the sum of the other terminal currents, (i.e., IE = IB +
large applied voltage, they overlap somewhat for small IC).
(less than a few hundred millivolts) biases. For example,
in the typical grounded-emitter conguration of an NPN
BJT used as a pulldown switch in digital logic, the o
state never involves a reverse-biased junction because the
base voltage never goes below ground; nevertheless the
forward bias is close enough to zero that essentially no
current ows, so this end of the forward active region can
be regarded as the cuto region.
4.1
IC
VCE
IB
VBE
IE
IE
Structure and use of NPN transistor.
schematic.
Arrow according to
VEB
VCE
IB
The diagram shows a schematic representation of an
NPN transistor connected to two voltage sources. To
make the transistor conduct appreciable current (on the
order of 1 mA) from C to E, VBE must be above a minimum value sometimes referred to as the cut-in voltage.
The cut-in voltage is usually about 650 mV for silicon
BJTs at room temperature but can be dierent depending
IC
on the type of transistor and its biasing. This applied voltage causes the lower P-N junction to 'turn on', allowing a
ow of electrons from the emitter into the base. In active
mode, the electric eld existing between base and collector (caused by VCE) will cause the majority of these Structure and use of PNP transistor
electrons to cross the upper P-N junction into the collector to form the collector current IC. The remainder of the The diagram shows a schematic representation of a PNP
electrons recombine with holes, the majority carriers in transistor connected to two voltage sources. To make the
5.2
History
The bipolar point-contact transistor was invented in December 1947[10] at the Bell Telephone Laboratories by
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain under the direction of
William Shockley. The junction version known as the
bipolar junction transistor (BJT), invented by Shockley in
1948,[11] was for three decades the device of choice in the
design of discrete and integrated circuits. Nowadays, the
use of the BJT has declined in favor of CMOS technology
in the design of digital integrated circuits. The incidental
low performance BJTs inherent in CMOS ICs, however,
are often utilized as bandgap voltage reference, silicon
bandgap temperature sensor and to handle electrostatic
discharge.
5.1
Germanium transistors
7
voltage, typically around 0.2 V, making it more suitable
for some applications, it also has a greater tendency to
exhibit thermal runaway.
about 100 times its original strength. Networks of transistors are used to make powerful ampliers with many
dierent applications. In the discussion below, focus is
on the NPN bipolar transistor. In the NPN transistor in
what is called active mode, the baseemitter voltage VBE
and collectorbase voltage VCB are positive, forward biasing the emitterbase junction and reverse-biasing the
collectorbase junction. In the active mode of operation,
Epitaxial transistor[25] a bipolar junction electrons are injected from the forward biased n-type
transistor made using vapor phase deposition. emitter region into the p-type base where they diuse as
See epitaxy. Allows very precise control of minority carriers to the reverse-biased n-type collector
doping levels and gradients.
and are swept away by the electric eld in the reversebiased collectorbase junction. For a gure describing
forward and reverse bias, see semiconductor diodes.
Base
depletion
region
p-type
Collector
depletion
region
n-type
Ec
Ef
Ev
R ICD
F IED
diusion
Base
drift
IC
IE
Collector
IED
Ec
Ef
diusion
n-type
depletion
region
p-type
depletion
region
n-type
Ev
Band diagram for NPN transistor in active mode, showing injection of electrons from emitter to base, and their overshoot into the
collector
Transistors can be thought of as two diodes (PN junctions) sharing a common region that minority carriers can
move through. A PNP BJT will function like two diodes
that share an N-type cathode region, and the NPN like
two diodes sharing a P-type anode region. Connecting
two diodes with wires will not make a transistor, since
minority carriers will not be able to get from one PN
junction to the other through the wire.
ICD
IB
R ICD
F IED
IC
IE
E
IED
ICD
6.1
Large-signal models
R ICD
The unapproximated EbersMoll equations used to describe the three currents in any operating region are given
below. These equations are based on the transport model
for a bipolar junction transistor.[28]
F IED
IC
IE
E
IED
B
IB
ICD
[(
)]
1 ( VVBC
e T 1
R
[
(
)
)]
V
BE
1 ( VVBC
1
e VT 1 +
e T 1
iB = IS
F
R
[(
)]
VBC )
VBE
1 ( VVBE
iE = IS e VT e VT +
e T 1
F
iC = IS
VBE
VBC
e VT e VT
where
iC is the collector current
iB is the base current
iE is the emitter current
F is the forward common emitter current gain (20
to 500)
R is the reverse common emitter current gain (0 to
20)
IS is the reverse saturation current (on the order of
1015 to 1012 amperes)
VT is the thermal voltage (approximately 26 mV at
300 K room temperature).
VBE is the baseemitter voltage
Jn (base) =
VEB
1
qDn nbo e VT
W
where
10
VCE1
VBE
B
p
We
n
We
The GummelPoon model[29] is a detailed chargecontrolled model of BJT dynamics, which has been
adopted and elaborated by others to explain transistor dynamics in greater detail than the terminal-based models
typically do.[30] This model also includes the dependence
of transistor -values upon the direct current levels in the
transistor, which are assumed current-independent in the
EbersMoll model.[31]
rb'c
VBE
depletion
regions
B ib
rbb
rb'e
VCE2
ic C
B'
Cc
Ce
Top: NPN base width for low collector-base reverse bias; Bottom:
narrower NPN base width for large collector-base reverse bias.
Hashed regions are depleted regions.
gmvb'e
gce
E
Hybrid-pi model
where:
6.2.2 h-parameter model
VCE is the collectoremitter voltage
VA is the Early voltage (15 V to 150 V)
1 ii
io 2
hix
Vi
hrxVo
hfxii
hox Vo
6.3
Industry models
11
Etymology of hFE The h refers to its being an hparameter, a set of parameters named for their origin in
a hybrid equivalent circuit model. F is from forward current amplication also called the current gain. E refers to
the transistor operating in a common emitter (CE) conguration. Capital letters used in the subscript indicate that
hFE refers to a direct current circuit.
7 Applications
The BJT remains a device that excels in some applications, such as discrete circuit design, due to the very
wide selection of BJT types available, and because of its
high transconductance and output resistance compared to
MOSFETs.
The BJT is also the choice for demanding analog circuits,
especially for very-high-frequency applications, such as
radio-frequency circuits for wireless systems.
h = h, the input impedance of the transistor (cor- 7.1 High speed digital logic
responding to the base resistance r ).
Emitter-coupled logic (ECL) use BJTs.
h = h, represents the dependence of the transistors IBVBE curve on the value of VCE. It is usually very small and is often neglected (assumed to be
zero).
h = h , the current-gain of the transistor. This parameter is often specied as hFE or the DC current- 7.2 Ampliers
gain (DC) in datasheets.
Main article: Electronic amplier
h = 1/h, the output impedance of transistor. The
parameter h usually corresponds to the output ad- The transistor parameters and characterizes the
mittance of the bipolar transistor and has to be in- current gain of the BJT. It is this gain that allows BJTs
verted to convert it to an impedance.
to be used as the building blocks of electronic ampliers.
The three main BJT amplier topologies are:
As shown, the h-parameters have lower-case subscripts
Common emitter
and hence signify AC conditions or analyses. For DC
conditions they are specied in upper-case. For the CE
Common base
topology, an approximate h-parameter model is commonly used which further simplies the circuit analysis.
Common collector
For this the h and h parameters are neglected (that
is, they are set to innity and zero, respectively). The
h-parameter model as shown is suited to low-frequency, 7.3 Temperature sensors
small-signal analysis. For high-frequency analyses the
inter-electrode capacitances that are important at high Main article: Silicon bandgap temperature sensor
frequencies must be added.
12
11
Because of the known temperature and current dependence of the forward-biased baseemitter junction voltage, the BJT can be used to measure temperature by subtracting two voltages at two dierent bias currents in a
known ratio.[36]
REFERENCES
10 Notes
[1] See point-contact transistor for the historical origin of
these names.
11 References
7.4
Logarithmic converters
Vulnerabilities
[1] Paul Horowitz and Wineld Hill (1989). The Art of Electronics (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780-521-37095-0.
[2] Juin Jei Liou and Jiann S. Yuan (1998). Semiconductor
Device Physics and Simulation. Springer. ISBN 0-30645724-5.
[3] General Electric (1962). Transistor Manual (6th ed.). p.
12. If the principle of space charge neutrality is used in
the analysis of the transistor, it is evident that the collector
current is controlled by means of the positive charge (hole
concentration) in the base region. ... When a transistor
is used at higher frequencies, the fundamental limitation
is the time it takes the carriers to diuse across the base
region... (same in 4th and 5th editions)
[4] Paolo Antognetti and Giuseppe Massobrio (1993).
Semiconductor Device Modeling with Spice. McGrawHill
Professional. ISBN 0-07-134955-3.
[5] Alphonse J. Sistino (1996). Essentials of electronic circuitry. CRC Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8247-9693-8.
[6] Alphonse J. Sistino (1996). Essentials of electronic circuitry. CRC Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8247-9693-8.
[7] D.V. Morgan, Robin H. Williams (Editors) (1991).
Physics and Technology of Heterojunction Devices. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers (Peter Peregrinus
Ltd.). ISBN 0-86341-204-1.
[8] Peter Ashburn (2003). SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors. New York: Wiley. Chapter 10. ISBN 0-47084838-3.
[9] Paul Horowitz and Wineld Hill (1989). The Art of Elec-
See also
[11] 1948: Conception of the Junction Transistor - The Silicon Engine - Computer History Museum. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
Gummel plot
13
[15] Transistor Museum Photo Gallery RCA TA153. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
[35] http://joerg-berkner.de/Fachartikel/pdf/2002_ICCAP_
UM_Berkner_Compact_Models_4_BJTs.pdf
[16] High Speed Switching Transistor Handbook (2nd ed.). Motorola. 1963. p. 17.
[36] IC Temperature Sensors Find the Hot Spots - Application Note - Maxim. maxim-ic.com. February 21, 2002.
Retrieved August 10, 2016.
[31] A.S. Sedra and K.C. Smith (2004). Microelectronic Circuits (5th ed.). New York: Oxford. p. 509. ISBN 0-19514251-9.
[32] http://www.silvaco.com/content/kbase/smartspice_
device_models.pdf
[33] Gennady Gildenblat, ed. (2010). Compact Modeling:
Principles, Techniques and Applications. Springer Science
& Business Media. Part II: Compact Models of Bipolar Junction Transistors, pp. 167-267 cover Mextram and
HiCuM in-depth. ISBN 978-90-481-8614-3.
[34] Michael Schrter (2010). Compact Hierarchical Bipolar
Transistor Modeling with Hicum. World Scientic. ISBN
978-981-4273-21-3.
12 External links
Simulation of a BJT in the Common Emitter Circuit
Lessons In Electric Circuits Bipolar Junction
Transistors (Note: this site shows current as a ow
of electrons, rather than the convention of showing
it as a ow of holes)
EncycloBEAMia Bipolar Junction Transistor
Characteristic curves
ENGI 242/ELEC 222: BJT Small Signal Models
Transistor Museum, Historic Transistor Timeline
ECE 327: Transistor Basics Summarizes simple
EbersMoll model of a bipolar transistor and gives
several common BJT circuits.
ECE 327: Procedures for Output Filtering Lab
Section 4 (Power Amplier) discusses design of
a BJT-Sziklai-pair-based class-AB current driver in
detail.
BJT Operation description for undergraduate and
rst year graduate students to describe the basic
principles of operation of Bipolar Junction Transistor.
14
13
13
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