CHAPTER 3: BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR

The transistor was invented by a team of three men at Bell Laboratories in 1947 beginning of a technological revolution that is still continuing. All of the complex electronic devices and systems today are an outgrowth of early developments in s/c transistors. Two basic types BJT and FET BJT is used in two broad areas as a linear amplifier to boost or amplify an electrical signal and as an electronic switch.

Chapter Objectives
Describe the basic structure of the BJT Discuss the three configurations of the BJT which is CB, CE and CC. Explain how a transistor is biased and discuss the transistor currents and their relationships. Discuss transistor parameters and characteristics and use these to analyze a transistor circuit

Transistor Construction
BJT is constructed with three doped semiconductor regions separated by two pn junctions. There are two types of transistors: pnp and npntype. Note: the labeling of the transistor: E Emitter- heavily doped B Base-ligtly doped C Collector-moderately doped

Basic Transistor Operation

For BJT, one p-n junction of a transistor is reverse biased, while the other is forward biased.

This is similar to the forward biased diode. The depletion region has been reduced, resulting in a heavy flow of majority carriers from the p- to the n- material

If we remove the base-to emitter bias of the pnp transistor, the situation is similar to the reverse biased diode. The flow of the majority carriers is zero, resulting in only a minority-carrier flow both biasing potentials have been applied to a pnp transistor. A large number of majority carriers will diffuse across the forward-biased p-n junction into the n-type material Since the n-type region is very thin and has a low conductivity, a small number of carriers will diffuse into the base terminal. The larger number of majority carriers will diffuse across the reverse biases junction into the ptype material connected to the collector terminal.

COMMON BASE CONFIGURATION

base is common to both the input and output sides of the configuration. The input characteristics show the relation between input current and input voltage for different values of output voltage

The input characteristics show the relation between input current and input voltage for different values of output voltage the output characteristics show the relation between output current and output voltage for different values of input current The output or collector set of characteristics has three regions of interest: active, cut off and saturation regions.

COMMON EMITTER

The emitter is common or reference to both the input and output terminals In the active region of a CE amplifier, the base-emitter junction is forward-biased, while the collectorbased junction is reverse biased

COMMON-COLLECTOR
The collector is tied to ground. For all practical purposes, the output characteristics of the CC configuration are the same as for CE configuration. The output characteristics are a plot of IE versus VCE for a range of values of IB. The input current is the same for both the CE and CC characteristics. The horizontal voltage axis for the CC configuration is obtained by simply changing the sign of the collector-to-emitter voltage of the CE characteristics.

LIMITS OF OPERATION

There is a region of operation on the characteristics, which will ensure the maximum ratings are not being exceeded. And the output signal exhibits minimum distortion.

DC BIASING AND OPERATING POINT

1.

2.

Biasing a circuit means to establish a fixed level of current and voltage to make sure that the transistor operates at the correct operating point. Operating point means the point of voltage and current in which the transistor is operating- Q-point. For the BJT to be biased in its linear or active operating region the following must be true: The base-emitter junction must be forward-biased (pregion voltage more positive), with the resulting forwardbias voltage of about 0.6 to 0.7V. The base-collector junction must be reverse-biased (nregion more positive), with the reverse-bias voltage being any value within the maximum limits of the device.

FIXED-BIAS CIRCUIT

To bias the transistor means that to operate the transistor by supplying dc supply to the transistor. Purpose: To make sure the current are suitable To make sure the voltages being calculated are possible To make sure the transistor is on. If we do not do any dc analysis, may be the current is not suitable or may be the transistor does not operate properly.