What is a Transistor?

A transistor is an electronic component

used in a circuit to control a large amount
of current or voltage with a small amount of
voltage or current.
The current is transferred across a material
that normally has low to high resistance.
Transistor= Transfer+ Resistor
Switching
Amplification
Oscillating Circuits
Sensors
The transistor is a solid state semiconductor
device which can be used for amplification,
switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation
and many other functions. It acts as a variable
valve which, based on its input voltage, controls
the current drawn by it from a connected voltage
supply.
Importance
The transistor is considered by many to
be one of the greatest inventions in
modern history, ranking in importance
with inventions such as the printing
press, the automobile and the
telephone. It is the key active
component in practically all modern
electronics.
Importance
Printing press - Automobile - Telephone -
Electronics - Fabrication
Microchips - Diodes - Resistors -
Capacitors
Electromechanical - Computer program
Digitize - Digital - Digital Revolution -
Television - Radio - Newspaper
Advantages of transistors over
vacuum tubes
Smaller size (despite continuing miniaturization
of vacuum tubes)
Highly automated manufacture
Lower cost (in volume production)
Lower possible operating voltages
Operation without a warm-up period (most
vacuum tubes need 10 to 60 seconds to "warm
up")
Lower power dissipation (no heater power, very
low saturation voltage).
Higher reliability and greater ruggedness to physical shocks
(although vacuum tubes are more resistant to nuclear
electromagnetic pulses (NEMP) and electrostatic
discharge (ESD) )
Much longer lifetime (vacuum tube cathodes are eventually
exhausted)
Complementary devices available (allowing circuits with
complementary symmetry? complementary vacuum tubes
are not available)
Ability to control large currents (power transistors are
available to control hundreds of amperes, vacuum tubes to
control even one ampere are large and costly)
Non-micro phonic (vibration can modulate vacuum tube
characteristics)
Data sheet
2N3904/2N3906, BC182/BC212 and
BC546/BC556: BJT, general-purpose, low-
power, complementary pairs.
BFP183: Low power, 8 GHz microwave
NPN BJT.
2N2219A/2N2905A: BJT, general
purpose, medium power, complementary
pair.
The Junction Transistor
A junction transistor consists of a silicon (or
germanium) crystal in which a layer of n-type
silicon is sandwiched between two layers of p-
type silicon.
Alternatively, a transistor may consist of a layer
of p-type between two layers of n-type material.
The transistor is referred to as a P-N-P
transistor, as an n-p-n transistor.
The semiconductor sandwich is extremely
small, and is hermetically sealed against moisture
inside a metal or plastic case.
The three portions of a transistor are known as
emitter, base, and collector. The arrow on the emitter
lead specifics the direction of current flow when the
emitter-base junction is biased in the forward
direction.
In both cases, however, the emitter, base, and
collector currents, IE, IB, and I c, respectively, are
assumed positive when the currents flow into the
transistor.
The symbols V EB,VCB, and VCE are the emitter-
base, collector-base, and collector-emitter voltages,
respectively. (More specifically, VEn represents the
voltage drop from emitter to base.)
There are two types of transistor:
Unipolar Junction Transistor
Bipolar Junction Transistor
Unipolar transistor
Current conduction is only due to one type of
carriers, majority carriers.
Bipolar transistor
The current conduction is both types of
carriers majority and minority charge carriers.
(Holes and electrons). so its called as a BJT.
BJT
Two types
NPN and PNP
Structure of BJT
Transistor is formed by sandwiching a single p-
region between two n-region it is npn
transistor.
The pnp types transistor has a single n-region
between two p-regions.
Middle-base -very thin and lightly doped.
emitter and collector- heavily doped.
Emitter is slightly greater than collector &
collector is slightly more than that of emitter.
Emitter: the main function of this region is
to supply majority charge carriers to the
base. So it is heavily doped.
Base: it may pass most of the injected
charge carriers to the collector, so it is
lightly doped.
Collector: the main function of this region
is to collect majority charge carriers
through the base. So this is moderately
doped.
Cant replace transistor by back-to-back
diode
Relative doping levels in the Je and Jc must be
satisfied to work that device as a transistor.
Two p-n junction are not satisfy this condition.
In a transistor emitter to base j is f.b. while base
to collector j is r.b. but due to diffusion
process almost Ie reaches to collector and Ib is
small. So device work as a transistor.
While back to back connected diodes there are
two separate diodes, one is f.b and other is r.b.
And diffusion can not takes place.
TRANSISTOR OPERATION
pnp transistor operation and npn transistor
is exactly the same but the electron and
hole are interchanged.
Forward biased transistor operation as
shown in fig.
The depletion region has been reduced
in width due to the applied bias, resulting
in a heavy flow of majority carriers
from the p- to the n-type material.
Forward-biased
junction of a pnp transistor.
Reverse-biased junction of a pnp
transistor.
One p-n junction of a transistor is reverse biased,
while the other is forward biased.
the widths of the depletion regions, indicating
clearly which junction is forward-biased and
which is reverse-biased.
A large number of majority carriers will diffuse
across the forward-biased p-n junction into the n-
type material.
these carriers will contribute directly to the base
current Ib or pass directly into the p-type material.
Since the sandwiched n-type material is very thin
and has a low conductivity, a very small number
of these carriers will take this path of high
resistance to the base terminal.
Magnitude of Ib is microamperes as
compare to the milliamperes for the emitter
and collector currents.
Ie= Ib+Ic
Emitter current is the sum of the collector
and base currents.
The collector current, however, is
comprised of two components - the majority
and minority carriers.
The minority-current component is called the
leakage current and is given the symbol Ico.
Ic= Icmajority+Icominority
Ic milliamperes
Ico microamperes or nanoamperes
Ico for a reverse biased diode, when
application of wide temperature ranges
And at lower level its ignored.
TRANSISTOR CURRENT
COMPONENTS
The various current components which
flow across the forward-biased emitter
junction and the reverse-biased collector
junction.
The emitter current IE consists of hole
current I pE
electron current I nE
The ratio of hole to electron currents,
IPE/InE, crossing the emitter junction is
proportional to the ratio of the conductivity of
the p material to that of the n material.
Ie=Ipe +Ine
Ipc is hole current at Jc
recombination current IpE - IpC leaving the
base .
If the emitter were open-circuited so that
IE = 0, then IpC would be zero. Under these
circumstances, the base and collector would
act as a reverse-biased diode and the
collector current Ic would equal the reverse
saturation current ICO.
Ic= Ico - IPc
Emitter Efficiency:- ()
Current of injected carriers at JE /
Total emitter current
= IpE / = IpE /
IpE + InE IE
IpE is the injected hole
InE is the injected electron
Transport Factor:- (*)
* injected carrier current reaching Jc /
injected carrier current at JE
* = IpC / IpE
Large signal current Gain:- ()
We define the ratio of the negative of the
collector-current increment to the emitter-
current change from zero (cutoff) to IE as
the large-signal currant gain of a common-
base transistor, or
= - Ic Ico / IE
, as defined, is always positive Typical
numerical values of lie in the range of
0.90 to 0.995.
= IC / IE
IpC / IpE . IpE / IE
= *
IC = - IE + Ico
Ic = - IE + Ico (1- eVc / Vr)
THE TRANSISTOR AS AN
AMPLIFIER
The basic amplifying action of the
transistor can be introduced on a surface
level using the network of Fig.
The common-base configuration the ac
input resistance is quite small and typically
varies from 10 to 100 .
The output resistance is quite high varies
from 50 k to 1 M
The difference in resistance is due to the
forward-biased junction at the input (base to
emitter) and the reverse-biased junction at
the output (base to collector).
Ii = Vi/ri
=200mv/20
=10mA
IL = Ii =10 mA
VL = ILR
=(10 mA)(5 k)
=50 V
The voltage amplification is
Av = VL/Vi
= 50V/200mV
= 250
Typical values of voltage amplification for the
common-base configuration vary from 50 to 300.
The current amplification (IC/IE) is always less
than 1.
The basic amplifying action was produced by
transferring a current I from a low to a high-
resistance circuit. The combination of the two
terms in italics results in the label transistor; that
is, transfer + resistor transistor
CONSTRUCTION
Grown Type
Alloy Type
Diffusion Type
Epitaxial Type
Grown Type
It is made by drawing a single crystal from
a melt of silicon or germanium whose
impurity concentration is changed during
the crystal-drawing operation by adding n-
or p-type atoms as required.
All this construction figure from book.
Alloy Type
This technique, also called the fused-
construction.
The center (base) section is a thin wafer of n-
type material.
Two small dots of indium are attached to
opposite sides of the wafer,
and the whole structure is raised for a short time
to a high temperature, above the melting point of
indium but below that of germanium.
On cooling, the germanium in contact with
the base material recrystallizes, with
enough indium concentration to change it
from n to p type.
The collector is made larger than the
emitter, so that the collector subtends a
large angle as viewed from the emitter.
Diffusion Type
This technique consists of subjecting a
semiconductor wafer to gaseous diffusions of
both n- and p-type impurities to form both the
emitter and the collector junctions.
In this process the base-collector junction
area is determined by a diffusion mask. The
emitter is then diffused on the base through a
different mask.
A thin layer of silicon dioxide is grown over
the entire surface and photo etched, so that
aluminum contacts can be made for the
emitter and base leads.
Because of the passivating action of this
oxide layer, most surface problems are
avoided and very low leakage currents
result. There is also an improvement in the
current gain at low currents and in the
noise figure.
Epitaxial Type
It consists of growing a very thin, high-
purity, single-crystal layer of silicon or
germanium on a heavily doped substrate
of the same material.
This augmented crystal forms the collector
on which the base and emitter may be
diffused
BJT configuration
There are three types of configuration
Common base configuration.
Common emitter configuration.
Common collector configuration.
Common base configuration
Common base also referred to as
grounded-base configuration.
The base is common to the input and
output circuits.
For a p-n-p transistor the largest
current components are due to holes.
Since holes flow from the emitter to the
collector and down toward ground out of
the base terminal.
IE is positive, I c is negative, IB is negative
For a forward-biased emitter junction, VEB is
positive.
For a reverse-biased collector junction, VCB
is negative.
The input set for the common-base amplifier
as shown in Fig. will relate an input current
(IE) to an input voltage (VBE) for various
levels of output voltage (VCB).
The output set will relate an output current
(IC) to an output voltage (VCB) for various
levels of input current (IE) as shown in Fig.
There are three region
Active
Cutoff
saturation
Input characteristics
Output characteristic
Shown in fig
An increase in magnitude of collector
voltage will, by the Early effect, cause the
emitter current to increase, with VBE held
constant.
The cut in voltage (0.7v for si) the IE
increases rapidly with the small increase in
VBE. It means input resistance is small.
Ri= Vbe /Ie ( Vcb=constant)
Early effect
When reverse bias voltage Vcb increases
The width of depletion region also
increases , which reduces the electrical
base width. This effect is called early
effect. And its also called as base width
modulation.
Active region
In the active region the collector-base
junction is reverse-biased, while the base-
emitter junction is forward-biased.
Consider first that the emitter current is zero.
Then the collector current is small and equals
the reverse saturation current Ico
At higher temperatures the effect of ICO may
become an important factor since it increases
so rapidly with temperature.
the emitter current increases above zero, the
collector current increases to a magnitude
essentially equal to that of the emitter
current.
Note also the almost negligible effect
of VCB on the collector current for the active
region.
Curve response for active region is almost
flat.
Ic=Ie
Cutoff region
The region below the IE = 0 characteristic,
for which the emitter and collector
junctions are both reverse-biased, is
referred to as the cutoff region.
Saturation Region
The region to the left of the co-ordinate
Vcb= 0, and above the IE = 0
characteristics, in which both emitter and
collector junctions are forward-biased, is
called the saturation region.
Common Emitter configuration
Grounded emitter configuration.
Emitter is common to both input and
output.
Base is input and output taken from
collector.
The emitter base junction is forward biased
and collector base junction is reverse
biased.
Both batteries Vbb and Vcc are connected.
Two set of characteristic.
Input: input current (IB) versus the input
voltage (VBE) for a range of values of output
voltage (VCE) as a parameter.
Output: output current (IC) versus output
voltage (VCE) for a range of values of input
current (IB) as a parameter.
Emitter base junction is forward biased by
Vbb battery. This needs for a small voltage
say 0.6v.
Base is at +Vbb potential w.r.t. emitter and
collector is at +Vcc potential w.r.t. emitter,
the net potential of the collector w.r.t. base
is Vcc-Vbb. So the collector base voltage is
reverse biased by this potential.
Vcc is much greater than Vbb.
Current equation:
Treating the transistor as a current node:
Also:
co E C I I I !
B C E I I I !
Common Emitter
Hence:
which after some rearrangement gives
CO B C C I ) I I + + =

'
+

'

'
+

'

l
=
- 1
ICO
C B I I
E
E
Common Emitter
Define a common emitter current-transfer
ratio F
Such that:

'
+

'

!
1

'
+

'

+ =
- 1
I
I I
CO
B C
Common Emitter
Since reverse saturation current is
negligible the second term on the right
hand side of this equation can usually be
neglected (even though (1- ) is small)
Thus
B C I I }
Input characteristic
Ib Y axis
Vbe X axis.
After the Cut-in voltage the Ib Increases
rapidly with small increase in Vbe.
So the ratio of change in base emitter
voltage to the resulting change in base
current at constant collector to emitter
voltage Vce.
Ri = Vbe/ Ib (Vce =constant).
For a fixed value of Vbe , Ib decreases as
Vce increases.
A larger value of Vce results in a large
reverse bias at collector base junction.
This increases the depletion region and
reduces the effective width of the base.
Hence there are fewer recombination in
the base region reducing the base current
Ib.
Output characteristic
Ic Y axis
Vce X axis
Ro = Vce / Ic (Ib constant)
Three regions
Active
Saturation
Cutoff
active
Collector junction is reverse biased.
Ic increases , Vce increased.
Compare to CB this curve is slightly
greater.
For a Constant Ib, the current Ic slowly
increases with Vce. So B increases with
Vce.
IC is reduced to zero when Vce equal to
zero.
Collector junction is reversed biased so
there is a limit on the maximum value of
Vce.
If Vce exceeds this maximum value,
collector junction will breakdown due to the
punch through effect.
Due to this device may damage at worst
hence safe mode is Vce < Vce max.
The collector current is not zero when Ib= 0
It has a value of Iceo. Its quite high.
Saturation
If Vce is reduced to a small value such as
0.2v then CB junction becomes forward
biased. But EB junction already in forward
biased by 0.7v.
When both junction are forward biased the
transistor operates in the saturation region
Vce sat values ranges from 0.1v to 0.3v.
Cutoff
When Ib = 0 the Ic = Iceo.
The region below the Ib= 0 is the cutoff
region.
In this both junction are reverse biased.
Ib =0
Ic = Ie
Ic =Iceo
Common collector configuration
Collector is common to both input and
output.
Input is applied between base and
collector.
Output from emitter and collector.
Vbc is input voltage & Ib is input current.
Vce is output voltage & Ie is output
current.
The voltage gain is unity, and output follows
the input voltage so its called emitter follower
configuration.
The input resistance is high and output is
low resistance.
Used in Impedance matching.
EB junction is forward biased
CB junction is reverse biased.
For NPN transistor
Vce = Vcb + Vbe
Vcb = Vce Vbe
For Vce = Vee & Vbb = Vcb
So Vbb = Vee Vbe
The voltage Vbe across the Forward biased
BE junction has a small constant value.
Vbb = Vcb = Vee - 0.7
Therefore the CB junction reversed biased
that Vbb be larger than Vee - 0.7
Input current is Ib
Output current is Ic
figure
Input characteristic
Vbc versus Ib at constant Vce.
Vbc = 1 v the EB junction is not forward
biased up to 1.5v.
Therefore Ib is zero up to Vbc= 1.5v.
Then increases rapidly as Vbc increases.
Output characteristic
Vec versus Ie for constant Ib .
Output is same as CE configuration.
CB
Common terminal Base
Input voltage Veb
Output voltage Vcb
Input current Ie
Output current Ic
Voltage gain high
Current gain less than unity
Input res very low(50 ohm)
Output res very high(500 kohm)
Application as a pre amplifier
CE
Common terminal Emitter
Input voltage Vbe
Output voltage Vce
Input current Ib
Output current Ic
Voltage gain moderate
Current gain moderate
Input res moderate(1k ohm)
Output res moderate(40 kohm)
Application as a audio amplifier
CC
Common terminal Collector
Input voltage Vbc
Output voltage Vec
Input current Ib
Output current Ie
Voltage gain less than unity
Current gain highest
Input res high(500k ohm)
Output res low(50 ohm)
Application impedance matching
Photo transistor
Photo transistor is also called
photoduodiode.