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A Tutorial on Transistor Based Circuit Design

Compiled by: Sivaranjan Goswami, Assistant Professor
Dept. of ECT, Gauhati University, Guwahati, India
Contact: sivgos@gmail.com

Note: This tutorial focuses on the fundamental theory of Bipolar Junction Transistor for its
practical purpose of designing circuits. More complex theories and mathematical derivations
are skipped which you can learn from any standard book on Electronic Devices and Circuits.
However, study of transistors cannot be performed without expressions for its various
voltages and currents, which are included in the tutorial.
It is presumed that the reader has the working level theoretical knowledge of Transistors
including Transistor Configurations, Biasing, AC models and Transistor as Switch (topics
covered in the subject Electronic Devices and Circuits of B. Tech. or B. E. courses). If you
have not studied these topics you are requested to read some book on Electronic Devices and
Circuit Theory. (Suggested books Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by Robert L.
Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky)

Introduction:
Integrated circuits (ICs) are available for almost all purposes nowadays. But for proper
insight to the working of electronics, there is nothing like transistors. They are the building
blocks of almost all ICs and hence can be used for designing any circuits be it digital or
analog. Software tools like Multisim, PSPICE etc. are available where we can test our circuits
without using any breadboard or PCB. This tutorial covers some basic concepts necessary to
design circuits using BJTs. Moreover, for amplifier application OPAMP based ICs need a
dual power supply which is difficult to make for projects. Using BJT, simple amplifiers can
be made with a single supply. The technique given in this tutorial is highly simplified in this
tutorial with some very simple calculation steps (independent of ).

Outline of the Tutorial:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Brushing up the fundamentals of transistor (configuration and biasing)

Design of Amplifier using BJT (moderate gain* and high gain)
Design of Multivibrator using BJT
Transistor as Switch (Normal and Darlington)
Design of H-Bridge for Motor Driving using BJT

*Moderate gain is nearly independent of (or hFE) value of transistor

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Configuration of Transistors:
There are three possible configurations of transistors:
1. Common Base:
This transistor configuration provides a low input impedance while offering a high
output impedance. Although the voltage is high, the current gain is low and the
overall power gain is also low when compared to the other transistor configurations
available. The other salient feature of this configuration is that the input and output
are in phase.

Fig 1: Common base transistor configuration

As can be seen from the diagram, in this transistor configuration, the base electrode is
common to both input and output circuits.
2. Common Collector
This transistor configuration is also known as the emitter follower because the emitter
voltage follows that of the base. Offering a high input impedance and a low output
impedance it is widely used as a buffer. The voltage gain is unity, although current
gain is high. The input and output signals are in phase.

Fig 2: Common collector transistor configuration

As can be seen from the diagram, in this transistor configuration, the collector
electrode is common to both input and output circuits.
3. Common Collector:
This transistor configuration is probably the most widely used. The circuit provides a
medium input and output impedance levels. Both current and voltage gain can be
described as medium, but the output is the inverse of the input, i.e. 180 phase
change. This provides a good overall performance and as such it is often thought of as
the most widely used configuration.

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Fig 3: Common emitter transistor configuration

As can be seen from the diagram, in this transistor configuration, the emitter electrode
is common to both input and output circuits.

The choice of the transistor configuration which is most applicable will depend upon many
characteristics. Input impedance, output impedance, gain and also the phase relationships all
have a bearing.

Transistor Biasing:
A transistor is a non-linear device. But in order to use it as amplifiers we have to make it
linear. Here comes the concept of biasing.
For designing bias, we have to look at the transfer characteristics of the transistor and find a
Quotient Point (Q-point) for which the transistor behaves linearly.

Fig 4: Static characteristic of BC547 transistor

Let us consider the case of a common emitter NPN transistor (which is most widely used in
transistors and switches). Its transfer characteristics can be found at the datasheet. Let us
consider the case of BC547.

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From the transfer characteristic three regions are clearly visible:

1. Saturation Region: If VCE is less than saturation voltage and the IB is large enough
(IB>50mV in the figure), the collector current (IC) varies linearly as VCE. This mode is
used to implement transistor as switch (ON state). When the switch is ON, that is I B is
large, then the input at collector will get transmitted to the emitter.
2. Cut off Region: If IB is very small, whatever input voltage is applied across collector
and emitter (VCV) there will be no flow of current. This mode is used to implement
OFF state of a transistor switch.
3. Active Region: This is the region which is of concern for designing amplifiers. The
Q-point must lie in this region. For a common emitter amplifier, the input voltage is
applied at the Base and the output is obtained across Emitter and ground. Thus I B is
varied to get some variation in IC.
We know that
IC = hFE IB. (hFE or value can be obtained from datasheet).
If IB is set such that IC>Imax, then the output voltage will be clipped.
Again, if IB becomes very small, then the transistor will get cut off. That is why it is
wise to take Q-point at Imax/2.
Similar is the case with voltage (VCE) also. As IC changes, VCE will also change.
Therefore, it is wise to take Q-point at VCE_max/2.
However, if we are dealing with very small voltages and currents (in millivolts and microampere range), it is possible to set the Q-point much bellow. Because in this case the risk of
the signal being clipped is very less.
This is especially important because it gives us the freedom to take very small power supply
to run our devices. It is seen that many electronic devices we use run on batteries ranging
from 1.5 V to 6 V. It can never give us a high Q-value. But they work because the signal they
deal with is very small voltage and current.

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Practical Steps for Design of an Amplifier using BJT

Part -1 : Moderate gain amplifier (Common Emitter Configuration with Potential
Divider Biasing) nearly independent of or hFE

Fig 5: Basic NPN common-emitter amplifier stage. Component selection to establish the
design stage gain and properly bias the transistor is discussed in the text.

A simple and effective way to construct a transistor gain stage is to supply the transistors
base bias using a voltage divider and to AC couple the input and output signals as shown in
Figure 5. The big advantage of this circuit is that it can be designed to work successfully
almost completely independently of the transistors gain , so that it will work with nearly
any available transistor and is very tolerant of circuit temperature and power supply voltage
variations. In this section we will go through a design procedure for this circuit so that you
can successfully assign the proper values to the resistors and capacitors in the circuit.
The limitation of this design is that here the gain, G is moderate (5|G|20), so as the stage
gain goes up, the circuits input impedance will have to drop and the output impedance will
rise, although these problems may be mitigated somewhat by a judicious choice of power
supply voltage. If you need a large gain, it will probably require you to cascade several
amplifier stages to achieve this result.

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The gain of the amplifier is given by:

=

Here goes the design steps of a Potential Divider, Common Emitter amplifier with moderate
gain.
1. To minimize the distortion of the transistor,
= 1
2. Thus we can calculate

1
+1

+ 1
+1

3. Using these values calculate maximum output voltage swing

0( ) =

0.95( 1)
1
1 + ||

4. Now calculate the quiescent values of Emitter and Collector voltages VE0 and VC0
respectively:
0 =

0.525( + 1)
+1

= || 0
5. Now find the quiescent values of Collector Current IC and Base Current IB. Before
that select an arbitrary value of RC (collector resistance as shown in Fig 5)
0 =

0 =

It is seen that the value of (also known as hFE in device datasheets) is necessary to
compute a term in the design procedure. We want the circuit design to accommodate a fairly
large variation in transistor without significantly affecting the amplifiers performance.
Calculate the maximum value of IB0 you may expect by considering a reasonably lower value
of .

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6. Now find the quiescent value of Base Voltage. It must establish a 1 diode drop (0.7V
for silicon) across the base emitter junction. Thus
0 = 0 + 0.7
7. In Fig 5, we can see that to establish the critical voltage V B0 the resistors RB1 and RB2
are used. The quiescent Base Current IB0 is supplied from VCC through the voltage
divider resistors RB1 and RB2. We want the circuit design to accommodate a fairly
large variation in transistor without significantly affecting the amplifiers
performance. While calculating IB0 we have considered a reasonably lower bound on
so that we can get the maximum possible value of IB0. Now to minimize the impact of
in the amplifier, select the resistors RB1 and RB2 such that the current through RB2 is
10IB0. Thus
2 =
1 = 2

0
100

1
0

8. Now we have all values of resistors except RE. RC is assigned, RB1 and RB2 are
calculated. Now, to find the RE we use the relation G = RC/RE.
Thus,

Note that the negative sign is there because a common emitter amplifier always gives
a phase shift of 180 degree.
=

9. We have designed the amplifier block. The purpose of the coupling capacitors C in and
Cout are to act as highpass filter and block the DC values. The cut-off frequencies of
the two highpass filters are given by:
1
1
1
1
1
=
=
+
+
2 2 1 2
Similarly,
1
1
=
=
2 ( + ) 2 +
Thus we have to select the capacitors Cin and Cout such that the desired operating
frequency of the antenna is higher than both fc(in) and fc(out).
Note that
= 1 || 2 || =

1
1

-is the input impedance of the amplifier.

Zout = RC - is the output impedance of the amplifier.

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Practical Steps for Design of an Amplifier using BJT

Part -2 : High gain amplifier (Common Emitter Configuration with Fixed Bias)

Fig. 6: High-gain NPN common-emitter amplifier stage.

Although the high-gain amplifier circuit shown in Figure 6 is much simpler than the previous
amplifier design, it will be quite dependent on the actual transistor for its DC bias
conditions and its resulting gain and output voltage range. The absence of an emitter resistor
means that the transistors dynamic emitter resistance re will determine the circuit gain along
with the collector resistor RC.
Select a value of RB1. For silicon transistor, the value of RC can be found using the following
relation:

We can see that the transistors actual gain is proportional to the actual value of . Thus
practical values of RB1 and RC are to be trimmed to match the desired gain at desired circuit
conditions.
The input impedance is (RB1 || .re). Accordingly we have to select the coupling capacitor
keeping in mind the band of operation.

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Practical Steps for Design of a Multivibrator using BJT

A MULTIVIBRATOR is an electronic circuit that generates square, rectangular, pulse
waveforms, also called nonlinear oscillators or function generators.
Those who are familiar with ICs, can ask why go for such complex BJT based circuits to
make multivibrators, when they can be easily implemented using ICs such as 555 Timer. The
answer is pretty simple. If you look at the data-sheet of a LM555, you will see that the IC has
more transistors than any of the schematic you will see in this section. Thus the power
consumption will be very high. If you want your design to run on battery, you can increase
the battery life tremendously with this design.
Multivibrator is basically a two amplifier circuits arranged with regenerative feedback.
There are three types of Multivibrator:
1. Astable Multivibrator: Circuit is not stable in either stateit continuously oscillates
from one state to the other. (Application in Oscillators)
2. Monostable Multivibrator: One of the state is stable but the other is not.
(Application in Timer)
3. Bistable Multivibrator: Circuit is stable in both the state and will remain in
eitherstate indefinitely. The circuit can be flipped from one state to the other by
anexternal event or trigger. (Application in Flip flop)

Astable Multivibrator:

Fig 7: Astable Multivibrator circuit

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There are four stages involved in this:

1. When we first turn ON the circuit, both transistors will be in OFF state.
2. Both VB1 and VB2 rise via base resistor R3 and R2 respectively. Any one of the
transistor will conduct faster than other due to some circuit imbalance. We cannot say
which transistor will turn on first so for analysis purpose we assume Q 1 conducts first
and Q2 off (C1 is fully charged).

Fig 8(a): When power to the multivibrator is turned ON

3. Since Q1 conducts and Q2 off hence Vc1 = 0V and Vc2 = VCC. - state1 (for time T2)
Due to higher voltage at Vc2, capacitor C2 will be charged via R4 (low resistance path
because R4 <R2). C1 (which was charged earlier, and cannot hold the charge for
indefinite period) starts discharging via R2 (high resistance path because R2>R1).
Time taken to discharge C1(T1 = R2C1) > time taken to charge C2 (T2 =R4C2)

(Correction: T2 = 0.693 R4C2 , T1 = 0.693 R2C1)

Fig 8 (b): Current through charging and discharging
4. When C2 is fully charged then left plate of C2 will be at VCC which switch off the Q1.
When C1 is fully discharged then left plate of C1 will be at +VCC which switch on the
Q2. State 2

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When VB2 reaches Von, the circuit enters in state 1 again, and the process repeats.
[THIS CIRCUIT HAS BEEN TESTED USING MULTISIM]

Monostable Multivibrator Circuit:

Fig 9: Monostable Multivibrator Circuit

One of the states is stable but the other is not. For that capacitive path between V C2
andVB1 removed.
In stable state any one transistor conducts and other is off.
Application of external trigger (negative) changes the state.
When the external signal goes high,
VB2 charges up to VCC through R2
After a certain time T, VB2=VON, Q2 turns on
VC2 pulled to 0V, Q1 turns off.
When the external signal goes high
VB2 charges up to VCC through R2
After a certain time T, VB2=VON, Q2 turns on
VC2 pulled to 0V, Q1 turns off.
Enters state 1 and remains there
When VB2 is momentarily pulled to ground by an external signal
VC2 rises to VCC
Q1 turns on

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VC1 pulled to 0V

Bistable Multivibrator

Fig 10: Bistable Multivibrator

Try to analyze yourself.

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Transistor as Switch
Nowadays, digital electronic devices are widely used to control the operation of various
motors in industries. But the digital circuits cannot provide sufficient power to run those
devices. In this case a transistor switch can be used.
When the transistor is in ON state, it is in saturation mode and when it is in OFF state, it is in
cut-off mode.
In the example given in Fig 11, a microcontroller is used to run a relay using a transistor as
switch. The relay is connected to an even higher load that is not of our importance.

Fig 11: Example of transistor being used as a switch to run a relay

Here, 4 mA is required to run the relay. Thus, IC=4mA. The value of is 200.
Therefore,
=

4
=
= 20

200

We have to find the value of the Base resistor (Rb) required to switch the load fully ON
when the input terminal voltage exceeds 2.5v.
Thus
=

( )
2.5 0.7
=
= 90

20 106

The Flywheel diode is used to bypass the current produced by the back EMF at the coil of the
relay.

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Use of Darlington Pair for Switch

Fig 12: NPN Darlington Pair

The above NPN Darlington transistor switch configuration shows the Collectors of the two
transistors connected together with the Emitter of the first transistor connected to the Base
terminal of the second transistor therefore, the Emitter current of the first transistor becomes
the Base current of the second transistor switching it ON.
The first or input transistor receives the input signal to its Base. This transistor amplifies it
in the usual way and uses it to drive the second larger output transistors. The second
transistor amplifies the signal again resulting in a very high current gain ( gets multiplied).
One of the main characteristics of Darlington Transistors is their high current gains
compared to single bipolar transistors.
As well as its high increased current and voltage switching capabilities, another advantage of
a Darlington Transistor Switch is in its high switching speeds making them ideal for use in
inverter circuits, lighting circuits and DC motor or stepper motor control applications.
One difference to consider when using Darlington transistors over the conventional single
bipolar types when using the transistor as a switch is that the Base-Emitter input voltage (Vbe)
needs to be higher at approx 1.4V (20.7V) for silicon devices, due to the series connection
of the two PN junctions.

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H-Bridge for Motor Driving Circuit

Fig: H-Bridge for motor driver

(Disclaimer: This schematic is for explanation purpose only. The actual circuit may need
additional components such as free wheel diodes and current limiting resistors in series with
transistors. The values of the resistors will need calculation as per the ratings of your motor
and transistors. Darlington pairs may also be required if current ratings of the motor is very
high. Please go through some dedicated tutorial on this topic before proceeding with
hardware implementation.)
Case 1: When switch S1 is shorted and S2 is open, the transistors Q1 and Q4 are ON whereas
the transistors Q2 and Q3 are OFF. Thus current will flow from left to right.
Case 2: When switch S2 is shorted and S1 is open, the transistors Q 2 and Q3 are ON whereas
the transistors Q1 and Q4 are OFF. Thus current will flow from right to left.
As the rotation of a DC motor depends upon the direction of flow of current, this can be used
to drive a motor. Practically, the switches are replaced by some digital control circuit or
microcontroller.
Case 3: When both S1 and S2 are open, all transistors will be OFF and there will be no
rotation of the motor.
Case 4: When both S1 and S2 are short, all the four transistors will be ON. Ideally there
should be no rotation of the motor in this case too. However, there is an wastage of power
and as we are not using any resistors to limit the currents across the transistors so this case
may harm the transistors (over current and heating that may burn the transistors), so this case
is suggested to be avoided.

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You may try L293D motor driver IC that can run 4 motors together. The principle in the IC is
same as H-bridge, but they have used diodes instead of transistors. Refer to datasheet for
more details about the IC and its application in circuit.