EEE 41 Homework 09

1st Semester AY 2017-2018

Due: 1:30pm Tuesday, October 24, 2017 (Rm. 220)

Instructions: Write legibly. Show all solutions and state all assumptions. Write your full name, student number,
and DC section (last two letters) at the upper-right corner of each page. Box or encircle your final answer.
1. BJT Fundamentals
PART1: Given an ideal NPN BJT, sketch the following under equilibrium conditions:
1. Energy band diagram. Be sure to label Ec , Ei , EF and Ev . Be sure to be relatively accurate (i.e.
the relative Fermi-levels at each region must be consistent. Read the book about the general doping
concentrations for a BJT transistor)
2. V (x). Let the potential at the emitter side be your reference. That is, V(x) at the emitter is 0.
3. E(x). Be sure to be relatively accurate in terms of the widths and height of the electric field.
4. . The charge density must also be relatively accurate in terms of magnitude and widths.
ANS:

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PART 2: Under active biasing, sketch the carrier activity super imposed on an energy band diagram of an
NPN BJT similar to Fig 10.8 of the book. Also, sketch the spatial visualization of the diffusion currents
flowing in an NPN BJT also under forward biasing, the same as Fig 10.9 of the book. (Book: Semiconductor
Fundamentals by Robert F. Pierret) A few notes we would like to see within the sketches:

For the EBD

1. Draw the emitter on the left most, the base in the middle and the collector to the right most.
2. For the EBD with carrier action, be sure to indicate the relative Fermi-levels, the Ec , Ev , Ei .
3. Draw the relative concentration of carriers seen in the EBD. (This means draw more shaded circles for
more electrons and more unshaded circles for holes)
4. Draw the arrows, where the carriers are flowing. Then draw an arrow indicating where the current
should be flowing.

For the Spatial visualization

1. Draw the emitter on the left most, the base in the middle and the collector to the right most.
2. Draw and indicate the IEp , IEn , ICn , ICp and the IB . (Include the relative concentration levels, that
means draw more shaded circles for more electrons and more unshaded circles for holes)
3. Draw the arrows to indicate where the carriers AND current is flowing.
4. Be sure to indicate the base width WB and the smaller width within the base W . Also be sure to be
consistent in drawing the depletion widths. (That means, be sure to show that if xp or xn is longer than
the other.)

For guidance, we expect something similar to Fig 10.8 and Fig 10.9 of the book. Anything missing will be
considered wrong.
ANS:

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2. Device Parameters
Given an NPN BJT where IEn = 100 A, IEp = 1 A, ICn = 99 A and ICp = 0.1 A, calculate:

(a) T = 0.99
(b) = 0.9901
(c) IE = 101A
IB = 1.9A
IC = 99.1A
(d) dc = 0.9802
dc = 49.5
(e) ICB0 = ICn = 0.1 A
ICB0
ICE0 = 1 dc
= 5.05 = A
(f) ICn is increased to a value closer to 100 A while all the other current components remain fixed. What
effect does the ICn increase have on dc ? Explain.
ANS: ICn increasing while IEn is constant means T increasing. It also follows dc increases. There-
fore dc increases.
(g) IEp is increased while all other current components remain fixed. What effect does IEp increase have on
dc ? Explain.
ANS: IEp increasing while IEn is constant means decreases. It also follows dc decreases. Therefore
dc decreases.

3. BJT Static Characteristics

Consider an npn BJT with nondegenerate uniformly doped emitter, base, and collector regions with the E-B
and C-B junctions modeled as step junctions with the following assumptions/notations:

(a) Steady-state conditions exist

(b) BJT is one-dimensional
(c) Low-level injection prevails in the quasineutral regions
(d) No processes other than drift, diffusion, and thermal R-G take place
(e) Thermal R-G is negligible inside the depletion regions
(f) The emitter and collector are considered to be semi-infinite
(g) ni is the intrinsic carrier concentration across all the regions
(h) NE , NB , and NC are the doping concentrations of the emitter, base, and collector regions, respectively
(i) pE , nB , and pC are the minority carrier concentrations inside the emitter, base, and collector regions,
respectively
(j) pE , nB , and pC are the perturbed minority carrier concentrations inside the emitter, base, and
collector regions, respectively
(k) DE , DB , and DC are the diffusion coefficients for the minority carriers inside the emitter, base, and
collector regions, respectively
(l) E , B , and tauC are the minority carrier lifetimes inside the emitter, base, and collector regions,
respectively
(m) LE , LB , and LC are the minority carrier diffusion lengths inside the emitter, base, and collector regions,
respectively
(n) W is the quasineutral region width of the base
(o) A is the cross-sectional area of the transistor
(p) An x-axis is defined inside the base where x = 0 is at the edge of the E-B depletion region and x = W
is at the edge of the C-B depletion region

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(q) An x-axis is defined inside the collector where x = 0 is at the edge of the C-B depletion region and x
= is at the far side of the collector
(r) An x-axis is defined inside the emitter where x = 0 is at the edge of the E-B depletion region and x
= is at the far side of the emitter
(s) VEB = VBE is the emitter voltage with respect to the base voltage
(t) VCB = VBC is the collector voltage with respect to the base voltage
(u) kT /q represents the thermal voltage
(v) Positive currents are defined to be the same as the notation used in the book (Fig. 10.2 b)

Do the following:

(a) Read Chapter 11, Section 11.1

ANS: Finished!
(b) Read Chapter 11, Section 11.1, but understand it this time
ANS: Finished!
(c) Give the minority carrier diffusion equations inside the quasineutral regions for the:
i. emitter
2
ANS: 0 = DE ddxp
002
E pE
E
ii. base
2 n
ANS: 0 = DB d dx 2
B
n
B
B

iii. collector
2 p
ANS: 0 = DC d dx02
C
p
C
C

(d) Give the boundary conditions needed to solve for the minority carrier diffusion equations inside the
quasineutral regions for the:
i. emitter
ANS: The boundary conditions in the emitter region is similar to the pn junction case. Here, VBE
is used instead of VEB because the pn junction in an npn BJT is from the base to the emitter.
n2
pE (x00 = 0) = NEi (eqVBE /kT 1)
pE (x00 ) = 0
ii. base
ANS: The boundary conditions in the base region is nonzero because the base width is much
less than the diffusion length, thus only a small amount of minority carriers recombine. Thus the
perturbation in the minority carrier is associated with the E-B and C-B junctions, respectively and
has the same form as the pn junction boundary condition.
n2
nB (x = 0) = NBi (eqVBE /kT 1)
n2
nB (x = W ) = NBi (eqVBC /kT 1)
iii. collector The boundary conditions in the collector region is similar to the pn junction case. Here,
VBC is used instead of VCB because the pn junction in an npn BJT is from the base to the collector.
ANS:
n2
pC (x0 = 0) = NCi (eqVBC /kT 1)
pC (x0 ) = 0
(e) In terms of the gradients of the perturbed minority carrier concentrations, give the expressions for the:
i. emitter current due to holes, IEp
ANS: Since IEp refers to holes, the emitter region is considered since it has the holes as the
2
minority carriers. Then, recalling that the hole current density is proportional to xp
002
E
and with
IEp defined at the edge of the depletion region:
IEp = qADE p x00 |x =0
E
00

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 ii. emitter current due to electrons, IEn
ANS: Since IEn refers to electrons, the base region is considered since it has the electrons as
2 n
the minority carriers. The electron current density should be proportional to x B
2 , however the
positive direction of IEn is opposite the x-axis, so it should be negated. Finally, with IEn defined
at the edge of the depletion region:
IEn = qADB n x |x=0
B

iii. collector current due to holes, ICp

ANS: Since ICp refers to holes, the collector region is considered since it has the holes as the minority
2 p
carriers. The hole current density is proportional to x C
02 , however the positive direction of ICp
is opposite the x-axis, so it should be negated. Finally, with ICp defined at the edge of the depletion
region:
ICp = qADC p x0 |x =0
C
0

iv. collector current due to electrons, ICn

ANS: Since ICn refers to electrons, the base region is considered since it has the electrons as
2 n
the minority carriers. The electron current density should be proportional to x B
2 , however the
positive direction of ICn is opposite the x-axis, so it should be negated. Finally, with ICn defined
at the edge of the depletion region:
ICn = qADB n x |x=0
B

(f) Solve the minority carrier diffusion equations for the emitter and collector regions and give the final
expressions for:
i. IEp
ANS: The MCD equations and the boundary conditions for IEp are similar to the pn junction
expressions, and therefore leads to the ideal diode equation where VA = VBE since the pn junction
in an npn BJT is from base to emitter:
n2
IEp = NEi (eqVBE /kT 1)
ii. ICp
ANS: The MCD equations and the boundary conditions for ICp are similar to the pn junction
expressions, and therefore leads to the ideal diode equation where VA = VBC since the pn junction
in an npn BJT is from base to collector:
n2
ICp = NCi (eqVBC /kT 1)
The negative sign is due to the equation for ICp in terms of the gradient of pC .