Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)

TEXT: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory

by Boylestad and Nashelsky
References: Electronic Devices by Floyd
Grob Basic Electronics

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 Short History
• 1904 – the vacuum-tube diode was introduced by J. A.
Fleming
• 1906 – Lee De Forest added a third element, called the
control grid, to the vacuum diode, resulting in the first
amplifier, the triode
• 1930s the four-element tetrode and five-element
pentode gained prominence in the electron-tube
industry
• December 23, 1947 – Walter H. Brattain and John
Bardeen demonstrated the amplifying action of the
first transistor at the Bell Telephone Laboratories

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The Original Transistor

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 Advantages of BJT
• The advantages of the three terminal solid-state
device (BJT) over the tube.
1. Smaller and lightweight
2. Has no heater requirement or heater loss
3. Has rugged construction
4. More efficient since less power was absorbed by
the device itself
5. Instantly available for use, requiring no warm-up
period; and lower operating voltages were
possible

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 Transistor Construction
The BJT (bipolar Junction Transistor) is constructed with three doped
Semiconductor regions separated by two pn junctions.

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Transistor Construction

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 BJT Symbols
C C

B B

E E
NPN PNP

The term bipolar reflects the fact that holes and electrons participate in the injection
process into the oppositely polarized material. If only one carrier is employed
(electron or hole), it is considered a unipolar device.

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 Transistor Terminals
• Emitter (E) – the most heavily doped
terminal and supplies free charges.
• Base (B) – lightly doped and very thin. It
controls the flow of currents
• Collector (C) – collects the charges from the
emitter. It is the largest of the three
semiconductor regions of the BJT and its
voltage is relatively high.

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 BJT Operation
+ Majority carriers

E – + – + +– C
+ –n+
– + –p – +
p
+ – + –+
+ – –
+ – B

Depletion Region

+ –
VEE

Forward-biased junction of a pnp transistor

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 BJT Operation
+ Minority carriers

E +– – + – + C
p –n+ p +
+ – + – –
–+ + – +
– + –
B + –

Depletion Region

+ –
VCC

Reversed-biased junction of a pnp transistor

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 BJT Operation
+ Majority carriers + Minority carriers

IE E C IC
p n p

Depletion Region IB

+ – + –
VEE VCC

Majority and minority carrier flow of a pnp transistor

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 BJT Operation

I E  IC  I B I C  I Cmajority  I COmin ority

The minority-current component is called the leakage current and is given

the symbol ICO (IC current with emitter terminal Open)

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 Common-Base Configuration

IE E C IC IE E C IC
n p n
B

IB IB

– + – + – + – +

VEE VCC VEE VCC

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 Common-Base Configuration

IC (mA) VCB = 20 (V)

8 VCB = 10 (V)
Input or driving point
7
characteristics for a VCB = 1 (V)
common-base silicon 6
Transistor amplifier.
5
4
3
2
1

0.2 0.4 0.6 08 1.0 VBE (V)

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 Common-Base Configuration

Output or collector
characteristics for a
common-base silicon
Transistor amplifier.

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 Common-Base Configuration
• Three regions of operation for collector
characteristic:
1. Active region: In the active region the collector-base
junction is reverse-biased, while the base-emitter
junction is forward-biased. It is normally employed for
linear (undistorted) amplifiers.

Note: With the transistor in the “on” or active state the voltage from base to
emitter will be 0.7 V at any level of emitter current as controlled by the
external network

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 Common-Base Configuration
• Three regions of operation for collector
characteristic:
2. Cut-off region: In the cutoff region the collector-base
and base-emitter junctions of a transistor are both
reverse-biased. It is the region where the collector
current is 0 A,
3. Saturation region: In the saturation region the
collector-base and base-emitter junctions are
forward-biased

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 Alpha (α)
• In the dc mode, the levels of IC and IE due to
the majority carriers are related by a quantity
called alpha and defined by the following
equation:

Where IC and IE are the levels of current at the point of operation.

For practical devices the level of alpha typically extends from
0.90 to 0.998.

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 Alpha (α)
• Since alpha is defined solely for the majority
carriers, then:

• For ac situations where the point of operation

moves on the characteristic curve, an ac alpha
is defined by

Note: The ac alpha is formally called the

common-base, short-circuit, amplification factor
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 Transistor Amplifying Action

Note: The dc biasing does not appear in the figure since our interest will be
limited to the ac response.
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Transistor Amplifying Action

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Transistor Amplifying Action

Note: The basic amplifying action was produced by transferring

a current I from a low to a high-resistance circuit. Thus
transfer + resistor  Transistor

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Common-Emitter Configuration
IC IC
C C

n
IB B IB B
p
n

E E
IE IE

+ – – + + – – +

VEE VCC VEE VCC

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 Common-Emitter Configuration

Input or base
characteristics for a
common-emitter silicon
Transistor amplifier.

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 Common-Emitter Configuration

Saturation region

Output or collector
characteristics for a
common-emitter silicon
Transistor amplifier.

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 Common-Emitter Configuration
• For future reference, the collector current
defined by the condition IB 0 A will be
assigned the notation indicated by:

For linear (least distortion) amplification purposes, cutoff for the

common-emitter configuration will be defined by IC = ICEO. In other words, the
region below IB = 0 A is to be avoided if an undistorted output signal is required

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 Beta (β)
• In the dc mode the levels of IC and IB are
related by a quantity called beta and defined
by the following equation

• Where IC and IB are determined at a particular operating point on the

characteristics. β ranges from about 50 to over 400, with most in the
midrange. As for α, β certainly reveals the relative magnitude of one
current to the other. For a device with a β of 200, the collector current is
200 times the magnitude of the base current

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 Beta (β)
• For ac situations an ac beta has been defined
as follows:

The formal name for βac is common-emitter, forward-current, amplification factor.

Since the collector current is usually the output current for a common-emitter
configuration and the base current the input current, the term amplification is
included in the nomenclature above

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 Beta (β)

Determining βdc and βac

from the collector
characteristics

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 Beta (β)

Determining βdc and βac

from the collector
characteristics

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Beta (β) & Alpha (α)

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Common-Collector Configuration
E E

n
IB B IB B
p
n

C C
IC IC

+ – + – + – + –

VBB VEE VBB VEE

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 Common-Collector Configuration
• The common-collector configuration is used
primarily for impedance-matching purposes
since it has a high input impedance and low
output impedance, opposite to that of the
common-base and common-emitter
configurations.

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 Limits of Operation
• For each transistor there is a region of
operation on the characteristics which will
ensure that the maximum ratings are not
being exceeded and the output signal exhibits
minimum distortion. Such a region has been
defined for the transistor characteristics.

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 Limits of Operation
IC (mA) 70μA

60μA Maximum dissipation level

IC (max) 50 At any point must be the same
50μA
PC max  VCE I C
40 40μA

30 30μA

20μA
20
IB = 10μA
10
0.3V IB = 0μA

5 10 15 20 VCE (V)
VCE max
VCEsat ICEO

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 Specification Sheet
• The specification sheet lists the parameters
and specifications that define the limits of
operation of the device.
• Most specification sheets are broken down
into maximum ratings, thermal
characteristics, and electrical characteristics.

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Specification Sheet

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Casing and Terminal Identification

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Transistor Checking

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Transistor Checking

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 Semiconductor Type Numbers
• For types registered with Electronic Industries
Association (EIA)
N – indicates semiconductor device with numerical prefix that
indicate the number of junction.
1N – diodes
2N – transistors
3N – FET with two gates
The digits that follow indicate specific types registered with EIA
Example: 1N3491 – diode
2N394 – transistor

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 Semiconductor Type Numbers
• For types registered with the Japanese
Industrial Standard (for transistors and
thyristors)
Example: 2SA777
S – semiconductor
2 – equals the number of junctions
A - M – indicates polarity and application
777 – for specific characteristics

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 Semiconductor Type Numbers
• For types registered with the Japanese
Industrial Standard (for transistors and
thyristors)
A –> PNP transistor, high frequency G –> N-gate thyristor
B –> PNP transistor, low frequency H –> N-bas UJT
C –> NPN transistor, high frequency J –> P-channel FET
D –> NPN transistor, low frequency K –> N-channel FET
E –> P-gate thyristor M –> Triac

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END of Chapter

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