APPLICATION OF TRANSISTOR AS AN

AMPLIFIER AND AS A SWITCH

INTRODUCTION

Transistor is a device with three separate layers of semiconductor material stacked

together. The three layers are made of N-type and P-type material in the order PNP and NPN.
The layers change abruptly to form the PN or NP junctions. A terminal is attached to each
layer. Transistor is a discrete circuit element. The Bipolar Junction Transistor was invented at
Bell laboratories by William Shockley in 1948.The Bipolar Junction Transistor is a
semiconductor device constructed with three doped regions. The most common use of the
BJT is in linear amplifier circuits. It can also be used as a Switch and as an Amplifier

AIM

The outcome of this experiment is to,

 Obtain the frequency response of transistor as an Amplifier and plot the

graph.
 Determine the lower cut off frequency (FL) and hence find the Band width
of the Amplifier
 To understand the function of transistor as a Switch.

APPARATUS REQUIRED

S. NO PARTICULAR SPECIFICATION QUANTITY

1 AC generated signal - -
supply
2 Transistor BC-107-1 1
3 Resistor 33KΩ 1
Resistor 1.5KΩ 2
Resistor 15KΩ 1
Resistor 220KΩ 1
Resistor 1KΩ 1
4 Capacitor 4.7µF
Capacitor 100µF
Capacitor 17µF

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 5 Cathode Ray - -
Oscilloscope
6 Bread board - -
7 Function generator - -

8 DC power supply - -
9 LED 9V -

FORMULA

Voltage gain in dβ= Av= 20 log VOUT/VIN

Band width in HZ= FU- FL

Where,

Vin- Input Voltage (volts),

Vout- Output Voltage (volts),

FU- Upper cut off frequency,

FL- Lower cut off frequency,

THEORY

AMPLIFIERS

An Amplifier circuit is used to increase the strength of the signal. The amplifier circuit
uses the power supply to increase the signal strength. The amplification provided by the
amplifier circuit is measured in terms of Gain of an amplifier. The gain of the amplifier is the
ratio of output to input, which is always greater than one. Amplification does not alter frequency
and waveform shape. In this article, we discuss on Common Base Amplifier circuit.

An electronic amplifier is an electronic device that increases the power of signal. It

does this by taking energy from a power supply and controlling the output to match the input
signal shape but with larger amplitude when a number of amplifiers are connected in cascade,
the overall voltage gain is equal to the product of voltage gain of individual stages. Amplifier
quantity is characterized by a list of specifications that includes,

 Gain, the ratio between the magnitude of output and input signal.
 Band Width, the width of the useful frequency ranges.

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  Efficiency, the ratio between the power of the output and the total power
consumption.

TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIER

The essential role of this element is to magnify the input signal that is the weak signal
to yield a significantly larger output signal. The important parameters of an amplifier are Input
impedance, Output impedance, Current Gain and Voltage Gain. Mainly common active device
in Transistor amplifier are Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJTS) and metal oxide semiconductor
field- effect transistor. All Transistors have the following specifications,

 It should have high input impedance,

 It should have high stability,
 It should have high linearity,
 It should have high Gain and Band Width.

BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR

The Bipolar Junction Transistor is constructed from a sandwich of three layers of doped
semiconductor material, the thin middle layer being doped with oppositely from the other two.
Thus there exist two types of BJT. NPN and the PNP, whose schematic simbols are given in
the figure 1.1

figure-1.1 (schematic of PNP and NPN)

The three layers are called Emitter, Base, Collector, and their identification with the three
schematic device terminals is also illustrated in the figure. The Base is the thin middle layer,
and it forms one PN Junction with the heavily doped emitter and another with the lightly doped
collector. When used as an Amplifier, the Base-Emitter junction is forward biased.

Whereas the Collector-Base junction is revered biased. The resultant charge carrier flows
within the NPN transistor.

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 FIGURE 1.2(BJT CONFIGURATION)

Consider an NPN transistor behaviour is shown in figure 1.2 When the Base-Emitter PN
Junction is forward biased, a current flows into the base and out of the Emitter, because this
pair of terminals behave like a typical PN Junction semiconductor Diode. The voltage drop
from the base to emitter is thus that of a typical PN Junction semiconductor Diode. If the
collector potential is set more than a few 1/10th of a volt higher than that of the Base, however,
an interesting effect occur nearly all the majority charge carriers from the Emitter which enter
the base continue right on through it and into the collector.

The charge carriers from the Emitter that enter the Base become Minority carries once
they arrive in the base semiconductor material. Because the base is thin and the emitter has
a large concentration of charge carriers, these many carriers from the Emitter can approach
the Collector-Base PN Junction is reverse biased, most of the charge carriers originally from
the Emitter can accelerate on through the base-Collector junction and enter the collector,
where they intermingle with the collector lower concentration of similar charge carriers.

As a result the most of emitter charge carriers which enter the forward Biased Base-
Emitter PN Junction wind up passing through the base and entering the collector. This charge
carrier flow out of the emitter is what comprises the current that flows through the Emitter
device terminal on the transistor. The small fraction of these that recombine in the base then
determines the current flow through the base terminal whereas the much larger fraction
passing through the base entering the collector determines the collector current. If the Base-
Emitter PN Junction is not forward biased, then majority carrier flow from the emitter across
the junction does not occur, and the Collector-Emitter current vanishes.

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 The end result is that if the transistor is biased then the Base-Emitter PN Junction is
forward biased, then a small current flow in the Base terminal can stimulate a much larger
current flow in the Collector terminal. Thus, BJT is a Current Amplifier.

COMMON EMMITER AMPLIFIER

The common emitter amplifier is a three basic single stage bipolar junction transistor
and is used as a voltage amplifier. The input of this amplifier is taken from the base terminal,
the output is collected from the collector terminal and the emitter terminal is common for both
the terminals. The basic symbol of the common emitter amplifier is shown below.

Figure -1.3(COMMON EMITTER AMPLIFIER SYMBOL)

The circuit diagram shows the working of the common emitter amplifier circuit0000000000
and it consists of voltage divider biasing, used to supply the base bias voltage as per the
necessity. The voltage divider biasing has a potential divider with two resistors are connected
in a way that the midpoint is used for supplying base bias voltage.

There are different types of electronic components in the common emitter amplifier
which are R1 resistor is used for the forward bias, the R2 resistor is used for the development
of bias, the RL resistor is used at the output it is called as the load resistance. The RE resistor
is used for the thermal stability. The C1 capacitor is used to separate the AC signals from the
DC biasing voltage and the capacitor is known as the coupling capacitor.

The figure shows that the bias vs Gain common emitter amplifier transistor
characteristics, if the R2 resistor increases then there is an increase in the forward bias and
R1 & bias are inversely proportional to each other. The alternating current is applied to the
base of the transistor of the common emitter amplifier circuit then there is a flow of small base
current. Hence there is a large amount of current flow through the collector with the help of
the RC resistance. The voltage near the resistance RC will change because the value is very
high and the values are from the 4 to 10kohm. Hence there is a huge amount of current present

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in the collector circuit which amplified from the weak signal, therefore common emitter
transistor work as an amplifier circuit.

COMMON EMITTER AMPLIFIER CHARACTERISTICS

 The voltage Gain of common Emitter Amplifier is Medium.

 The power gain is high in the common emitter amplifier.
 There is a phase relationship of 180 degrees input and output.
 In the common Emitter amplifier, the input and output resistors are medium.

APPLICATIONS OF COMMON EMITTER AMPLIFIER

 The common emitter amplifiers are used in the low frequency voltage
amplifiers.
 These amplifiers are typically used in the RF circuits.
 In general, the amplifiers are used in the low noise amplifiers.

ADVANTAGES OF COMMON EMITTER APLIFIER

 The common emitter amplifier has a low input impedance and it is an inverting
amplifier.
 The output impedance of this amplifier is very high.
 This amplifier has highest power gain combined with medium voltage and
current gain.
 The current gain of the common emitter amplifier is very high.

DISADVANTAGES OF COMMON EMITTER AMPLIFIER

 In the high frequencies, the common emitter amplifier does not respond.
 The voltage gain of this amplifier is unstable.
 The output resistance is very high in these amplifiers.
 In these amplifiers, there is a high thermal insteability.
 High output resistance.

COMMON COLLETOR AMPLIFIER

In Common Collector transistor configuration, we use collector terminal as common for

both input and output signals. This configuration is also known as emitter follower configuration
because the emitter voltage follows the base voltage. The emitter follower configuration is
mostly used as a voltage buffer. These configurations are widely used in impedance matching
applications because of their high input impedance.
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 Figure -1.4 (common collector configuration)

A simple common collector amplifier circuit is shown in the figure below. The collector resistor
RC is unnecessary in many applications. In order to work transistor as an amplifier, it should
be in the active region of its configuration.

COMMON COLLECTOR AMPLIFIER CONFIGURATIONS

 The input signal enters the transistor at the base terminal.

 The input signal exist the transistor at the emitter terminal.
 The collector is connected to a constant voltage, sometimes with an inverting
resistor.

For that we set the quiescent point need to be set with the circuitry external to the transistor,
the values of resistors Rc and Rb, and the DC voltage sources, Vcc and Vbb, have chosen
accordingly. Once the circuit quiescent conditions have been calculated and it has been
determined that the BJT is in the forward- active region of operation, the h-parameters are
calculated below to form the small signal model of the transistor.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON COLLECTOR AMPLIFIER

 The load resistor in the common collector amplifier is being placed in series
with the emitter circuit receives both the base current and collector current.
 Since the emitter of a transistor is the sum of base and collector current, since
base and collector current always adds together to form the emitter current, it
would be reasonable to assume that this amplifier will have very Large Current
Gain.
 The common collector amplifier has a quite large current gain, larger than any
other transistor amplifier configuration.

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 PARAMETER CHARACTERISTICS
Voltage Gain Zero
Current Gain High
Power Gain Medium
Input or Output relationship Zero degree
Input resistance High
Output resistance Low

APPLICATIONS OF COMMON COLLECTOR AMPLIFIER

 This amplifier used as impedance matching circuit.

 It is used as a switching circuit.
 The high current gain combined with near unity voltage gain makes this
circuit a great voltage buffer.
 It is also used for circuit isolation.

COMMON BASE AMPLIFIER

The common base circuit does not find many applications for low frequency circuits -
normally a high input impedance and low output impedance are desirable. However, it finds
use in some high-frequency amplifiers, for example for VHF and UHF. In the common base
configuration the input capacitance does not suffer from the Miller effect, which degrades the
bandwidth of the common-emitter configuration. Also there is a relatively high isolation
between the input and output and this means that there is little feedback from the output back
to the input, leading to high stability.

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 Figure 1.5 (common base configuration)

For both NPN and PNP circuits, it can be seen that for the common base amplifier circuit, the
input is applied to the emitter, and the output is taken from the collector. The common terminal
for both circuits is the base. The base is grounded for the signal and for this reason the circuit
may sometimes be called a grounded base circuit.

The common base amplifier configuration is not used as widely as transistor amplifier
configurations. However it does find uses with amplifiers that require low input impedance
levels. One application is for moving-coil microphones preamplifiers - these microphones have
very low impedance levels. However the voltage gain is more, but it is a function of input and
output resistances (and also the internal resistance of the emitter-base junction). As a result,
the voltage gain of a common-base amplifier can be very high.

The diagram below shows how a common base amplifier circuit can be implemented.

Figure 1.6 (common base amplifier)

In this circuit, the same biasing conditions apply. However care has to be taken in the
choice of the emitter resistor to ensure that the correct impedance match is provided for the
input signal.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON BASE AMPLIFIER

 High voltage Gain.

 Low current Gain.
 Low power Gain.
 Input and output phase relation is zero.
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  It has low input impedance.
 It has high output impedance.

APPLICATIONS OF COMMON BASE AMPLIFIER

 It is used in moving coil microphones preamplifiers.

 It is used in the UHF and VHF RF amplifiers.

TRANSISTOR AS SWITCH

One of the most common uses for transistors in an electronic circuit is as simple
switches. In short, a transistor conducts current across the collector-emitter path only when a
voltage is applied to the base. When no base voltage is present, the switch is off. When base
voltage is present, the switch is on.

Figure 1.7 (transistor as a switch)

Above is a schematic diagram for a circuit that uses an NPN transistor as a switch that
turns an LED on or off.

In an ideal switch, the transistor should be in only one of two states: off or on. The
transistor is off when there’s no bias voltage or when the bias voltage is less than 0.7 V. The
switch is on when the base is saturated so that collector current can flow without restriction.

Transistor is a three terminal semiconductor device that amplify the current and used
as a open close switch . Transistors plays a very important role in replacing vacuum tubes.
Because transistors are ideal component for using in the digital circuits as switch.

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 A transistor can be used as a switch because its collector current is directly controlled
by the base current . If the base current is greater than 0.7 volts than the transistor acts as a
closed switch. To understand this let’s take a look of current characteristics of a transistor.

OPERATING REGIONS

CUT-OFF REGION

The operating conditions of the transistor are zero input base current (IB=0), zero
output collector current(Ic=0), and maximum collector voltage (VCE) which results in a large
depletion layer and no current flowing through the device. Therefore the transistor is switched
to “Fully-OFF”. So we can define the cut-off region when using a bipolar transistor as a switch
as being, bother the junctions of NPN transistors are reverse biased, VB< 0.7v and Ic=0.
Similarly, for PNP transistor, the emitter potential must be (–ve) with respect to the base of the
transistor.

SATURATION REGION

In this region, the transistor will be biased so that the maximum amount of base
current(IB) is applied, resulting in maximum collector current(IC=VCC/RL) and then resulting
in the minimum collector-emitter voltage(VCE ~ 0) drop. At this condition, the depletion layer
becomes as small as the possible and maximum current flowing through the transistor.
Therefore the transistor is switched FULLY ON.

APPLICATION OF TRANSISTOR AS SWITCH

In a transistor, unless a current flows in the base circuit, there is no current can flow in
the collector circuit. This property will allow a transistor to be used as a switch. The transistor
can be switched ON or OFF by changing the base. There are a few applications of switching
circuits operated by transistors. Here, I considered NPN transistor to explain few applications
which are using transistor switch.

PROCEDURE

 The connections are made as shown in figure.

 The battery is switched on and for various frequencies the output voltage is
measured and from this the gain is calculated.
 At low frequencies as the frequency increases the output voltage also
increased and as a result gain increases. This is the lower frequency response.

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  At mid value of frequency there is no change in the output voltage and so gain
is particularly constant.
 At high value of frequency the value of voltage decease and as a result gain
frequency decrease. This referred as the high frequency response.
 The signal with frequencies lying between the Band Width of the amplifier are
amplified.
 Then for transistor as a switch, the connections are made as per the circuit
diagram.
 When the square wave function generator is fed as input to the circuit, the LED
will gets turned on condition and gets turned off condition according to the
frequency.

POST LAB QUESTIONS

1. List the different modes of transistor biasing?

Saturation:
The transistor acts like a short circuit.
Cut Off:
The transistor acts like a open circuit. No current flow takes place from the
collector to emitter.

Active:

The current from the collector to emitter is proportional to the current flowing

Into the base.

Reverse Active:

The current is proportional to the base current, but it flows in the opposite

Direction.

2. write the formula for finding the base current?

IB= IE – IC

3. Draw the input characteristics for CE transistor?

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 4. What is band width?

Bandwidth is the capacity of a wired or wireless network communications link to transmit the
maximum amount of data from one point to another over a computer network or internet
connection in a given amount of time -- usually one second. Synonymous with capacity,
bandwidth describes the data transfer rate. Bandwidth is not a measure of network speed -- a
common misconception.

5. Draw the IV characteristics for NPN transistor?

6. Draw the frequency response graph?

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 7. What is mean by an amplifier and amplification?

An amplifier is an electronic device that increases the voltage, current, or power of a signal.
Amplifiers are used in wireless communications and broadcasting, and in audio equipment of
all kinds. They can be categorized as either weak-signal amplifiers or power amplifiers.

The operation of an amplifier, a natural or artificial device intended to make a signal

stronger. Amplification (rhetoric), a figure of speech that adds importance to increase its
rhetorical effect. Amplification (psychology) in which physical symptoms are affected by
psychological state

8. What are the classifications of amplifiers?

 Small signal amplifiers,
 Low frequency power amplifiers,
 Radio frequency RF power amplifiers.
9. Applications of transistors?

The appropriate application of power semiconductors requires an understanding of their

maximum ratings and electrical characteristics, information that is presented within the
device data sheet. Good design practice employs data sheet limits and not information
obtained from small sample lots. A rating is a maximum or minimum value that sets a limit
on device’s ability. Act in excess of a rating can result in irreversible degradation or device
failure. Maximum ratings signify extreme capabilities of a device. They are not to be used
as design circumstances.

CONCLUSION

Thus, the transistor used as an amplifier and as well as a switch by the proper circuit
operations. They are widely used in this modern days as an important element in electronics.
Transistor is an active component and that is establishing in all over electronic circuits. They
are used as amplifiers and switching apparatus. As the amplifiers, they are used in high and
low level, frequency stages, oscillators, modulators, detectors and in any circuit need to
perform a function. In digital circuits they are used as switches. There are a huge number of
manufacturers approximately the world who produces semiconductors (transistors are
members of this family of apparatus), so there are exactly thousands of different types. There
are low, medium and high power transistors, for functioning with high and low frequencies, for

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functioning with very high current and or high voltages. This article gives an overview of what
is a transistor, different types of transistors and its applications.

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CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

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