Lecture 5

ANNOUNCEMENTS
• HW1 will be considered as extra credit.
• HW3 will be posted tonight, due Tuesday 9/18.
• Monday 3PM (247 Cory) discussion section has room!

OUTLINE
• BJT (cont’d)
– Transconductance
– Small-signal model
– The Early effect
– BJT operation in saturation mode

Reading: Chapter 4.4.3-4.5

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 1 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 Notes on PN Junctions
• Typically, pn junctions in IC devices are formed by
counter-doping. The equations provided in class (and
in the textbook) can be readily applied to such diodes if
– NA  net acceptor doping on p-side (NA-ND)p-side
– ND  net donor doping on n-side (ND-NA)n-side

I D  I S (e qVD kT
 1)
ID (A)

 Dn Dp 
I S  Aqni   
2
L N L N 
 n A p D 
VD (V)

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 2 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Transconductance, gm
• The transconductance (gm) of a transistor is a
measure of how well it converts a voltage signal
into a current signal.
• It will be shown later that gm is one of the most
important parameters in integrated circuit design.
dI C d  VBE 
gm    I S exp 
dVBE dVBE  VT 
1 VBE
g m  I S exp
VT VT
IC
gm 
VT
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 3 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 Visualization of Transconductance
• gm can be visualized as the slope of the IC vs. VBE curve.
• The slope (hence gm) increases with IC.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 4 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Transconductance and IC
• For a given VBE swing (DV), the resulting current
swing about IC2 is larger than it is about IC1.
– This is because gm is larger when VBE = VB2.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 5 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

Transconductance and Emitter Area
• When the BJT emitter area is increased by a factor n,
IS increases by the factor n.
 For a fixed value of VBE, IC and hence gm increase by a
factor of n.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 6 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Derivation of Small-Signal Model
• The BJT small-signal model is derived by perturbing
the voltage difference between two terminals while
fixing the voltage on the third terminal, and analyzing
the resultant changes in terminal currents.
– This is done for each of the three terminals as the one with
fixed voltage.
– We model the current change by a controlled source or
resistor.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 7 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Small-Signal Model: VBE Change

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 8 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Small-Signal Model: VCE Change
• Ideally, VCE has no effect on the collector current.
Thus, it will not contribute to the small-signal model.
• It can be shown that VCB ideally has no effect on the
small-signal model, either.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 9 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Small-Signal Model: Example 1
• The small-signal model parameters are calculated for
the DC operating point, and are used to determine
the change in IC due to a change in VBE.

IC 1
gm  
VT 3.75

r   375
gm
EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 10 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 Small-Signal Model: Example 2
• In this example, a resistor is placed between the power
supply and collector, to obtain an output voltage signal.
• Since the power supply voltage does not vary with time,
it is regarded as ground (reference potential) in small-
signal analysis.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 11 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 The Early Effect
• In reality, the collector current depends on VCE:
– For a fixed value of VBE, as VCE increases, the reverse bias
on the collector-base junction increases, hence the width
of the depletion region increases. Therefore, the quasi-
neutral base width decreases, so that collector current
increases.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 12 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Early Effect: Impact on BJT I-V
• Due to the Early effect, collector current increases
with increasing VCE, for a fixed value of VBE.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 13 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Early Effect Representation

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 14 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

Early Effect and Large-Signal Model
• The Early effect can be accounted for, by simply
multiplying the collector current by a correction factor.
• The base current does not change significantly.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 15 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

Early Effect and Small-Signal Model

DVCE VA VA
ro   
DI C I S exp
VBE I C
VT

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 16 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Summary of BJT Concepts

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 17 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 BJT in Saturation Mode
• When the collector voltage drops below the base
voltage, the collector-base junction is forward
biased. Base current increases, so that the current
gain (IC/IB) decreases.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 18 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

Large-Signal Model for Saturation Mode

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 19 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 BJT Output Characteristics
• The operating speed of the BJT also drops in saturation.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 20 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley

 Example: Acceptable VCC Range
• In order to prevent the BJT from entering very deeply
into saturation, the collector voltage must not fall
below the base voltage by more than 400 mV.

VCC  I C RC  (VBE  400mV )

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 21 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley
 Deep Saturation
• In deep saturation, the BJT does not behave as a
voltage-controlled current source.
• VCE is relatively constant.

EE105 Fall 2007 Lecture 5, Slide 22 Prof. Liu, UC Berkeley