Transistors are used when it is necessary to amplify voltage, current, and power. With a small signal applied to the transistor amplifier, the transistor and its associated circuitry can produce an amplified version of the input signal. In computer circuits, the transistor can be used as an electronic switch.
Transistors are three terminal active devices made from different semiconductor materials that can act as either an insulator or a conductor by the application of a small signal voltage. The transistor's ability to change between these two states enables it to have two basic functions: "switching" (digital electronics) or "amplification" (analogue electronics).
Transistor Construction In construction, transistor are of two types i.e. npn and pnp BJTs. This transistor has three doped regions as shown below, an npn transistor, and a pnp transistor. Notice that for both types, the base is a narrow region sandwiched between the larger collector and emitter regions.
Fig : npn and pnp transitors
Note: 1. The emitter region of a transistor is heavily doped. Its job is to emit or inject current carriers into the base. 2. The base region is very thin and lightly doped. 3. The collector region is moderately doped and is the largest of all three regions. The collector region attracts the current carriers that are injected into the thin and lightly doped base region.
1 An npn transistor In npn transistors, the majority current carriers are free electrons in the emitter and collector, whereas the majority current carriers are holes in the base.
A pnp transistor The opposite is true in a pnp transistor where the majority current carriers are holes in the emitter and collector, and the majority current carriers are free electrons in the base.
The npn and pnp transistors are not different in terms of their ability to amplify voltage, current, or power. Each type, however, does require different polarities of operating voltages. For example, the collector-emitter voltage, VCE, of an npn transistor must be positive, and the collector-emitter voltage, VCE, must be negative for the pnp type.
In summary, it is important to note the following points about the construction
of a transistor. 1. The emitter region is heavily doped. Its job is to emit or inject current carriers into the base region. For npn transistors, the n-type emitter injects free electrons into the base. For pnp transistors, the p-type emitter injects holes into the base.
2 2. The base is very thin and lightly doped. Most of the current carriers injected into the base region cross over into the collector side and do not flow out the base lead. 3. The collector region is moderately doped. It is also the largest region within the transistor. Its function is to collect or attract current carriers injected into the base region.
Proper Transistor Biasing
For a transistor to function properly as an amplifier, the emitter-base junction must be forward-biased, and the collector-base junction must be reverse-biased, as illustrated in figure below. The emitter-base supply voltage is designated VEE and the collector-base supply voltage is designated VCC.
The currents in a transistor are related as shown in Formulas:-
𝐼𝐸 = 𝐼𝐶 + 𝐼𝐵
3 Example A transistor has the following currents: IB = 20 mA and IC = 4.98 A. Calculate IE.
ANSWER Using Formula (28–1), the calculations are IE = IB + IC = 20 mA + 4.98 A = 0.02 A + 4.98 A =5A
BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR CONFIGURATIONS
As the Bipolar Transistor is a three terminal device, there are basically three possible ways to connect it within an electronic circuit with one terminal being common to both the input and output.
1. Common Base configuration
The input current flowing into the emitter is quite large as its the sum of both the base current and collector current respectively therefore, the collector current output is less than the emitter current input resulting in a current gain for this type of circuit of "1" (unity) or less, in other words the common base configuration "attenuates" the input signal. This type of amplifier configuration is a non-inverting voltage amplifier circuit, in that the signal voltages Vin and Vout are in-phase. 𝐼𝐶 Note: Alpha, 𝛼 = 𝐼𝐸
Whereby 𝛼 is the common-base current gain or an amplification factor.
IE is the emitter current which is the input current of the circuit IC is the collector current which is the output current
4 2. Common Emitter configuration This type of configuration is the most commonly used circuit for transistor based amplifiers and which represents the "normal" method of bipolar transistor connection. The common emitter amplifier configuration produces the highest current and power gain of all the three bipolar transistor configurations. Therefore, any small change in the base current (Ib), will result in a much larger change in the collector current (Ic). Then, small changes in current flowing in the base will thus control the current in the emitter-collector circuit. Typically, Beta has a value between 20 and 200 for most general purpose transistors.
In this configuration the following equations raised:-
𝐼𝐶 Beta, 𝛽 = 𝐼𝐵
Whereby 𝛽 is the common emitter current gain or amplification factor
IB is the base current which is the input current IC is the collector current which is the output current
5 3. Common Collector configuration This type of configuration is commonly known as a Voltage Follower or Emitter Follower circuit. The emitter follower configuration is very useful for impedance matching applications because of the very high input impedance, in the region of hundreds of thousands of Ohms while having a relatively low output impedance.
TRANSISTOR OPERATING REGIONS
Either forward or reverse biasing is done to the emitter and collector junctions of the transistor. These biasing methods make the transistor circuit to work in three kinds of regions such as Active region, Saturation region and Cutoff region.
Active region This is the region in which transistors have many applications. This is also called linear region. A transistor in this region, acts better as an Amplifier. This region lies between saturation and cutoff. The transistor operates in active region when the emitter junction is forward biased and collector junction is reverse biased. In the active state (in common emitter configuration), collector current is as follows as discussed above. 𝐼𝐶 = 𝛽𝐼𝐵
Saturation region As can be seen in figure below, when VCE is zero, IC is zero because the collector- base function is not reverse-biased when VCE = 0. Without a positive voltage at the collector, it cannot attract electrons from the base. When VCE increases from zero, however, IC increases linearly. The vertical portion of the curves near the origin is called the saturation region. When a transistor is saturated, the collector current, IC, is not controlled solely by the base current, IB
6 Cutoff Region Notice the IB = 0 curve nearest the horizontal axis in figure above. This is called the cutoff region because only a small collector current, IC, flows. For silicon transistors, this current is very small and is therefore usually ignored. A transistor is said to be cut off when its collector current, IC, is zero.
Example Consider example below and calculate IC, IB and VCE
From Kirchhoff’s voltage law
𝑉𝐵𝐵 = 𝐼𝐵 𝑅𝐵 + 𝑉𝐵𝐸
7 𝑉𝐵𝐵 − 𝑉𝐵𝐸 𝐼𝐵 = 𝑅𝐵 5 − 0.7 𝐼𝐵 = 56𝑘 =76.78 µA Then the collector current is calculated as below 𝐼𝐶 From 𝛽= 𝐼𝐵
Then, 𝐼𝐶 = 𝛽𝐼𝐵 𝐼𝐶 = 100 × 76.78µ 𝐼𝐶 = 7.678mA With IC known, the collector-emitter voltage, VCE, can be found. This is shown in Formula from Kirchhoff’s voltage law 𝑉𝐶𝐶 = 𝐼𝐶 𝑅𝐶 + 𝑉𝐶𝐸 𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝐼𝐶 𝑅𝐶 𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 15 − (7.678𝑚 × 1𝑘) 𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 7.32 𝑉
Example Calculate IE and VC
8 Answer Note: there is no potential to drive current to the Base terminal, Therefore VB = 0V 𝑉𝐵 = 𝑉𝐵𝐸 + 𝐼𝐸 𝑅𝐸 + (−𝑉𝐸𝐸 ) 𝑉𝐸𝐸 = 𝑉𝐵𝐸 + 𝐼𝐸 𝑅𝐸 𝑉𝐸𝐸 − 𝑉𝐵𝐸 𝐼𝐸 = 𝑅𝐸 6 − 0.7 𝐼𝐸 = 1𝑘 𝐼𝐸 = 5.3 𝑚𝐴 For common emitter mode, IE = IC = 5.3 𝑚𝐴 Note that VC is the potential of collector terminal with respect to ground Then, 𝑉𝐶𝐶 = 𝑉𝐶 + 𝐼𝐶 𝑅𝐶 𝑉𝐶 = 𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝐼𝐶 𝑅𝐶 𝑉𝐶 = 15 − (5.3𝑚 × 1.5𝑘) = 7.05 V
Example Consider example below and calculate IC, IB and VCE (assume IC ≈ IE)
9 Answer Notice that VB is the voltage measured from the base lead to ground, which is actually the voltage drop across R2. Since the voltage divider is made up of R1 and R2, VB can be calculated using the voltage divider formula. 𝑅2 𝑉𝐵 = 𝑉 𝑅1 + 𝑅2 𝐶𝐶 5.1𝑘 𝑉𝐵 = 15 27𝑘 + 5.1𝑘 = 2.38 V From Kirchhoff’s voltage law 𝑉𝐵 = 𝐼𝐸 𝑅𝐸 + 𝑉𝐵𝐸 𝑉𝐵 − 𝑉𝐵𝐸 𝐼𝐸 = 𝑅𝐸 2.38 − 0.7 𝐼𝐸 = 240 IE = IC = 7 mA 𝐼𝐶 Therefore, From 𝛽= 𝐼𝐵
𝐼𝐶 7𝑚 𝐼𝐵 = = = 0.7𝜇𝐴 𝛽 100 To calculate VCE, consider Kirchhoff’s voltage law 𝑉𝐶𝐶 = 𝐼𝐶 𝑅𝐶 + 𝑉𝐶𝐸 + 𝐼𝐸 𝑅𝐸 But IC = IE 𝑉𝐶𝐶 = 𝐼𝐶 𝑅𝐶 + 𝑉𝐶𝐸 + 𝐼𝐸 𝑅𝐸 𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝐼𝐶 (𝑅𝐶 + 𝑅𝐸 ) 𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 15 − 7𝑚(1𝑘 + 240) = 6.32 V
10 Calculating saturation current, IC(sat) and cutoff voltage, VCE(off) from the same problem a) Saturation current Consider the equation, 𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝐼𝐶 (𝑅𝐶 + 𝑅𝐸 ) 𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝑉𝐶𝐸 𝐼𝐶 = 𝑅𝐸 + 𝑅𝐶 Note: At saturation region VCE approximates Zero 𝑉𝐶𝐶 15 𝐼𝐶(𝑠𝑎𝑡) = = = 12.1𝑚𝐴 𝑅𝐸 + 𝑅𝐶 1𝑘 + 240 b) Cut off voltage Conversely, at cut off region collector current approximates zero Therefore, VCE(off) = VCC = 15 V
