What is Bipolar Transistor(BJT), Symbol, Construction, Working, Characteristics(CB,CE,CC)

What is Bipolar Transistor?

A bipolar transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used for amplification. The device can amplify analog or digital signals. It can also switch DC or function as an oscillator. Physically, a bipolar transistor amplifies current, but it can be connected in circuits designed to amplify voltage or power.

There are two major types of bipolar transistor, called

•  PNP and NPN.

A PNP transistor has a layer of N-type semiconductor between two layers of P-type material. An NPN transistor has a layer of P-type material between two layers of N-type material. In P-type material, electric charges are carried mainly in the form of electron deficiencies called holes. In N-type material, the charge carriers are primarily electrons.

History of BJTs

In 1947 J. Barden, W. Bratterin and W. Shockley invented the transistor. The term transistor was given by John R. Pierce. Though initially it was called the solid-state version of the vacuum triode, the term transistor has survived. In this article, the transistor we are concerned with is the Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT).

The word transistor is derived from the words “Transfer” and “Resistor” it describes the operation of a BJT i.e. the transfer of an input signal from a low resistance circuit to a high resistance circuit. This type of transistor is made up of semiconductors.

Transistors are used in the construction of Integrated Circuits (ICs). The number of transistors that we have been able to fit into an IC has rapidly increased since their creation, doubling approximately every 2 years (known as Moores Law).

Symbol of BJT Transistors

Let’s start with the symbol of transistors so that you can identify them in a circuit. The below diagram shows the symbols of the two types of transistors. The one on the left is the symbol of the PNP transistor and the one on the right is the symbol of the NPN transistor. As I said, you will be able to see the three terminals Emitter, Collector, and Base for both the type of Transistor.

• The Main Difference between the PNP and NPN transistors is that the arrow mark at the emitter end if you have noticed, the arrow in the PNP transistor is mentioned as moving from the emitter to the base whereas in the NPN transistor the arrow will be moving from the base to the emitter.
• The Direction of the arrow represents the direction of current flow in the transistor, in PNP the current will be flowing from emitter to base
• similarly in the NPN transistor current will be flowing from the base to emitter.

 

Another important difference is that an NPN transistor remains open until it receives a signal on the base pin while a PNP transistor remains closed until a control signal is provided to the base pin as shown in the above GIF file.

 

Construction of BJT

The BJT is formed by three layers of semiconductor materials, if it is a PNP transistor, it will have two P-type regions and one N-type region, likewise, if it is an NPN transistor, it will have two N-type regions and one P-type region. The two outer layers are where the collector and emitter terminals are fixed and the base terminal is fixed at the center layer.

can simply be explained with a two diode analogy for transistor as shown in the above image, if you want to learn more about diodes, you can consider reading his article. Consider the two diodes connected with each other using the cathode, then the meeting point can be extended to form the base terminal and the two anodes end acts as the collector and emitter of a PNP transistor. Similarly, if you connect the anode ends of the Diode then the meeting point of the anodes can be extended to for the base terminal and the two cathode ends act as the collector and emitter of the NPN transistor.

Working Principle of BJT

Practically the working of a transistor is very simple, it can be used as a switch or as an amplifier. But for basic understanding lets start with how transistor as a switch works in a circuit. A typical working of PNP transistor BC558 is shown below, Apart from this the BC547, 2N2222, BC557 are few among the popular transistors that are most commonly used.  

As you can see when a control voltage is provided to the base pin, the required base current (I_B) flows into the base pin which is controlled by a base resistor. This current turns on the transistor (switch is closed) and allows the current to flow from collector to emitter. This current is called the collector current (I_C) and the voltage across the collector and emitter is called V_BE. As you can see in the image, we are using a low-level voltage like 5V to drive a higher voltage load of 12V using this transistor.

 

Now for the theory, consider an NPN transistor, the BE junction is forward biased and the CB junction is reverse biased. The width of the depletion region at the Junction CB is higher when compared with the depletion region of the Junction BE. When the BE junction is forward biased it decreases the barrier potential, hence the electrons start flowing from the emitter to the base. The base region is very thin and it is lightly doped when compared with other regions, hence it consists of a very small number of holes, the electrons that are flowing from the emitter will recombine with the holes present in the base region and start to flow out of the base region in the form of the base current. A large number of electrons that are left will move across the reverse bias collector junction in the form of the collector current.

Based on the Kirchoff’s Current Law, we can frame the current equation as

I_E = I_B + I_C

Where, I_E, I_B, and I_C are the emitter, base, and collector current respectively. Here the base current will be very small when compared with emitter and collector current, therefore, I_E ~ I_C

 

Similarly, when you consider the PNP Transistor, they operate in the same way as the NPN transistor, but in NPN transistors the majority charge carriers are holes (Positively charged particle) but in the NPN transistor the charge carriers are the electrons (negatively charged particle).

Characteristics of BJT

BJT can be connected in three different configurations by keeping one terminal common and using the other two terminals for the input and output.  These three types of configurations respond differently to the input signal applied to the circuit because of the static characteristics of the BJT. The three different configurations of BJT are listed below.

• Common Base (CB) configuration
• Common Emitter (CE) configuration
• Common Collector (CC) Configuration

Among these, the Common Base configurations will have voltage gain, but no current gain, whereas the Common Collector Configuration has current gain, but no voltage gain and the Common Emitter Configuration will have both current and voltage gain.

 

Common Base (CB) Configuration

The Common Base configuration is also called as the grounded base configuration, where the base of the BJT is connected as a common between both the input and output signal. The input to the BJT is applied across the Base and Emitter Terminals and the output from the BJT is obtained across the Base and Collector terminal. The input current (I_E) flowing through the emitter will be quite higher when compared with both the Base current (I_B) and the Collector Current (I_C) as the emitter current is the sum of both the Base current and Collector current. Since the collector current output is less than the Emitter current input the current gain of this configuration will be unity (1) or less.

 

Input characteristics 

The input Characteristic curve for the Common Base configurations is drawn between the emitter current I_E and the voltage between the base and emitter V_EB. During the Common base configuration, the Transistor gets forward biased hence it will show characteristics similar to that of the forward characteristics of a p-n diode where the I_E increases for fixed V_EB when V_CB increases.

Output Characteristics 

The output characteristics of the Common Base configuration are given between the collector current I_C and the voltage between the collector and base V_CB, here the emitter Current I_E is the measuring parameter. Based on the operation, there are three different regions in the curve, at first, the active region, here the BJT will be operating normally and the emitter junction is reverse biased. Next comes the saturation region where both the emitter and collector junctions are forward biased. Finally, the cutoff region where both emitter and the collector junctions are reverse biased.

Common Emitter (CE) Configuration

The Common Emitter Configuration is also called the grounded emitter configuration where the emitter acts as the common terminal between the input applied between the base and emitter and the output obtained between the collector and the emitter. This configuration produces the highest current and power gain when compared with the other two types of configurations, this is because of the fact that the input impedance is low as it is connected to a forward-biased PN junction whereas the output impedance is high as it is obtained for the reverse-biased PN junction.

Input Characteristics

The input characteristics of the Common Emitter configuration are drawn between the base current I_B and the voltage between the base and emitter V_BE. Here the Voltage between the Collector and the emitter is the most common parameter. If you could see there will not be much difference between the characteristic curve of the previous configuration except for the change in parameters.

Output Characteristics

The output characteristics are drawn between the Collector Current I_C  and the voltage between the collector and the Emitter V_CE. The CE configuration also has the three different regions, in the active region the collector junction is reverse biased and the emitter junction is forward biased, in the cut-off region, the emitter junction is slightly reverse biased and the collector current is not completely cut off, and finally, in the saturation region, both the collector and the emitter junctions are forward biased.

Common Collector (CC) Configuration

The Common Collector Configuration is also called the grounded Collector configuration where the collector terminal is kept as the common terminal between the input signal applied across the base and the emitter, and the output signal obtained across the collector and the emitter. This configuration is commonly called as the Voltage follower or the emitter follower circuit. This configuration will be useful for impedance matching applications as it has very high input impedance, in the region of hundreds of thousands of ohms while having relatively low output impedance.

 

 

Types of packages

 

 

 Advantages 

1.  Bipolar devices can switch signals at high speeds, and can be manufactured to handle large currents so that they can serve as high-power amplifiers in audio equipment and in wireless transmitters.
2. Bipolar devices are not especially effective for weak-signal amplification, or for applications requiring high circuit impedance.

Disadvantages

1. Bipolar transistors are fabricated onto silicon integrated circuit (IC) chip.
2. A single IC can contain many thousands of bipolar transistors, along with other components such as resistors, capacitors, and diodes.

Application of BJT

• BJT can be used in various kinds of applications such as logic circuits,
• amplification circuits,
• oscillation circuits, multi-vibrator circuits,
• clipping circuits, circuits of the timer, time delay circuits,
• switching circuits, etc.