1

Transistor Operation
Simple Bias Circuit
As was seen with diodes the word Bias refers to turning a semiconductor device on. In this case the
device to be turned-on is a transistor.









Operation
Initially with no base current flowing the output or collector voltage V
OUT
= V
C
= V
CC
the supply voltage.
The resistor R
B
is connected from V
CC
to the base of the transistor. Base current will flow in the
transistor causing the transistor to turn on. The base-emitter junction in the transistor is just like a
diode.



The base current causes a collector current to flow I
C
= x I
B

Current flow through the collector resistor R
C
will cause a voltage drop on this resistor of V
RC
and the
V
OUT
= V
C
will start to decrease from the value of V
CC
the supply voltage. This follows from KVL.
V
CC
- V
RC
- V
C
= 0 so V
C
= V
CC
- V
RC



Transistor On
Base-Emitter voltage V
BE
= 0.7 V

2

Example
Calculate the values of I
B
, V
BE
, I
C
and V
C
.



= 150






I
B
= (12 V - 0.7 V)/ 270 k = 42 A I
C
= x I
B
= 150 x 42 A = 6.28 mA
V
RC
= I
C
x R
C
= 6.28 mA x 1 k = 6.28 V V
C
= 12 V 6.28 V = 5.72 V

Transistor States
Cut-Off Transistor Off State
When the transistor is in the Cut-Off state it is not conducting and there are no transistor currents (I
B
or
I
C
) flowing. In the circuit shown the input voltage V
BB
is a variable voltage source and it is initially set to 0
volts.







3

With the input voltage set to 0 volts there will be no base current I
B
. If the base current is zero then the
collector current is zero (Why?) and the collector voltage V
C
will be equal to the supply voltage V
CC

(Why?). This state is called Cut-off for the transistor. Note: At this point it is also useful to starting
referring to V
C
as the collector-emitter voltage V
CE
.



Saturation
If Cut-Off refers to a transistor that is off, the Saturation state refers to a transistor that is fully on.
Consider the previous circuit. If we now start to increase the input voltage V
BB
, then base current will
flow. Collector current will now also start to flow and a voltage drop will develop on the collector
resistor R
C
. The result is that the collector (or collector-emitter) voltage will start decreasing from the
value of V
CC
.
If the input voltage V
BB
is increased further the base and collector currents will continue to increase, the
voltage drop on the collector resistor R
C
will also increase and the collector-emitter voltage will also
decrease getting closer to zero volts. At some value of the input voltage the input voltage will be large
enough to decrease the collector-emitter voltage to approximately 0 volts.
Any further increase in V
BB
and thus I
B
will no longer have an effect of the collector current and the
collector-emitter voltage the collector-emitter voltage cannot decrease any more than 0 volts.
This state for the transistor is called Saturation.



Notes:
1. The value of the maximum collector current I
C,Max
= I
C,Sat
= V
CC
/R
C

2. For a saturated transistor V
CE
= 0.1 to 0.2 V. If V
CE
is exactly zero then the transistor is likely
shorted between the collector and emitter leads and would be considered non-functional.

Active Region
A further third region of operation can be specified as the Active Region. The Active Region lies
between the 2 states of Cut-Off and Saturation and has non-zero collector currents less than the
maximum value and a collector-emitter voltage V
CE
between V
CC
and 0 volts.
Characteristics of Transistor Cut-off
I
C
= 0 and V
C
(or V
CE
) = V
CC

Characteristics of Saturation
I
C
is a maximum value and V
CE
0 V
4

Transistor Load Line
This graph of V
CE
vs I
C
allows the 3 region or states to plotted and seen visually. The Cut-Off, Saturation
points and the Active Region are displayed
V
CE

Cut-Off (V
CE
=V
CC
, I
C
=0)

Active Region


I
C


Saturation (V
CE
0, I
c,Max
)
Transistor Switch Application
A switch can be designed using a transistor much like what was done for a diode. The benefit of a
transistor switch is that small voltage and currents (at the input) can be used to control larger voltages
and currents at the output. This would be useful in switching powerful motors, lighting and other
output devices.
Transistor Switch Circuit
The circuit shown illustrates a transistor switch. The input to the switch is a 0 to +V square wave and the
output voltage is taken from the collector. The collector resistor can represent any of the possible loads
for the switch a motor, a light, a relay etc.



+V
0 V


5

Transistor Switch Design
Designing a transistor switch refers to picking values for the base resistor R
B
and the collector resistor R
C

so that the transistor is Cut-Off when V
IN
= 0 V and the transistor is in Saturation when V
IN
= +V.
Example
Design a transistor switch where V
CC
= + 10V, = 100, V
IN
is a 0 to +5 V square wave, and the required
current in the load resistor R
C
will be 25 mA.
The transistor needs to be saturated by the +5 V input voltage. This means that V
CE
should be 0 V and
the voltage drop on R
C
should be 10 V.
So R
C
= 10 V/25 mA = 400
The base current required to give a saturation collector current of 25 mA is called the base saturation
current I
B,sat
.
I
B,sat
= 25 mA/ = 25 mA/100 = 250 A
To allow for variation in the value of , the actual base current I
B,actual
is made

larger than the saturation
base current by a factor of 10.
I
B,actual
= 10 x I
B,sat
= 10 x 250 A = 2.5 mA
So the value of R
B
needed is R
B
= (V
IN
0.7 V) / I
B,actual
= (5 V 0.7 V)/ 2.5 mA = 1720
Picking the nearest standard values for R
C
and R
B
gives R
C
= 390 R
B
= 1.8 k
Switching Waveforms
The input and output switch waveforms as would be seen with an oscilloscope are shown.

+5
V
IN
waveform



+10
V
OUT
waveform On Off On
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It can be seen from the waveforms that when V
IN
is + 5V the transistor is on and when V
IN
is 0V the
transistor is off. This behavior leads to the observation as can be seen in the waveforms that this
transistor switch is referred to as an Inverting Switch.
Switching an Inductive Load
When the load resistor in the collector lead in changed to some other type of component such as a
motor, light or relay there are some concerns that need to be addressed. Devices such as motors, lights
or relays all have inductive components with an Inductance L and an Inductive Reactance X
L
.







In the module on Inductors it was
learned that when a changing voltage occurs in an inductor a counter or back emf (induced voltage - V
Ind
) is induced in the inductor that opposes the voltage that created it. This induced is produced when the
transistor turns off.
The input and output switch waveforms as would be seen with an oscilloscope are shown.


V
IN
waveform +5


Induced Spike voltage

V
OUT
waveform +10
On Off On Off


7

This induced Spike voltage can be several hundreds of volts in magnitude and can over time cause the
Base-Collector junction to breakdown destroying the transistor.
Eliminating the Voltage Spike
To protect the Transistor a diode (Flywheel diode) is connected in parallel with the load as shown in the
diagram. This diode is forward biased by the voltage spike and the On diode shorts the spike out.