ECE 374, Part V

Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)

The reconstructed
first point-contact
transistor (Bell
Labs Museum)

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The BJT Discovery
John Bardeen, Walter
Brattain and William
Shockley discovered the
transistor effect and
developed the first device in
December 1947, while the
three were members of the
technical staff at Bell
Laboratories in Murray Hill,
NJ.

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The BJT Discovery

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 The BJT Discovery

Gordon Teal [left], while working at Bell Labs, and fellow

physical chemist Morgan Sparks successfully fabricated the
first working junction transistor from a germanium crystal. 4
 BJT: Introduction
A Bipolar Transistor essentially consists of a pair of PN
Junction Diodes that are joined back-to-back. This forms
a sort of a sandwich where one kind of semiconductor is
placed in between two others. The device is called
"bipolar" since its operation involves both types of
mobile carriers, electrons and holes. There are therefore
two kinds of Bipolar sandwich, the NPN and PNP
varieties. The three layers of the sandwich are
conventionally called the Collector, Base, and Emitter.
The reasons for these names will become clear later once
we see how the transistor works.

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BJT: Introduction
There are two
kinds of Bipolar
sandwich, the
NPN and PNP
varieties. The
three layers of
the sandwich are
conventionally
called the
Collector, Base,
and Emitter.
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 BJT: Introduction
Some of the basic properties exhibited by a BJT are very
similar to that of a diode. However, when the 'filling' of the
sandwich is fairly thin some interesting effects become
possible that allow us to use the Transistor as an amplifier
or a switch. To see how the Bipolar Transistor works we
can concentrate on an NPN transistor

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BJT: Energy band diagram

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 BJT: Energy band diagram
Figure shows the energy bands in an NPN transistor
without external bias (equilibrium). The energy band
arrangement looks like a back-to-back pair of PN
junctions. In each of the N-type layers conduction can take
place by the free movement of electrons in the conduction
band. In the P-type layer conduction can take place by the
movement of the free holes in the valence band. However,
in the absence of any external bias, we find that carriers
cannot move over the NPN energy barrier.

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BJT: Energy band diagram

Collector base
applied bias

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 BJT: Energy band diagram
Collector - Base voltage is applied: The polarity of the
applied voltage is chosen to increase the force pulling the
N-type electrons and P-type holes apart. (i.e. we make the
Collector positive with respect to the Base.) This widens
the depletion zone between the Collector and base and no
current flows. In effect we have reverse-biased the Base-
Collector diode p-n junction. The applied voltage should
be below the p-n junction breakdown voltage.

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BJT: Energy band diagram

Emitter base
applied bias 12
 BJT: Energy band diagram
Here, we apply a relatively small Emitter-Base voltage,
i.e. forward-bias to the Emitter-Base p-n junction. This
forces electrons from the Emitter into the Base region
and sets up a current flow across the Emitter-Base
junction. Once the electrons are in the Base region, they
respond to the attractive force from the positively-biased
Collector region and moves toward the Collector. Hence
we see a Emitter-Collector current whose magnitude is
set by the chosen Emitter-Base voltage. To maintain the
current flow through the transistor, we inject electrons
from the emitter and remove them the base region (i.e.
collect them).
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 BJT: Energy band diagram
The emitter-collector current is mainly set by how easy it
is for electrons to get from the Emitter into the Base
region (i.e. emitter-base voltage). Most (but not all!) the
electrons that get into the Base move straight on into the
Collector, assuming that the Collector voltage is positive
enough to draw them out of the Base region.
Bipolar transistors, having 2 junctions, are 3 terminal
semiconductor devices. The three terminals are emitter,
collector, and base. Thus, a transistor can be either NPN
or PNP.

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BJT: principle of operation
(a) Structure and sign
convention of a
NPN bipolar
junction transistor.
(b) Electron and hole
flow under
forward active
bias, VBE > 0 and
VBC = 0.

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 BJT: Emitter, Collector and Base
Currents
The sign convention of the currents and voltage is indicated
on Figure (see previous slide). The base and collector
current are positive if a positive current goes into the base or
collector contact. The emitter current is positive for a current
coming out of the emitter contact. This also implies the
emitter current, IE, equals the sum of the base current, IB, and
the collector current, IC:

The base-emitter voltage and the base-collector voltage are

positive if a positive voltage is applied to the base contact
relative to the emitter and collector respectively. 16
 BJT: principle of operation
Electrons diffuse from the emitter into the base and holes
diffuse from the base into the emitter. This carrier diffusion is
identical to that in a p-n junction. However, what is different
is that the electrons can diffuse as minority carriers through
the quasi-neutral region in the base. Once the electrons arrive
at the base-collector depletion region, they are swept through
the depletion layer due to the electric field. These electrons
contribute to the collector current. In addition, there are two
more currents, the base recombination current, indicated on
by the vertical arrow, and the base-emitter depletion layer
recombination current.
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BJT: Flow of Currents

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 BJT: Total Current
The total emitter current is the sum of the electron diffusion
current, IE,n, the hole diffusion current, IE,p and the base-
emitter depletion layer recombination current, Ir,d.
The total collector current is the electron diffusion current,
IE,n, minus the base recombination current, Ir,B.The base
current is the sum of the hole diffusion current, IE,p, the base
recombination current, Ir,B and the base-emitter depletion
layer recombination current, Ir,d.

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 BJT: Transport Factor and
Current Gain
The transport factor, is defined as the ratio of the
collector and emitter current:

Using Kirchoff's current law, we find that the base current

equals the difference between the emitter and collector
current. The current gain, is defined as the ratio of the
collector and base current and equals:

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 BJT: Emitter Efficiency, Base
Transport and Base Recombination
This explains how a bipolar junction transistor can provide
current amplification. If the collector current is almost equal
to the emitter current, the transport factor, approaches
one. The current gaincan therefore become much larger
than one.
To facilitate further analysis, we now rewrite the transport
factor, as the product of the emitter efficiencythe
base transport factorand the depletion layer
recombination factor

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 BJT: Emitter Efficiency, Base
Transport and Base Recombination
The emitter efficiency, is defined as the ratio of the
electron current in the emitterto the sum of the electron
and hole current diffusing across the base-emitter
junction

The base transport factor, equals the ratio of the current

due to electrons injected in the collector, to the current due to
electrons injected in the base.

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 BJT: Emitter Efficiency, Base
Transport and Base Recombination
Recombination in the depletion-region of the base-emitter
junction further reduces the current gain, as it increases the
emitter current without increasing the collector current. The
depletion layer recombination factor, equals the ratio of
the current due to electron and hole diffusion across the base-
emitter junction to the total emitter current:

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 BJT: Forward Active Mode
The forward active mode is obtained by forward-biasing
the base-emitter junction. In addition we eliminate the
base-collector junction current by setting VBC = 0. The
minority-carrier distribution in the quasi-neutral regions of
the bipolar transistor, is shown in next Figure, and it is
used to analyze this situation in more detail.

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 BJT: I-V Characteristics
The emitter current due to electrons and holes are obtained
using the "short" diode expressions yielding:

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 BJT Approximations and Simple
Gain Calculations

IC IE
; I C I E I B ; For I E I B, I C I E
IB IB
For an n p n BJT I E ~ I DEn ; I B ~ I DBh
dn k BT
I eDn ; Dn
E
Dn n ; n N D ; p N A ;
dx e
E
IC I n N D
Thus,
Dn
B
I B I Dh p N A
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BJT: Symbols

Circuit
symbol of a
NPN BJT

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 BJT: I-V Characteristics

Collector current vs collector emitter voltage characteristic

for several base currents. The values are for a typical n-p-n
BJT. 28
 BJT: the Early effect
A variation of the base-collector voltage results in a variation
of the quasi-neutral width in the base. The gradient of the
minority-carrier density in the base therefore changes,
yielding an increased collector current as the collector-base
voltage is increased. This effect is referred to as the Early
effect. The Early effect is observed as an increase in the
collector current with increasing collector-emitter voltage (see
next Figure). The Early voltage, VA, is obtained by drawing a
line tangential to the transistor I-V characteristic at the point
of interest. The Early voltage equals the horizontal distance
between the point chosen on the I-V characteristics and the
intersection between the tangential line and the horizontal
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axis. It is indicated on the figure by the horizontal arrow.
BJT: the Early effect

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