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Physics of Bipolar Junction
Transistors
Prepared by: Siavash Kananian
1
SUT 25721
Analog Circuits
Bipolar Transistor
In the chapter, we will study the physics of bipolar transistor and derive large and small signal models.
Physics of BJTs, Fundamentals of Microelectronics, B.Razavi 2
Voltage-Dependent Current Source
A voltage-dependent current source can act as an amplifier.
If KRL is greater than 1, then the signal is amplified.
Physics of BJTs, Fundamentals of Microelectronics, B.Razavi 3
L
in
out
VKR
V
VA
Voltage-Dependent Current Source with
Input Resistance
Regardless of the input resistance, the magnitude of amplification remains unchanged.
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Exponential Voltage-Dependent Current
Source
A three-terminal exponential voltage-dependent current source is shown above.
Ideally, bipolar transistor can be modeled as such.
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Structure and Symbol of Bipolar
Transistor
Bipolar transistor can be thought of as a sandwich of three doped Si regions. The outer two regions are doped with the same polarity, while the middle region is doped with opposite polarity. Physics of BJTs, Fundamentals of Microelectronics, B.Razavi 6
Injection of Carriers
Reverse biased PN junction creates a large electric field that sweeps any injected minority carriers to their majority region.
This ability proves essential in the proper operation of a bipolar transistor.
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Forward Active Region
Forward active region: VBE > 0, VBC < 0.
Figure b) presents a wrong way of modeling figure a).
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Accurate Bipolar Representation
Collector also carries current due to carrier injection from base.
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Carrier Transport in Base
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Collector Current
Applying the law of diffusion, we can determine the charge flow across the base region into the collector.
The equation above shows that the transistor is indeed a voltage-controlled element, thus a good candidate as an amplifier.
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BE
inE
S
T
BESC
T
BE
BE
inE
C
WN
nqDAI
V
VII
V
V
WN
nqDAI
2
2
exp
1exp
Parallel Combination of Transistors
When two transistors are put in parallel and experience the same potential across all three terminals, they can be thought of as a single transistor with twice the emitter area.
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Simple Transistor Configuration
Although a transistor is a voltage to current converter, output voltage can be obtained by inserting a load resistor at the output and allowing the controlled current to pass thru it.
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Constant Current Source
Ideally, the collector current does not depend on the collector to emitter voltage. This property allows the transistor to behave as a constant current source when its base-emitter voltage is fixed.
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Base Current
Base current consists of two components: 1) Reverse injection of holes into the emitter and 2) recombination of holes with electrons coming from the emitter.
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BCII
Emitter Current
Applying Kirchoff’s current law to the transistor, we can easily find the emitter current.
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B
C
CE
BCE
I
I
II
III
11
Summary of Currents
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1
exp1
exp1
exp
T
BESE
T
BESB
T
BESC
V
VII
V
VII
V
VII
Bipolar Transistor Large Signal Model
A diode is placed between base and emitter and a voltage controlled current source is placed between the collector and emitter.
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Example: Maximum RL
As RL increases, Vx drops and eventually forward biases the collector-base junction. This will force the transistor out of forward active region.
Therefore, there exists a maximum tolerable collector resistance.
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Characteristics of Bipolar Transistor
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Example: IV Characteristics
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Transconductance
Transconductance, gm shows a measure of how well the transistor converts voltage to current.
It will later be shown that gm is one of the most important parameters in circuit design.
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T
C
m
T
BES
T
m
T
BES
BE
m
V
Ig
V
VI
Vg
V
VI
dV
dg
exp1
exp
Visualization of Transconductance
gm can be visualized as the slope of IC versus VBE.
A large IC has a large slope and therefore a large gm.
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Transconductance and Area
When the area of a transistor is increased by n, IS increases by n. For a constant VBE, IC and hence gm
increases by a factor of n. Physics of BJTs, Fundamentals of Microelectronics, B.Razavi 24
Transconductance and Ic
The figure above shows that for a given VBE swing, the current excursion around IC2 is larger than it would be around IC1. This is because gm is larger IC2.
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Small-Signal Model: Derivation
Small signal model is derived by perturbing voltage difference every two terminals while fixing the third terminal and analyzing the change in current of all three terminals. We then represent these changes with controlled sources or resistors.
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Small-Signal Model: VBE Change
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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 has no effect on the small signal model, either.
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Small Signal Example I
Here, small signal parameters are calculated from DC operating point and are used to calculate the change in collector current due to a change in VBE.
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375
75.3
1
m
T
C
m
gr
V
Ig
Small Signal Example II
In this example, a resistor is placed between the power supply and collector, therefore, providing an output voltage.
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Early Effect
The claim that collector current does not depend on VCE is not accurate.
As VCE increases, the depletion region between base and collector increases. Therefore, the effective base width decreases, which leads to an increase in the collector current.
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Early Effect Illustration
With Early effect, collector current becomes larger
than usual and a function of VCE.
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Early Effect Representation
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Early Effect and Large-Signal Model
Early effect can be accounted for in large-signal model by simply changing the collector current with a correction factor.
In this mode, base current does not change.
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Early Effect and Small-Signal Model
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C
A
T
BES
A
C
CE
oI
V
V
VI
V
I
Vr
exp
Summary of Ideas
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Microelectronics, B.Razavi
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Bipolar Transistor in Saturation
When collector voltage drops below base voltage and forward biases the collector-base junction, base current increases and decreases the current gain factor, .
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Large-Signal Model for Saturation Region
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Overall I/V Characteristics
The speed of the BJT also drops in saturation.
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Example: Acceptable VCC Region
In order to keep BJT at least in soft saturation region, the collector voltage must not fall below the base voltage by more than 400mV.
A linear relationship can be derived for VCC and RC and an acceptable region can be chosen.
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)400( mVVRIVBECCCC
Deep Saturation
In deep saturation region, the transistor loses its voltage-
controlled current capability and VCE becomes constant.
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PNP Transistor
With the polarities of emitter, collector, and base reversed, a PNP transistor is formed.
All the principles that applied to NPN's also apply to PNP’s, with the exception that emitter is at a higher potential than base and base at a higher potential than collector. Physics of BJTs, Fundamentals of Microelectronics, B.Razavi 42
A Comparison between NPN and PNP Transistors
The figure above summarizes the direction of current flow and operation regions for both the NPN and PNP BJT’s.
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PNP Equations
Physics of BJTs, Fundamentals of
Microelectronics, B.Razavi
44
A
EC
T
EBSC
T
EBSE
T
EBS
B
T
EBSC
V
V
V
VII
V
VII
V
VII
V
VII
1exp
exp1
exp
exp
Early Effect
Large Signal Model for PNP
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PNP Biasing
Note that the emitter is at a higher potential than both the base and collector.
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Small Signal Analysis
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Small-Signal Model for PNP Transistor
The small signal model for PNP transistor is exactly IDENTICAL to that of NPN. This is not a mistake because the current direction is taken care of by the polarity of VBE.
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Small Signal Model Example I
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Small Signal Model Example II
Small-signal model is identical to the previous ones.
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Small Signal Model Example III
Since during small-signal analysis, a constant voltage supply is considered to be AC ground, the final small-signal model is identical to the previous two.
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Small Signal Model Example IV
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A little Frequency Response!
Consider the common emitter circuit above. Derive the Vo-Vi characteristics for f=10Hz.
Oscilloscope Screen on right:
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Raising the frequency
and checking the screen
again, give some
unpredictable result!
f = 1kHz
f = 10kHz
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f = 100kHz
What happens?
Do you remember from earlier experiments, the Lissajous Patterns?
It seems that input and output at higher frequencies have some phase shift!
Why on earth something like that would happen? Is there a capacitor somewhere we don’t see?
The answer is yes! BJT internal capacitors is the key to the question.
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BJT at high frequency
At high frequency, capacitive effects come into play. Cb represents the base charge, whereas C and Cje are the junction capacitances.
Since an integrated bipolar circuit is fabricated on top of a substrate, another junction capacitance exists between the collector and substrate, namely CCS.
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Another look at Characteristics: SPICE Simulation
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f = 100kHz f = 10kHz
f = 1kHz f = 10Hz
SPICE Code
In case you want to discover new things yourself:
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Bc107_high_frequency
.options spice
vcc 5 0 12
r1 5 3 10k
r2 1 2 100k
q1 3 2 0 bc107
v1 1 0 sin 0 3 1
.tran 100u 200m
.probe v(3)
.model bc107 npn Is=7.049f Xti=3 Eg=1.11 Vaf=116.3 Bf=375.5 Ise=7.049f Ne=1.281
Ikf=4.589 Nk=.5 Xtb=1.5 Br=2.611 Isc=121.7p Nc=1.865 Ikr=5.313 Rc=1.464 Cjc=5.38p
Mjc=.329 Vjc=.6218 Fc=.5 Cje=11.5p Mje=.2717 Vje=.5 Tr=10n Tf=451p Itf=6.194
Xtf=17.43 Vtf=10
.op
.end