Experiment 7: BJT Common Base and Common Collector

Characteristics
A Aim:
The purpose of this experiment is to get familiarize with LTspice EDA tool, and to perform a
simple experiment in LTspice to observe the input and output characteristics (I-V curves) of a
transistor connected in CB and CC configurations. In this experiment, we are also going to
calculate various BJT parameters from the obtained I-V curves and compare them with the
parameters provided in the spice model.

A. Components:
BJT - 2N2222
Voltage sources
Current sources

B. Theory:
A BJT transistor is a three terminal active device. These three terminals are emitter, base,
collector. In CB configuration, the base is common to both input (emitter) and output (collector).
Similarly, in CC configuration, the collector is common to the remaining two terminals. In either
of these configurations, active mode is the most preferred mode of operation for analog
applications. In active mode, the E-B junction (EBJ) is forward biased and C-B junction (CBJ) is
reverse biased. In active mode, current IC is only a function of VBE, assuming that the Early effect
is negligible. When BJT is operating in other modes (i.e., saturation and cutoff), current flow in
all the terminals is negligible as we will see in this experiment. In this experiment, we are going
to observe BJT input and output characteristics in all these mode for CB and CC configurations.

C. Circuit Diagrams:

Fig. 1: CB configuration: (a) input characteristics (b) output characteristics

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Fig. 2: CC configuration: (a) input characteristics (b) output characteristics

D. Procedure:
CB Input Characteristics:
1. Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 1(a). Source and transistor labels may change in your
case.
2. For plotting the input characteristics, the input voltage VEB is varied from 0 to 1 V (step
size = 0.01 V) and the output voltage VCB is varied from 1 to 5 V (step size = 1 V).
3. Plot the graph between IE vs VBE for various values of VCB.
4. Analyze the obtained graph and comment on your results.
5. Obtain the value of IS/ from the graph.
CB Output Characteristics:
1. Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 1(b).
2. For plotting the output characteristics, the output voltage VCB is varied from -2 to 10 V
(step size = 0.01 V) and the input current IE is varied from 10 to 50 mA (step size = 10
mA).
3. Plot the graph between IC vs VCB for various values of IE.
4. Analyze the obtained graph and comment on your results.
5. Obtain the value of from the graph and obtain IS value from it.
CC Input Characteristics:
1. Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 2(a).
2. For plotting the input characteristics, the input voltage VCB is varied from 0 to 10 V (step
size = 0.01 V) and the output voltage VCE is varied from 1 to 5 V (step size = 1 V).
3. Plot the graph between IB vs VCB for various values of VCE.
4. Analyze the obtained graph and comment on your results.
CC Output Characteristics:
1. Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 2(b).
2. For plotting the output characteristics, the output voltage VCE is varied from 0 to 10 V
(step size = 0.01 V) and the input current I B is varied from 10u to 50 uA (step size = 10
uA).
3. Plot the graph between IE vs VCE for various values of IB.
4. Analyze the obtained graph and comment on your results.
5. Obtain the value of and forced (at some point in the saturation region) from the graph.

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E. Results:
The input and output characteristics of the BJT in CB and CC configurations are drawn, and
various transistor parameters are obtained from these characteristic curves.

F. Viva Questions:
1. Identify various regions in the output characteristics.
2. Define the transistor parameters , and forced.
3. What are the ranges (in general) for the parameters, and ?
4. What is the relation between and ?
5. What are the applications of CB and CC configurations?
6. What are the input and output dynamic impedances of CB and CC configurations?
7. What is Early effect?
8. Draw the circuit diagrams of CB and CC configurations for PNP transistor.
9. What are the voltage, current, and power gains of CB and CC configurations?
10. If you want to perform this experiment in LTspice with BC107, what should you do?

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