Analysis of Transistors in Various Circuit Applications

Rey Audie Escosio, John Kenneth Rubio*

National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, Diliman Quezon City
*corresponding author: rubiojohnkenneth@gmail.com
Abstract
Properties of NPN transistors were analyzed by examining how the voltage and
current behave in each circuit configuration involving a 2N3904 transistor.
Various generated waveforms from the several circuit configurations were
utilized to verify qualitative characteristics of the transistor. For the emitterfollower circuit, the addition of VEE = -15 V at the emitter region allowed the
negative values of the waveform. It was found out that the BE junction of the
transistor had a greater voltage drop than its BC junction. It was also shown that
the experimental I-R curve obtained was different from the theoretical design
since the current decreased when the load resistance increased. Moreover, the
calculated voltage gain in a common-emitter amplifier circuit is 10.5 which is
5.0% different from the theoretical value of 10. The generated output waveform
was 180 out-of-phase. It was also found out that a transistor may be utilized as a
switch as it diverts the flow of current from the connector.
Keywords: 85.30.-z Semiconductor devices, 85.30.Pq Bipolar transistors

1. Introduction
Bipolar junction transistors, or simply transistors, consists of two PN junctions and transmits current on both
polarities, thus the name bipolar. The three terminals are called the collector (c), base (b), and emitter (e). In
comparison with unipolar field effect transistors, they are more efficient on conducting current, more currentcontrolled, higher gain, more consumption on power, and a comparably lower input resistance. [1] A consequence of
these characteristics show off a more complex and distinctive circuitry operation.
There are two device polarities that can be constructed to form a transistor: a NPN and a PNP transistor.
Commonly, both these forms exhibit same characteristics but differ on values of polarities especially on current and
voltage readings.

Figure 1. PNP and NPN bipolar junction transistors. (Image from: http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids/imgsol/tran1.gif)

While many applications can be shown using transistors, there are constraints on transistor operations. First and
foremost, there is a reverse bias between the base-collector diode. This avoids any flow of current from the base to
the collector. On the other hand, the base-emitter diode is the one that normally conducts. As shown in Figure 1, the
PNP transistor shows a forward bias from the emitter to the base while the NPN displays a forward bias from the
base to the emitter. With this conductance, we can show that

V B V E +0.6 v
that provides the base-emitter junction details of a transistor.

(1)

The collector supplying the voltage, VCC, and current, ICC, the emitter supplying the voltage, VEE, and current,
IEE, are the commonly used notations. The collector should supply a more positive magnitude of values in
comparison to the emitter. The relation of their currents show

I E =I C + I B

(2)

I c = I B

(3)

where is the DC gain found out by dividing the collector current with the base current. From here, it can be said
that the three current quantities are almost the same value.
In a common emitter amplifier, an AC signal input is used. With this setup, a bias voltage can be calculated
using Eq. 4.

V B=

V CC R 2
R 1+ R 2
(4)

This equation is based on a simple voltage divider equation, where VCC is the same supply voltage. In this circuit,
VCC maximizes the collector current if collector-emitter voltage diode, VCE = 0. From here, the base current IB can
now be computed from the collector current. In lieu with this, the voltage gain of a common emitter is

Voltage gain=

V out
=R L / R E
V

(5)
In this experiment, using the junctions, the measurement of a transistor, specifically 2N3904, was derived.
Different applications of the transistor were also shown such as, emitter-follower, common-emitter amplifier, the
transistor switch.

2. Methodology
In this experiment, transistors are incorporated in various circuit configurations in order to determine their
properties and functions. A schematic diagram of a transistor using two diode symbols were drawn in order to
emphasize that a transistor is a simplified version of two diodes connected together. Using the digital voltmeters
(DVM) diode test function, the voltages across the base-collector (BC) and the base-emitter (BE) junctions of the
2N3904 transistor were measured, and the junction with the larger voltage drop was determined. The gain was also
determined using the DVMs hfe test function.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2. The circuit diagrams for the emitter follower circuit (a) and the emitter follower
circuit with a collector load resistor (b).

To illustrate various applications utilizing a transistor, four circuits were constructed, as illustrated in Figures 23. In Figure 2 a), the emitter follower circuit was assembled by connecting 1 k resistor to the transistors base and
to the function generator which supplied the circuit with a sine wave input with a peak-to-peak voltage Vpp = 10 V
and a frequency f = 1 kHz, without any offset. A direct voltage VCC = 15 V was applied to the transistors collector
while a 3.3 k resistor was connected to the transistors emitter on one side and to a ground on the other. It is called
an emitter follower since the output terminal is the emitter, which follows the base, acting as the input. The input and
output waveforms were generated and were shown in the oscilloscope. Moreover, the emitter return VEE was
connected to a -15 V instead of the ground. The input and output waveforms were also generated and were
compared to the earlier cases waveforms.
Similar to the circuit constructed in Figure 2 a),the emitter follower circuit with a collector load resistor, as
illustrated in Figure 2 b), was assembled by placing a variable resistor across the trasistors collector, which is also
connected to an ammeter. A 15 V voltage was still applied. Moreover, the 1 k and 3.3 k resistors were replaced
with 470 and 860 resistors, with the 860 connected to the ground. The I-R of the variable resistor was
determined by varying the variable resistor Rload was varied from 1 k to 20 k with an increment of 2 k and
measuring the current passing through Rload.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3. The circuit diagrams for the common-emitter amplifier circuit (a) and the transistor
switch (b).

In Figure 3 a), a common-emitter amplifier circuit was illustrated. Unlike the emitter follower circuit, there is no
base resistor in this circuit. The capacitor is connected in parallel to the 5.6 k and 56 k resistors and to the base
of the transistor. The transistors collector and emitter pins are then connected to the 6.8 k and 680 resistors,
respectively. The 5.6 k and 680 resistors are connected to a common ground while the 56 k and 6.8 k
resistors are in parallel to a direct voltage source supplying 15 V. In this circuit, the output terminal is the collector
rather than the emitter.
Another application of incorporating a transistor in a circuit is the transistor switch as a lamp driver. In this kind
of circuit, shown in Figure 3 b), a 1 k resistor is connected to the transistors base pin on one end and on a switch
at the other end while the collector and emitter pins are connected to a LED and the ground, respectively. A direct
voltage source with an input of 5 V is connected in parallel with the switch and the LED. The behavior of the circuit
was determined when the base current was turned on and off by connecting and disconnecting one end of the resistor
out of the breadboard.

3. Results and Discussion

The characteristics of a 2N9304 transistor were determined. It was determined that the transistor used has a
larger voltage drop at the BE junction voltage was found to be 0.247 V as compared to the BC junction which has
the value of 0.243 V. Thus, the BE junction has a slightly larger forward voltage drop than the BC junction. This
larger voltage drop across the BE junction is mainly due to the doping of the emitter region of the transistor. The
emitter region is the most heavily doped region of the transistor since it operates to bring in a large amount of
electrons into the base, which then are gathered by the collector, so that switching or amplification can occur.

Transistors are also considered to be extensions of the diodes wherein two individual signal diodes are joined
together back-to-back to form two PN-junctions in series, sharing a common P or N terminal which then creates a
three terminal device. Thus, NPN-type transistors can be drawn as two signal diodes with their anodes linked
together, as illustrated in Figure 4 below. The direction of the arrow from the base to the emitter indicates the current
flows direction through the transistor.

Figure 4. Circuit diagram for NPN transistor as combination of two individual signal diodes.

An emitter follower was constructed with a sinusoidal wave input with peak to peak voltage or V pp = 10 V,
frequency = 1 kHz, and no offset. With these parameters and following Figure 2 a), Figure 5 a) showed the emitter
followers input and output signal waveforms. Notice that the output signal almost followed the trajectory of the
input signal except that it does not allow the negative values, wherein it placed its values as zero. Both signal
waveforms peaked at 5.2 V. The input waveforms lowest point is at -5.6 V and the output waveforms lowest point
is at 0.0 V. Tracked with some offset of 0.2 V (which is inside the acceptable value of 0.7 V [1]), the output
waveform simply followed the input waveform, thus being called an emitter follower.
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
V -0.0040 -0.0020 0.0000
-2.00

5.20E+00
0.00E+00
0.0020

0.0040

-4.00
-6.00
-8.00

-5.60E+00

8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
V
0.00
-0.0040 -0.0020-2.00
0.0000
-4.00
-6.00
-8.00

t (s)
Input Signal

Output Signal

5.40E+00
4.60E+00

0.0020

0.0040

-6.00E+00

t (s)
Input Signal

Output Signal

Figure 5.Input and output signal diagrams for an emitter follower (a) without an emitter return
and (b) with an emitter return

For the case wherein an emitter supply voltage or VEE = -15 V, the Figure 5 b) was plotted by the oscilloscope.
Adding this supply voltage maximized and improved the quiescent emitter voltage, allowing the values of negative
for the output waveform. A 0.8 V offset was seen between the input waveform and the output waveform which is
relatively close to the acceptable offset of 0.7 V. Again, the output waveform followed the input waveform.
The curve of the current across the load resistor as function of its resistance is shown in Figure 6. The curve
shows that the Iload decreases linearly as the Rload increases from 1 k to 6 k then settles for a while from 6 k to 10
k at 2 mA, and then decrease to its lowest value of 1 mA where it settled. Since the Beta value relates the
collector current to the base current, from Eq. 2, the collector current must have a constant value of 0.01 regardless
of the value of the load resistance since the base current is constant at 0.01 A which was determined using Ohms
law with the external base resistor that has a value of R B = 470 and the applied voltage of 5 V. Since the current in
this type of circuit is not constant, this type of circuit is not an ideal current source. This phenomenon is due to the
series connection of the load resistance with the collector of the transistor. In Eq. 2, the current through the collector
is the difference of the currents through the emitter and the base. Since the load resistance is in series with the
collector, the current through the collector is equal to the current through the load resistor.

0.01
0.01
0

Current (in A)

0
0
0
0

10000

20000

30000

Resistance (in )
Figure 6.The I-R curve of a load resistor that is connected to the collector pin of the 2N3904
transistor in an emitter-follower circuit.

In Figure 3a), the transistor is combined with other circuit components to create a common-emitter amplifier
circuit. As its name suggests, the common-emitter amplifier takes in and amplify all of the input signals with the
minimum amount of noise to the output signal. It can be seen in Figure 7 that the peak-to-peak voltage of the output
signal is 10.5 times the peak-to-peak voltage of the input signal, implying that the input signal was amplified. This
increase signifies the experimental voltage gain of the input signal. Since the voltage gain is also taken as the ratio of
the external resistance in the collector RC to the external resistance in the emitter RE, then the theoretical voltage gain
is 10, provided that the resistance in the collector is 6.8 k while the resistance in the emitter is 680 . Thus, the
percent error obtained is 5.0%. This small error must have been due to the small resistance of the emitter pin that
was not taken in consideration since the transistor provides a small resistance to the current flowing through it.
Moreover, the output signal is 180 out-of-phase since the base of the transistor was biased by the two resistors R1
and R2 which act as a voltage divider to reduce the effect of a varying forward current gain by dividing the input
signal in proportion to the resistance.

Figure 7. Input and output waveforms of a common-emitter amplifier circuit.

Lastly, the transistor switch circuit was assembled. This consisted a base supply current of 5 V connected
parallel to the base via a switch with a 1 k and to an LED light. The emitter was opted onto the ground. Turning
on the base current would connect the resistor and lit up the LED light. Turning off the base current would
disconnect the resistor and close the LED light. This testified that a transistor may be utilized as a switch for any
light-emitting component as it diverts the flow of current from the connector.

Conclusion
With these observations, one can use the transistor on different measurements and applications. It was found out
that the BE junction has a slightly larger forward voltage drop than the BC junction, with a small difference of 0.003
V. Yet, it was also proven that two individual diodes may work as a transistor.
An emitter follower was also constructed and proven by showing that the output waveform followed the input
waveform on both setups, but with the difference that with an emitter supply voltage, the trajectory of the output
waveform improved, that allowed negative values, as compared to only connecting it to the ground.
From the current source circuit, it was found out that the current across the load decreases as the load resistance
increases. Between Iload and Rload from 1 k to 6 k, the current decreased, then settled for a while from 6 k to 10
k at 2 mA, and then decreased to its lowest value of 1 mA where it settled. Thus, it was shown that the current
decreased despite the theoretical being constant value at 0.01 regardless of the value of the load resistance.
Shown in a transmitter amplifier, the peak-to-peak voltage of the output signal is 10.5 times the peak-to-peak
voltage of the input signal, implying that the input signal was amplified. Lastly, a transistor was also used as an LED
switch using the three terminals and a resistor.
Errors were considered in this experiment such as value uncertainty, fluctuations of data, and limited human
reaction time.
References:
[1] Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill (1989), The Art of Electronics (Second ed.), Cambridge University Press
[2] Neil Storey (2009), Electronics: A Systems Approach (Fourth ed.), Pearson Education Limited.