c Copyright 2010. W. Marshall Leach, Jr.

, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of

Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The BJT
Notation
The notations used here for voltages and currents correspond to the following conventions: Dc bias
values are indicated by an upper case letter with upper case subscripts, e.g. VDS , IC . Instantaneous
values of small-signal variables are indicated by a lower-case letter with lower-case subscripts, e.g.
vs , ic . Total values are indicated by a lower-case letter with upper-case subscripts, e.g. vBE , iD .
Circuit symbols for independent sources are circular and symbols for controlled sources have a
diamond shape. Voltage sources have a sign within the symbol and current sources have an
arrow.

Device Equations
Figure 1 shows the circuit symbols for the npn and pnp BJTs. In the active mode, the collector-base
junction is reverse biased and the base-emitter junction is forward biased. For the npn device, the
active-mode collector and base currents are given by

vBE iC
iC = IS exp iB = (1)
VT

where VT is the thermal voltage, IS is the saturation current, and is the base-to-collector current
gain. These are given by
kT
VT = = 0.025 V for T = 290 K = 25.86 mV for T = 300 K (2)
q

vCE
IS = IS0 1 + (3)
VA

vCE
= 0 1 + (4)
VA
where VA is the Early voltage and IS0 and 0 , respectively, are the zero bias values of IS and .
Because IS / = IS0 / 0 , it follows that iB is not a function of vCE . The equations apply to the
pnp device if the subscripts BE and CE are reversed.
The emitter-to-collector current gain is defined as the ratio iC /iE . To solve for this, we can
write
1 1+
iE = iB + iC = + 1 iC = iC (5)

It follows that
iC iC
= = = = (6)
iE 1+ iB 1
Thus the currents are related by the equations

iC = iB = iE (7)

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 Figure 1: BJT circuit symbols.

Transfer Characteristics
The transfer characteristics are a plot of the collector current iC as a function of the base-to-emitter
voltage vBE with the collector-to-emitter voltage vCE held constant. From Eqs. 1 and 3, we can
write
vCE vBE
iC = IS0 1 + exp (8)
VA VT
It follows that iC varies exponentially with vBE . A plot of this variation is given in Fig. 2. It
can be seen from the plot that the collector current is essentially zero until the base-to-emitter
voltage reaches a threshold value. Above this value, the collector current increases rapidly. The
threshold value is typically in the range of 0.5 to 0.6 V. For high current transistors, it is usually
smaller. The plot shows a single curve. If vCE is increased, the current for a given vBE is larger.
However, the displacement between the curves is so small that it can be dicult to distinguish
between them. The small-signal transconductance gm defined below is the slope of the transfer
characteristics curve evaluated at the quiescent or dc operating point.

Figure 2: BJT transfer characteristics.

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Output Characteristics
The output characteristics are a plot of the collector current iC as a function of the collector-to-
emitter voltage vCE with the base current iB held constant. From Eqs. 1 and 4, we can write

vCE
iC = 0 1 + iB (9)
VA

It follows that iC varies linearly with vCE . A plot of this variation is given in Fig. 3. For small
vCE such that 0 vCE < vBE , Eq. (9) does not hold. This is the region on the left in Fig. 3. In
this region, the BJT is saturated. The small-signal collector-to-emitter resistance r0 defined below
is the reciprocal of the slope of the transfer characteristics curve evaluated at the quiescent or dc
operating point to the right of the saturation region in Fig. 3.

Figure 3: BJT output characteristics.

Hybrid- Model
Let each current and voltage be written as the sum of a dc component and a small-signal ac
component as follows:
iC = IC + ic iB = IB + ib (10)
vBE = VBE + vbe vCE = VCE + vce (11)
If the ac components are suciently small, we can write
IC IC IB
ic = vbe + vce ib = vbe (12)
VBE VCE VBE
where the derivatives are evaluated at the dc bias values. The transconductance gm , the collector-
to-emitter resistance r0 , and the base-to-emitter resistance r are defined as follows:

IC IS VBE IC
gm = = exp = (13)
VBE VT VT VT

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IC 1 IS0 VBE 1 VA + VCE
r0 = = exp = (14)
VCE VA VT IC
1 1
IB IS0 VBE VT
r = = exp = (15)
VBE 0 VT VT IB
It is convenient to define the current i0c as follows:

i0c = gm v where v = vbe (16)

It follows that the collector and base currents can thus be written
vce v
ic = i0c + ib = (17)
r0 r
The small-signal circuit which models these equations is given in Fig. 4(a). This is called the
hybrid- model. The resistor rx , which does not appear in the above equations, is called the base
spreading resistance. It represents the resistance of the connection to the base region inside the
device. Because the base region is very narrow, the connection exhibits a resistance which often
cannot be neglected.

Figure 4: (a) Hybrid- model. (b) T model.

The small-signal base-to-collector ac current gain is defined as the ratio i0c /ib . It is given by
i0c gm v IC VT IC
= = = gm r = = (18)
ib ib VT IB IB
Note that ic diers from i0c by the current through r0 . Therefore, ic /ib 6= unless r0 = .

T Model
The T model replaces the resistor r in series with the base with a resistor re in series with the
emitter. This resistor is called the emitter intrinsic resistance. The current i0e can be written

1 1+ 0 i0
0 0
ie = ib + ic = + 1 i0c = ic = c (19)

where is the small-signal emitter-to-collector ac current gain given by

= (20)
1+

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Thus the current i0c can be written
i0c = i0e (21)
The voltage v can be related to i0e as follows:
i0c i0 r r
v = ib r = r = e r = i0e = i0e = i0e re (22)
1+
It follows that the intrinsic emitter resistance re is given by
v r VT VT
re = 0 = = = (23)
ie 1+ (1 + ) IB IE
The T model of the BJT is shown in Fig. 4(b). The currents in both models are related by the
equations
i0c = gm v = ib = i0e (24)

An Emitter Equivalent Circuit

Figure 5 shows the T model with a Thvenin source in series with the base. We wish to solve for
an equivalent circuit in which the currents ic and ie are the same and the source i0e connects from
the collector node to ground rather than from the collector node to the B node.

Figure 5: T model with Thvenin source connected to the base.

The first step is to replace the source i0e with two identical series sources with the common
node grounded. The circuit is shown in Fig. 6(a). The object is to absorb the left i0e source into
the base-emitter circuit. For the circuit, we can write

i0 Rtb + rx
ve = vtb ib (Rtb + rx ) = vtb e (Rtb + rx ) i0e re = vtb i0e + re (25)
1+ 1+
Let us define the resistance re0 by
Rtb + rx or Rtb + rx + r
re0 = + re = (26)
1+ 1+
With this definition, ve is given by
ve = vtb i0e re0 (27)
The circuit which models Eq. (27) is shown in Fig. 6(b). We will call this the emitter equivalent
circuit. It predicts the same emitter and collector currents as the circuit in Fig. 5. Note that the
resistors Rtb and rx do not appear in this circuit because they are contained in re0 . The base current
does not appear in this circuit. However, the relation ib = i0e / (1 + ) can be used to solve for ib
after i0e is solved for.

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Figure 6: (a) Circuit with the i0c source replaced by identical series sources. (b) Simplified T model.

The r0 Approximations
The r0 approximations approximate r0 as an open circuit except when calculating the small-signal
resistance ric seen looking into the collector. Fig. 7 shows the emitter equivalent circuit for
calculating ric = vt /ic . We assume a Thvenin resistance Rtb connected from the base to ground
and a resistance Rte connected from emitter to ground. The resistor Rtb is absorbed into re0 in the
figure, which is given by Eq. (26). We can write

0 Rte vt Rte
ic = i0 + ie = i0 1 0 = 1 0 (28)
re + Rte r0 + re0 kRte re + Rte
It follows that ric is given by
vt r0 + re0 kRte
ric = = (29)
ic 1 Rte / (re0 + Rte )

Figure 7: Circuit for calculating the resistance ric seen looking into the collector.

The r0 approximations for the hybrid model, the T model, and the emitter equivalent circuit,
respectively, are given Figs. 8 and 9. If r0 = , then ric is an open circuit in each. Because r0 no
longer connects to the emitter, there is only one emitter current and ie = i0e .

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 Figure 8: (a) Hybrid and (b) T models with the r0 approximations.

Figure 9: Simplified T model with the r0 approximations.

A Base Equivalent Circuit

When r0 connected from collector to emitter is replaced with ric connected from collector to ground,
it is possible to simplify the model to obtain a circuit that is similar to the emitter equivalent
circuit in Fig. 9. Consider the circuit of Fig. 10(a). A Thvenin source (vte and Rte ) is connected
from the emitter to ground. We can write

vb = ib (rx + r ) + i0e Rte + vte = ib [rx + r + (1 + ) Rte ] + vte

This equation is of the form

vb = ib r0 + vte
where r0 is given by
r0 = rx + r + (1 + ) Rte
With i0c = ib , the equivalent circuit that predicts the same base and collector currents is shown in
Fig. 10(b). We will refer to this as the base equivalent circuit. It is useful when calculating ib and
the resistance seen looking into the base node when the r0 approximations are assumed.

Small-Signal High-Frequency Models

Figure 11 shows the hybrid- and T models for the BJT with the base-emitter capacitance c and
the base-collector capacitance c added. The capacitor ccs is the collector-substrate capacitance
which is present in monolithic integrated-circuit devices but is omitted in discrete devices. These
capacitors model charge storage in the device which aects its high-frequency performance. The

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Figure 10: (a) r0 approximation to the model with a Thevenin equivalent circuit connected to
the emitter. (b) The simplified model with the r0 approximation.

capacitors are given by

F IC
c = cje + (30)
VT
cjc
c = (31)
[1 + VCB /C ]mc
cjcs
ccs = (32)
[1 + VCS /C ]mc
where IC is the dc collector current, VCB is the dc collector-base voltage, VCS is the dc collector-
substrate voltage, cje is the zero-bias junction capacitance of the base-emitter junction, F is
the forward transit time of the base-emitter junction, cjc is the zero-bias junction capacitance of
the base-collector junction, cjcs is the zero-bias collector-substrate capacitance, C is the built-in
potential, and mc is the junction exponential factor. For integrated circuit lateral pnp transistors,
ccs is replaced with a capacitor cbs from base to substrate, i.e. from the B node to ground.

Figure 11: High-frequency small-signal models of the BJT. (a) Hybrid- model. (b) T model.

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 In these models, the currents are related by

i0c = gm v = i0b = i0e (33)

These relations are the same as those in Eq. (24) with ib replaced with i0b .