Bipolar Junction Transistors ( BJT )

1. Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT) EBB424E Dr. Sabar D. Hutagalung School of Materials & Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia

2. Transistors • Two main categories of transistors: • bipolar junction transistors(BJTs) and • field effect transistors (FETs). • Transistors have 3 terminals where the application of current (BJT) or voltage (FET) to the input terminal increases the amount of charge in the active region. • The physics of "transistor action" is quite different for the BJT and FET. • In analog circuits, transistors are used in amplifiers and linear regulated power supplies. • In digital circuits they function as electrical switches, including logic gates, random access memory (RAM), and microprocessors.

3. The First Transistor: Point-contact transistor A point-contact transistor was the first type of solid state electronic transistor ever constructed. It was made by researchers John Bardeen & Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Laboratories in December 1947. The point-contact transistor was commercialized and sold by Western Electric and others but was rather quickly superseded by the junction transistor.

4. The Junction Transistor • First BJT was invented early in 1948, only weeks after the point contact transistor. • Initially known simply as the junction transistor. • It did not become practical until the early 1950s. • The term “bipolar” was tagged onto the name to distinguish the fact that both carrier types play important roles in the operation. • Field Effect Transistors (FETs) are “unipolar” transistors since their operation depends primarily on a single carrier type.

5. Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT) • A bipolar transistor essentially consists of a pair of PN Junction diodes that are joined back-to-back. • There are therefore two kinds of BJT, the NPN and PNPvarieties. • The three layers of the sandwich are conventionally called the Collector, Base, and Emitter.

6. The First BJT Transistor Size (3/8”L X 5/32”W X 7/32”H) No Date Codes. No Packaging.

7. Modern Transistors

8. BJT Fabrication • BJT can be made either as discrete devices or in planar integrated form. • In discrete, the substrate can be used for one connection, typically the collector. • In integrated version, all 3 contacts appear on the top surface. • The E-B diode is closer to the surface than the B-C junction because it is easier make the havier doping at the top.

9. BJT Structure - Discrete • Early BJTs were fabricated using alloying - an complicated and unreliable process. • The structure contains two p-n diodes, one between the base and the emitter, and one between the base and the collector.

10. BJT Structure - Planar The “Planar Structure” developed by Fairchild in the late 50s shaped the basic structure of the BJT, even up to the present day. • In the planar process, all steps are performed from the surface of the wafer

11. BJTs are usually constructed vertically • Controlling depth of the emitter’s n doping sets the base width

12. Advanced BJT Structures • The original BJT structure survived, practically unchanged, since the mid 60’s. • As the advances in MOS development appears, some of the fabrication technology are also applied to the BJT. • Low defect epitaxy • Ion implant • Plasma etching (dry etch) • LOCOS (local oxidation of Si) • Polysilicon layers • Improved lithography

13. Isolation Methods • The most significant advances in reducing overall device size and packing density have come from improved isolation methods. • The traditional junction isolation technique requires the p+ deep diffusion to be aligned to the n+ buried layer that is covered by a thick epitaxial layer. • The area (and hence junction capacitance) is determined by alignment tolerance, area for side diffusion, and allowance for the spread of the depletion region. • Modern isolation techniques: oxide isolation, and trench isolation.

14. Oxide & Trench Isolation • Oxide isolation processes were intorduced in the late 70’s. They utilize wet anisotropic etch (KOH) of the <100> Si wafer with Si3N4 as mask. • The KOH etch will erode the <111> plane. Oxide is either deposited or grown to fill the V-grooves. • The base and emitter are formed on the large mesa and the collector on the small mesa. • To further reduce the area between adjacent mesa, trench isolation can be used, making use of trench etching. • The trench is typically 2µm wide and 5µm deep. The trench walls are oxidized and the remaining volume is filled with polysilicon.

15. Double Poly Transistors • A further extension of the self-aligned BJT structure is to use double polysilicon (n+ for emitter, p+ for base) to reduce the area required for contacts.

16. Example of BJT Specification Sheet

17. How the BJT works • Figure shows the energy levels in an NPN transistor under no externally applying voltages. • 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 (filling) layer conduction can take place by the movement of the free holes in the valence band. • However, in the absence of any externally applied electric field, we find that depletion zones form at both PN-Junctions, so no charge wants to move from one layer to another. NPN Bipolar Transistor

18. How the BJT works • What happens when we apply a moderate voltage between the collector and base parts. • The polarity of the applied voltage is chosen to increase the force pulling the N-type electrons and P-type holes apart. • This widens the depletion zone between the collector and base and so no current will flow. • In effect we have reverse-biassed the Base-Collector diode junction. Apply a Collector-Base voltage

19. Charge Flow • What happens when we apply a relatively small Emitter-Base voltage whose polarity is designed to forward-bias the Emitter-Base junction. • This 'pushes' electrons from the Emitter into the Base region and sets up a current flow across the Emitter-Base boundary. • Once the electrons have managed to get into the Base region they can respond to the attractive force from the positively-biassed Collector region. • As a result the electrons which get into the Base move swiftly towards the Collector and cross into the Collector region. • Hence a Emitter-Collector current magnitude is set by the chosen Emitter-Base voltage applied. • Hence an external current flowing in the circuit. Apply an Emitter-Base voltage

20. Charge Flow • Some of free electrons crossing the Base encounter a hole and 'drop into it'. • As a result, the Base region loses one of its positive charges (holes). • The Base potential would become more negative (because of the removal of the holes) until it was negative enough to repel any more electrons from crossing the Emitter-Base junction. • The current flow would then stop. Some electron fall into a hole

21. Charge Flow • To prevent this happening we use the applied E-B voltage to remove the captured electrons from the base and maintain the number of holes. • The effect, some of the electrons which enter the transistor via the Emitter emerging again from the Base rather than the Collector. • For most practical BJT only about 1% of the free electrons which try to cross Base region get caught in this way. • Hence a Base current, IB, which is typically around one hundred times smaller than the Emitter current, IE. Some electron fall into a hole

22. Terminals & Operations • Three terminals: • Base (B): very thin and lightly doped central region (little recombination). • Emitter (E) and collector (C) are two outer regions sandwiching B. • Normal operation (linear or active region): • B-E junction forward biased; B-C junction reverse biased. • The emitter emits (injects) majority charge into base region and because the base very thin, most will ultimately reach the collector. • The emitter is highly doped while the collector is lightly doped. • The collector is usually at higher voltage than the emitter.

23. Terminals & Operations

24. Operation Mode

25. Operation Mode • Active: • Most importance mode, e.g. for amplifier operation. • The region where current curves are practically flat. • Saturation: • Barrier potential of the junctions cancel each other out causing a virtual short. • Ideal transistor behaves like a closed switch. • Cutoff: • Current reduced to zero • Ideal transistor behaves like an open switch.

26. Operation Mode

27. BJT in Active Mode • Operation • Forward bias of EBJ injects electrons from emitter into base (small number of holes injected from base into emitter) • Most electrons shoot through the base into the collector across the reverse bias junction (think about band diagram) • Some electrons recombine with majority carrier in (P-type) base region

28. Circuit Symbols

29. Circuit Configuration

30. Band Diagrams (In equilibrium) • No current flow • Back-to-back PN diodes

31. Band Diagrams (Active Mode) • EBJ forward biased • Barrier reduced and so electrons diffuse into the base • Electrons get swept across the base into the collector • CBJ reverse biased • Electrons roll down the hill (high E-field)

32. Minority Carrier Concentration Profiles • Current dominated by electrons from emitter to base (by design) b/c of the forward bias and minority carrier concentration gradient (diffusion) through the base • some recombination causes bowing of electron concentration (in the base) • base is designed to be fairly short (minimize recombination) • emitter is heavily (sometimes degenerately) doped and base is lightly doped • Drift currents are usually small and neglected

33. Diffusion Current Through the Base • Diffusion of electrons through the base is set by concentration profile at the EBJ • Diffusion current of electrons through the base is (assuming an ideal straight line case): • Due to recombination in the base, the current at the EBJ and current at the CBJ are not equal and differ by a base current

34. Collector Current • Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across the CBJ depletion region to the collector b/c of the higher potential applied to the collector. • Note that iC is independent of vCB(potential bias across CBJ) ideally • Saturation current is • inversely proportional to W and directly proportional to AE • Want short base and large emitter area for high currents • dependent on temperature due to ni2 term

35. Collector Current • Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across the CBJ depletion region to the collector b/c of the higher potential applied to the collector. • Note that iC is independent of vCB(potential bias across CBJ) ideally • Saturation current is • inversely proportional to W and directly proportional to AE • Want short base and large emitter area for high currents • dependent on temperature due to ni2 term

36. Collector Current • Electrons that diffuse across the base to the CBJ junction are swept across the CBJ depletion region to the collector b/c of the higher potential applied to the collector. • Note that iC is independent of vCB(potential bias across CBJ) ideally • Saturation current is • inversely proportional to W and directly proportional to AE • Want short base and large emitter area for high currents • dependent on temperature due to ni2 term

37. Base Current • Base current iB composed of two components: • holes injected from the base region into the emitter region • holes supplied due to recombination in the base with diffusing electrons and depends on minority carrier lifetime tb in the base And the Q in the base is So, current is • Total base current is

38. Beta • Can relate iB and iC by the following equation and b is • Beta is constant for a particular transistor • On the order of 100-200 in modern devices (but can be higher) • Called the common-emitter current gain • For high current gain, want small W, low NA, high ND

39. Emitter Current • Emitter current is the sum of iC and iB a is called the common-base current gain

40. I-V Characteristics • Collector current vs. vCB shows the BJT looks like a current source (ideally) • Plot only shows values where BCJ is reverse biased and so BJT in active region • However, real BJTs have non-ideal effects

41. I-V Characteristics Collector-emitter is a family of curves which are a function of base current. Base-emitter junction looks like a forward biased diode

42. I-V Characteristics

43. Example: • Calculate the values of β and α from the transistor shown in the previous graphs.

44. Early Effect Current in active region depends (slightly) on vCE VA is a parameter for the BJT (50 to 100) and called the Early voltage Due to a decrease in effective base width W as reverse bias increases Account for Early effect with additional term in collector current equation Nonzero slope means the output resistance is NOT infinite, but… IC is collector current at the boundary of active region Early Effect

45. Early Effect • What causes the Early Effect? • Increasing VCB causes depletion region of CBJ to grow and so the effective base width decreases (base-width modulation) • Shorter effective base width  higher dn/dx

46. Common-emitter It is called the common-emitter configuration because (ignoring the power supply battery) both the signal source and the load share the emitter lead as a common connection point.

47. Common-collector It is called the common-collector configuration because both the signal source and the load share the collector lead as a common connection point. Also called an emitter follower since its output is taken from the emitter resistor, is useful as an impedance matching device since its input impedance is much higher than its output impedance.

48. Common-base This configuration is more complex than the other two, and is less common due to its strange operating characteristics. Used for high frequency applications because the base separates the input and output, minimizing oscillations at high frequency. It has a high voltage gain, relatively low input impedance and high output impedance compared to the common collector.

49. Collector Resistance, rC

50. Emitter Resistance, rE