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BJT Practice Problems

1. Basic Characteristics and Ebers-Moll Model:

Q.1 Figure below shows an NPN transistor which is biased in such a way that the collector current is zero. The electron
density profile in the base is also shown.

Q.2 An NPN transistor is biased in such a way that and Which mode is the transistor operating in ?
(Note : Current entering a terminal is considered
positive here)

Q.3 Analyze each of the transistor circuits given below and determine all the terminal currents and voltages. Assume that

Q.4 Sketch the Ebers-Moll Model for a PNP transistor

2. DC characteristics : Forward Active Mode

Q.1 An NPN transistor has the following characteristics

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For the emitter, use the bandgap narrowing model discussed in the text but ignore bandgap narrowing for the base.
(a) Determine the magnitude of forward bias voltage required for a collector current of 1mA to flow in the forward active
mode.

(b) Determine the different components of current gain at this current . Which base current component will determine the
overall current gain?

(c) At very small values of collector current, the current gain is also small. Determine the value of collector current at which
the current gain drops to unity.

Q.2 Repeat Q.1 for a PNP transistor having the following set of comparable characteristics:

Which transistor NPN or PNP would you prefer for obtaining a high current gain?

Q.3 An NPN transistor has the following characteristics:

(a) Using the bandgap narrowing model described in the text, determine the current gain at 300 K.
(b) Although the current gain is less than unity at room temperature, show that its value will increase as the temperature is
lowered. Determine a temperature at which current gain larger than unity may be obtained.
(c) Suppose you had a choice of changing the semiconductor material in the base while keeping emitter as Silicon. What will
be the bandgap of the semiconductor needed so as to obtain a current gain of 100 at room temperature? Assume that the
hypothetical semiconductor has same characteristics as silicon except for its bandgap.

Q.4 On a hot summer afternoon, the following set of values for collector current and base emitter voltages were measured
for a constant collector-emitter voltage:

Determine the temperature of the day.

Q.5 Three students measured the dc and small signal current gains of transistors that were identical but reported the
following conflicting results:

How can you explain the discrepancy?

Q.6 An NPN transistor has the following characteristics:

refers to the metallurgical base width i.e separation between EB and CB junctions. The transistor is biased at a constant
emitter-base voltage of 0.72 Volts.

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Q.7 Without appealing to the expression for Early voltage, explain why a decrease in collector doping will result in an
increase in Early voltage.

Q.8 Determine the collector current for an NPN transistor with the following characteristics:

The doping in the base is non uniform and shown below:

Show that the value of collector current at 0.72 Volts is same as that obtained in Example 2.1 where the base doping was
uniform.

Q.9 A phototransistor is a BJT which is operated with its base open circuited. The base current is supplied by the photo-
generated carriers. We shall assume that these carriers are uniformly generated in the neutral collector region which is
assumed to have a thickness much larger than the hole diffusion length. The generation within emitter, base and collector
depletion regions can be neglected. Calculate the collector current if and forward current gain is 100.
Assume that in the collector region,

3. Dynamic Characteristics :

Q.1 Determine the unity gain frequency at a collector current of 1mA for an NPN transistor whose characteristics are given
below

Give a breakup of the contributions of various factors to the collector-emitter transit time.

Q.2 Determine unity gain frequency for the above transistor with the change that device dimensions are scaled down by a
factor of 10 so that transistor’s emitter area is now The ratio of collector-to-emitter areas remain the same.
Explain why scaling of device area improves the unity gain frequency?

Q.3 Determine the unity gain frequency at a collector current of 1mA for a PNP transistor whose characteristics, given below,
are similar to that of the NPN transistor described in

Which transistor, NPN or PNP would you in general prefer to obtain a good high frequency characteristics of a BJT
amplifier?

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Q.4 Determine the base transit time for a transistor described in Q.7 of section 2 of the practice problems.

4. High Level Injection Effects :

Q.1 For the NPN transistor described in Q.1 of the previous section, determine the maximum value for collector current
before high level injection effects begin to occur. Which phenomenon determines this limit? Calculate the maximum value of
unity gain frequency.

Q.2 As explained in the text, the decrease in current gain due to Webster effect is also accompanied with a modulation of
the base resistivity. Show that the ratio remains constant despite occurrence of high level injection in the base. is
the lateral resistance of the intrinsic base region.

Q.3 The collector current in the example above can be further increased by increasing the area of the transistor until current
crowding begins to occur. Determine the maximum collector current that can flow before this occurs. How would you design
the transistor geometry so that this maximum current limit can be increased by a factor of 10. What are the adverse
consequences of your suggested changes?

5. Cutoff Mode

Assume that the collector is sufficiently thick to sustain the depletion width at breakdown.

Assume equal emitter and collector areas.

The transistor is biased in such a way that base current is zero, emitter is grounded and collector connected to 5 Volts.
Determine the collector current and base-emitter voltage. Do not use the Ebers-Moll model for your calculations.

Q.3 Calculate the dark current for a phototransistor whose description is given in Q.2. The transistor is biased at

The collector consists of two regions; one lightly doped with a doping of and thickness of and
another thick heavily doped layer.

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Q.5 For a metallurgical base width of determine the base doping required to have a punch-through voltage of 5
Volts

7. Circuit Models :

Q.1 Two NPN BJTs A and B are identical in all respects except that base thickness of A is twice that of B. Both transistors
are biased in forward-active mode with identical collector current and collector-base voltage. Determine which transistor has
the larger value for the following parameters: Give reasons for your answer in each case.

Q.2 For a PNP transistor whose description is given below, obtain the low frequency small signal model:

What is the range of base-emitter voltage and frequency for which the model is valid?

Q.3 One way of representing the small-signal equivalent circuit of a BJT is through hybrid (not hybrid-pi) parameters
describe below :

Determine the hybrid parameters in terms of the hybrid-pi parameters. Assume low frequency case for which the
capacitances can be neglected.

8. Design Perspective :

Q.1 (a) Determine the Early voltage of the NPN transistor whose characteristics are described below :

(b) The early voltage of the transistor needs to be doubled. Determine different ways in which the transistor characteristics
could be modified to achieve this. Determine also the consequences of your changes on other important transistor
parameters such as current gain, breakdown, punch-through voltage, unity gain frequency etc.

Q.2 Determine the lateral base resistance of the transistor described above. Determine different ways in which the base
resistance can be halved and determine the consequences of your changes on other transistor parameters. Note that
minimum device dimension is

Q.3 Determine the base transit time of the transistor described in Q.1. Determine different ways in which the base transit
time can be halved and determine the consequences of your changes on other transistor parameters.

Q.4 Design a transistor that has the following characteristics:

Transistor should be able to sustain a reverse collector voltage Volts and collector current of 1mA without going into
high level injection conditions. In your design, determine the doping and thicknesses of all the layers and the area of the
transistor with the constraint that emitter thickness is less than or equal to base thickness .After completion of
design, determine other transistor parameters such as base resistance, unity gain frequency etc.

Q.5 Design a transistor, suitable for high power applications, that has the following characteristics:

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In your design, determine the doping and thicknesses of all the layers and the area of the transistor with the constraint that
emitter thickness is less than or equal to base thickness Note that for this design, you may not be able to neglect
recombination in the base. For you calculations assume a recombination lifetime in the base of .After the design is
complete, determine the unity gain frequency of the device.

Q.6 Design a suitable BJT for the CE amplifier shown below such that it can have a Input and upper cutoff
Assume that the dc voltage at the base is 1.7Volts and dc collector current is 1mA.

Q.7 Design a BJT with the objective of maximizing the unity gain frequency under the constraints :

What are the important factors affecting the maximum value of unity gain frequency and what is the collector current density
required to achieve it? In your design, determine the doping and thicknesses of all the layers and the area of the transistor
with the constraint that emitter thickness is less than or equal to base thickness .And base doping is less than

Q.8 In conventional BJTs such as the one designed above, the emitter doping is kept much higher than the base doping so
as to obtain a reasonable current gain. If an emitter semiconductor with a bandgap higher than that of the base
semiconductor is used, then the emitter can be made lightly doped and base heavily doped. Carry out the design of this
Single heterojunction bipolar transistor (SHBT) so as to obtain the highest possible unity gain frequency under similar
constraints of :

In your design, determine the doping and thicknesses of all the layers and the area of the transistor with the constraint that
emitter thickness is less than or equal to base thickness but while the base doping can be anything, the emitter
doping should be less than Assume that the hypothetical emitter semiconductor has same characteristics as
that of Silicon with the difference that its bandgap is 1.4eV.

What are the important factors affecting the maximum value of unity gain frequency in this case and what is the collector
current density required to achieve it? Compare also the value of base resistance obtained with that obtained for a
conventional BJT of Q.8.

Q.9 Suppose that you could substitute for Silicon, a wide bandgap semiconductor in the collector as well that has a
breakdown field that is double that of Silicon. Carry out the design of this Double heterojunction transistor (DHBT) with
identical constraints as above. Compare the performance with a BJT and a SHBT designed earlier.

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