Question Answer

Components Transistors have been widely available for over fifty years. As a result a huge variety of
and parameters transistors is available. Choosing new transistors, or transistor replacements for existing
in a Transistor circuits, it is necessary to look at the transistor parameters in the transistor specification
sheets to assess the performance of the transistor.

To simplify the use of the transistor specification sheets or datasheets standard parameters
are nearly always used. These enable the performance of different transistors to be
compared. They also enable the transistor parameters to be defined in a way that can be
easily understood.The transistor specification sheets may be available on the Internet, or
they may be found in transistor manuals issued by the manufacturers over the years. Today,
most of the transistor data is available on the manufacturers' Internet sites as paper based
data books are expensive to produce and not as easy to disseminate.

When choosing a transistor using the transistor specification or data sheets, it is necessary
to be able to understand what the different transistor specifications mean.

Transistor specification parameters

There are a number of standard parameters with abbreviations that are used to define the
performance of a transistor. The definitions of these parameters are outlined in the table
below:

Parameter Definition and description

The type number of the device is an individual part number given to the device. Device
Type numbers normally conform to the JEDEC (American) or Pro-Electron (European)
number numbering systems - see Related Articles under main left hand menu block. There is also
a Japanese standard system for transistor numbering.
Case style - a variety of case standard case styles are available. These normally are of the
form TOxx leaded devices and SOTxxx for surface mount devices. Note it is also
Case important to check the pin connections as they are not always standard. Some transistor
types may have their connections in the format EBC whereas occasionally they can be
ECB, and this can cause confusion in some cases.
The material used for the device is important as it affects the junction forward bias and
Material other characteristics. The most common materials used for bipolar transistors are silicon
and germanium.
The polarity of the device is important. It defines the polarity of the biasing and operation
of the device. The two types are NPN and PNP. NPN is the most common type. It has the
higher speeds as electrons are the majority carriers and these have a greater mobility than
Polarity
holes. When run in common emitter configurations, the NPN circuits will use a positive
rail voltage and negative common line, PNP transistors will require a negative rail and
positive common voltage.
VCEO Collector emitter voltage with base open circuit
VCBO Collector base voltage with the emitter open circuit
VEBO Emitter base voltage with collector open circuit
IC Collector current
ICM Peak collector current
IBM Peak base current
PTOT Total power dissipation - this is normally for an ambient temperature of 25C. It is the
Parameter Definition and description
maximum value of power that can safely be dissipated for that transistor with its stated
package.
Junction temperature - care must be taken to ensure that this figure is not exceeded
Tj otherwise the device could be damaged or long term reliability affected. Dissipation /
temperature curves are often provided to facilitate calculations.
Tamb Ambient temperature
Storage temperature. This is the temperature range over which the device may be stored.
Tstg Outside this range, damage may occur to the materials used in the device. The operating
temperature range is normally well within the bounds of the storage temperature range.
ICBO Collector base cut-off current
IEBO Emitter base cut-off current
hFE Forward current gain
VCEsat Collector emitter saturation voltage
VBEsat Base emitter saturation voltage
Cc Collector capacitance
Ce Emitter capacitance
Frequency Transition - the frequency where common emitter current gain falls to unity,
i.e. the gain bandwidth product for the transistor. It is normally measured in MHz. The
Ft
operating frequency of the transistor should normally be well below the transition
frequency.