The working principle of both the variants PNP or NPN are identical, except their biasing polarity and the polarity of the supply rails associated with a given configuration. This enables them to work like a current regulating switches or devices, since we are able to manipulate a small amount of current across base emitter terminals to control the flow of a relatively large amount of current across the collector emitter terminals. These terminals also called called transistor pinouts are designated as:Įmitter (E), Base (B), and Collector (C), in an order depending on how the device is positioned.īJTs are basically current controllers or regulators, wherein the amount of current conduction across their collector emitter pins depends on the proportion of small biasing current passing across their base and emitter pins. The emitter-base region is forward biased so electric field and carriers will be generated.Let's consider a BJT or a Bipolar Junction Transistor internal structure, which has a couple of PN-junctions creating 3 linked terminals attributed with 3 unique names for identifying one from the other, which are as follows:
A small current leaving the base is amplified in the collector output. For PNP Transistors, current enters into the transistor through the emitter terminal. The PNP Transistor has very similar characteristics to the NPN Transistor, with the difference being the biasing of the current and voltage directions are reversed. As long as the flow of the biasing current into the base terminal is steady, the base region can be treated as a current control input.Ī PNP Bipolar Junction Transistor has an N-doped semiconductor base in between a P-doped emitter and P-doped collector region. Since transistor action is constituted by initial electron movement through the base region, the amplifying properties of the transistor comes from the consequent control the Base exerts on the current between the Collector and Emitter. This link is the main feature of transistor action. Therefore if a transistor has a Beta value of 50, then for every 50 electrons flowing between the emitter-collector terminals one electron will flow from the base terminal.īy combining the expressions for both Alpha, α and Beta, β the current gain of the transistor can be given as:Īs seen from the equations above, electron mobility between the Collector and Emitter circuits is the only link between these two circuits. Beta values normally range between 20 and 200 for most general purpose transistors. NPN transistors are good amplifying devices when the Beta value is large. The current gain of the transistor from the Collector terminal to the Base terminal is signified by Beta, ( β ). The current gain of the transistor from the Collector terminal to the Emitter terminal, Ic/Ie, is a function of the electrons diffusing across the junction. The ratio of the collector current to the emitter current is called Alpha (α). Since the physical construction of the transistor determines the electrical relationship between these three currents, (Ib), (Ic) and (Ie), any small change in the base current ( Ib ), will result in a much larger change in the collector current ( Ic ). Note: “Ic” is the current flowing into the collector terminal, “Ib” is the current flowing into the base terminal and “Ie” is the current flowing out of the emitter terminal. The current flowing out of the transistor must be equal to the currents flowing into the transistor as the emitter current is given as A nother way to display a NPN Transistor is shown in Figure 2 below. The Base terminal is always positive with respect to the Emitter. The voltage between the Base and Emitter ( V BE ), is positive at the Base and negative at the Emitter. \( \newcommand\): NPN Transistor schematic.įor a bipolar NPN transistor to conduct the Collector is always more positive with respect to both the Base and the Emitter.