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EE 230 Lab
Report: BJT characteristics
Lab work done by _______Erich Kuerschner__________________

and ________Korbin Stich_____________________

Lab work date: 3/25/14

Report submission date:

Lab Section: C

Graded by ________________________________________

Score __________________________________ extra credit __________

Introduction
In this lab we were we tasked with experimenting with Bipolar Junction Transistors also known
as BJTs. BJTs were first developed in the late 1940s that can be used as amplifiers, switches,
oscillators or commonly as current-controlled regulators meaning they can be used effectively in
rectification. There are two types of BJTs, NPN and PNP. These anagrams represent the way in
which the semi conductive material is organized within the transistor. For this lab we will work
exclusively with NPN transistors since they are the most widely used in electronic devices than
PNP. A transistor has a three major parts the emitter, base and collector. Each of these is
composed of a different polarity of semi conductive material. The emitter is made of a negative
material, the base is made of a positive material, and the collector is again made of a negative
material thus giving us an NPN transistor. The formation of these three layers forms two
junctions the base-emitter and the base collector. The difference in semi-conductive material of
each junction essentially forms two separate diodes that are used to control the device based on
the amount of voltage provided to the base and the collector. When the bipolar junction is
functioning properly the BE junction is in forward bias allowing current to flow between the two,
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EE 230 Lab

and the BC junction is in reverse bias allowing current to flow in the opposite direction of the
diode. The sum of these two currents will be the total current produced by the BJT. There will
also be a voltage produced across the CE junction that is greater than .2 volts. However the
transistor can also be put into a mode called saturation. This is when the voltages at the base and
collector are not enough to put that junction in reverse bias and that junction remains off. This
makes the CE voltage .2 volts for the same reason a standard diode produces .7 volts. This intern
makes the transistor produce a smaller current than if it were in forward active. To see this we
begin our experiments by first analyzeing how the current of the collector varied as the Voltage
of the CE junction was increased.

A.

BJT IC-VCE characteristics with the parameter analyzer

Theparameteranalyzerisamachinethatallowsustoseethespecificcharacteristicsofnon
lineardevicessuchasdiodesandtransistors.Forthisfirstexperimentweweretofindout
howcurrentwasaffectedwhenthevoltageacrosstheCEjunctionwassteadilyincreased.
Thegraphofthecanbeseeninfigure1below.Byanalyzingthegraphwecanseethatat
lowvoltagesi.e.lessthan.2voltsthereislittletonocurrentflowinginthatbranchofthe
transistor,butoncethevoltagebecomesgreaterthan.2thecurrentjumpstoaround12mA
andhasverylittlechangeinaccordancewiththevoltageproducedacrossthejunctionrising
onlyafewtenthsofamilliampupto10volts.Thisexperimentwillbethebasisfortherest
ofthetestsconductedinthislab.

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EE 230 Lab

Figure1

B. I-V characteristics of 1N4006 at the lab bench

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EE 230 Lab

Figure 2
For activity B we constructed the circuit as seen above in figure 2 using 2N440 BJT. We
tested the circuit several times with different values of Vbb and Vcc. We choose the value of
Vbb by determining how many micro amps of current we wanted to go through the base of
the transistor. Because of the value of the resistor the voltages we used were 1,2,3,4, and 5
volts which gave us 10, 20, 30,40 and 50 micro amps respectively. We then did a similar
process for Vcc where we adjusted the voltage based on what we wanted the voltage across
the collector to emitter to be. The CE voltages can be seen in the first column of the table
below. By measuring the current in each one of the situations below we are able to see how
the current reacts in this bipolar transistor. Since we can assume the transistor is operating
under normal conditions we expect the curves for all five cases to look similar to those in
activity A. The graphs for all 5 cases can be seen in figures 3 through 7.

iB=10A
vCE(V)

iC(mA)

iB=20A iB=30A iB=40A iB=50A

iC(mA)

iC(mA)

iC(mA)

iC(mA)

0.1

0.47

1.03

1.577

2.44

0.2

1.49

3.33

5.1

6.52

8.33

0.3

1.57

3.53

5.29

7.05

8.82

0.4

1.6

3.55

5.32

7.07

8.84

0.5

1.6

3.57

5.33

7.09

8.86

1.0

1.6

3.58

5.38

7.14

8.92

1.5

1.61

3.59

5.41

7.18

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EE 230 Lab
iB=10A
vCE(V)

iC(mA)

iB=20A iB=30A iB=40A iB=50A

iC(mA)

iC(mA)

iC(mA)

iC(mA)

2.0

1.61

3.61

5.43

7.22

9.08

2.5

1.61

3.63

5.43

7.27

9.15

3.0

1.62

3.64

5.49

7.32

9.22

3.5

1.62

3.67

5.52

7.38

9.31

4.0

1.63

3.68

5.55

7.41

9.38

4.5

1.63

3.69

5.58

7.46

9.46

5.0

1.64

3.7

5.61

7.5

9.53

Ic Vce Curves:

Figure 3

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EE 230 Lab

Figure 4

Figure 5

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EE 230 Lab

Figure 6

Figure7
Allofthesegraphsmatchourinitialpredictionthatthegraphswouldbeverysimilartothe
onerecordedinactivityA.Theonlydifferenceisthemagnitudeofeachchangeswiththe
magnitudeofthecurrentthroughthecollector.Sinceallofthesetransistorsareoperatingin
theforwardactivemodewecanfindtheratiobetweenthetwousingtheequationB=ic/ib.
Wetestedseveraldifferentvaluesinallfivecasesanddeterminedthatthebetavalueinthis
casewas177.655.ThiswillbeusefullateroninexperimentD.

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EE 230 Lab

C. BJT inverter circuit

Figure 8
For activity C we constructed a similar circuit to the one in activity B except this time we
varied the base voltage while keeping the collector at a constant voltage. Starting at zero we
increased the base voltage by .25 volts while measuring the Voltage across the CE junction.
This allowed us to see when the transistor went into saturation. From the table below and the
excel graphs of the table represented in figure 9 it is clear that the transistor went into
saturation between .75 volt and 1 volt. This means that any voltage above 1 volt will have
very little effect on VCE because the BC junction cannot be put into reverse bias.

VBB(V)

vCE(V)

VBB(V)

vCE(V)

10

3.25

0.0509

.25

10

3.50

0.0489

.50

9.98

3.75

0.0472

.75

1.97

4.00

0.0456

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EE 230 Lab
VBB(V)
1

vCE(V)

VBB(V)

vCE(V)

0.11

4.25

0.0442

1.25

0.091

4.50

0.0429

1.5

0.0796

4.75

0.0423

1.75

0.0722

5.00

0.041

0.0666

5.25

0.0399

2.25

0.0623

5.50

0.039

2.5

0.0587

5.75

0.0381

2.75

0.0557

6.00

0.0373

3.0

0.0531

Figure9

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EE 230 Lab
D.

Simple BJT circuits

Figure 10
For the last activity we were to calculate the expected currents for each of the circuits above.
Once the calculations were complete we were then tasked with building each circuit and
verifying our calculations using the digital millimeter. The values for our calculations and
measurements can be seen in the tables on the following page. All calculated values were

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EE 230 Lab

done using the Beta value found in activity B, and all calculations can be found in the
appendix.

measured

vBE

iB

iC

iE

vCE

(a)

.69V

1.77 mA

2.54 mA

4.31 mA

.237V

(b)

.63V

6.6 uA

1.22 mA

1.24mA

7.46V

(c)

.66V

23 uA

4 mA

4.1mA

1.89V

(d)

.63V

0A

1.27 mA

1.27 mA

6.27V

calculated

vBE

iB

iC

iE

vCE

(a)

.7V

1.8 mA

2.5 mA

4.3 mA

.2V

(b)

.7V

6.69uA

1.189mA

1.196mA

7.59V

(c)

.7V

23 uA

4 mA

4 mA

2V

(d)

.69V

0A

2.7mA

2.7mA

5.43V

For the most part our calculations and measured values were very close with some minor
variations on the calculated portion of part d.

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Conclusion:
For this lab we were to take a more in depth look at bipolar junction transistors. Each activity
helped us gain a better understanding of how these useful devices work as well as what it means
to be in forward active or saturation. Activity A provided us with the knowledge of what to
expect when dealing with these in the other activities in this lab. Activities C and D showed two
separate ways a BJT can be put into saturation and forward active mode. By fluctuating the base
voltage and the collector voltage the collector emitter voltage as well as the total current in the
system can be drastically altered making the transistor behave completely differently. Lastly,
activity D provided important practice in calculating the voltages and currents necessary for the
operation of a BJT, backed up with more measurements to ensure they were correct. All in all
this lab was very helpful in understanding the operation of bipolar junction transistors.

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