You are on page 1of 11

BJT vs FET

This page on BJT vs FET describes difference between BJT and FET. They are
developed from different semiconductor materials mainly P-type and N-type. These
transistors are used in the design of amplifiers, switches and oscillators etc.

BJT

BJT stands for Bipolar Junction Transistor. BJT is the current controlled device.
As shown in the figure, there are P-N-P and N-P-N type of BJT transistors. The symbols
of these transistors are also depicted in the figure. There are three terminals in a BJT
device viz. emitter,base and collector.
Trans-conductance gm = vs W/d
Cutoff frequency fT = gm/(2pCgs)
Following are useful characteristics of BJT:
Its input impedance is low and output impedance is high.
Noisy device due to presence of minority carriers.
It is bipolar device as current flows due to both majority and minority carriers.
Thermal stability is lesser due to leakage current or reverse saturation current.
Doping in emitter is highest and in base it is lowest.
Area of collector is highest and that is base is lowest.

FET

FET stands for Field Effect Transistor. FET is the voltage controlled device.
Figure depicts FET symbols for P channel and N channel type.There are three terminals
in a FET device. viz. source, drain and gate. The source is the terminal through which
the carriers enter the channel. The drain is the terminal through which carriers leave the
channel.The gate is the terminal that modulates the channel conductivity by application
of voltage to this terminal.
FET is referred as unipolar transistor. In FET input voltage controls the output current,
here input current is usually negligible. This is the great merit of FET when input can not
supply much current.

Trans-conductance- gm = q Ie/kBT
Cutoff frequency- fT = 2Dn/WB2
Following are useful characteristics of FET which mentions difference between BJT and
FET features.
It is a high input impedance device about 100 MOhm and above.
FET has no offset voltage when used as switch unlike BJT.
FET is relatively immune to radiation but BJT is very sensitive.
It is a majority carrier device.
FET is less noisy compare to BJT. It is more suitable for input stages of low level
amplifiers.
FET provides greater thermal stability compare to BJT.
FET is a unipolar device.
Following are the main disadvantages(demerits) of FETs.
FET has relatively small gain bandwidth product compare to BJT.
FET suffers from greater susceptibility to damage and hence requires careful handling.
Following table mentions difference between BJT(Bipolar Junction Transistor) and
FET(Field Effect Transistor) types.
BJT
High voltage gain
Low current gain
Low input impedance

FET
Low voltage gain
High current gain
Very high input impedance

Low output impedance


Medium Noise Generation
Medium switching time
Robust
Requires zero input to turn it "OFF"
It is a Current controlled device.
Cheap
Easy to bias

High output impedance


Low Noise generation
Fast switching time
Easily damaged
Some need an input to turn it "OFF"
It is a Voltage controlled device.
More expensive than BJT.
Difficult to bias

Diac vs Triac | Difference between Diac and Triac


This page Diac vs Triac describes difference between Diac and Triac.It explains
basics of Diac and Triac and mentions useful difference between terms.

Triac

As we know, thyristor is a half wave device similar to the diode and hence will provide
only half power. A Triac device consists of two thyristors connected in parallel but in
opposite directions and is controlled by the same gate.
Triac is a two dimentional thyristor which is triggered on both halves of the input a.c.
cycle using positive or negative gate pulses. Triac connecting terminals are MT1, MT2
and gate(G) as shown. The triggering pulses are applied between G and MT1 terminals.
The gate current to handle 100A from triac is not more than 50mA or so.

Diac

Diac is made of two zener diodes connected back to back. One of the application of
these devices is shown in the figure-3 as lamp dimmer circuit. It conducts in either
direction when the voltage across C1 reaches it breakdown value of approx. 30 volt. A
current pulse fom C1 triggers the triac and power is supplied to the load (here lamp).
The conducting period of triac depends on value R1. The more is the value of R1, C1
will get charged very slowly. This makes triac turn on very late in the cycle and hence
light will be more dim.

After the study of Diac and Triac one can also refer various electronic terminologies.

FDM vs OFDM - Difference between FDM and OFDM

This page describes difference between FDM and OFDM techniques.


FDM stands for Frequency Division Multiplexing and OFDM stands for Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing.

As shown in the figure in FDM systems carriers are far apart with respect to each other
and in OFDM systems carriers are densely packed and are orthogonal to the other
carriers. Orthogonal means peak of one carrier occurs at null of the other. Hence OFDM
system is bandwidth efficient compare to FDM system. In FDM system carriers are not
orthogonal.
OFDM system usually will have more Peak to Average Power ration i.e. PAPR compare
to FDM system. PAPR can be reduced by use of scrambler module and other
techniques in OFDM systems.
OFDM system provides higher data rate compare to FDM system in the same
bandwidth usage.
FDM systems are used in radio, satellite communications requiring good amount of
guard bands between adjacent frequency bands. OFDM systems are used in wimax16d/16e, wlan-11g/11n and LTE technologies requiring higher data rate and mainly used
for broadband internet service.
In OFDM systems multipath interference is more compare to FDM systems but can be
avoided/reduced using high end algorithms such as cyclic prefix insertion etc.
In FDM case entire bandwidth is used by user/subscriber, while in OFDM bandwidth is
divided into many narrow band channels and each is allocated to user/subscriber.
Hence OFDM supports more subscribers/channels compare to FDM.

If one wants to understand difference between FDM and OFDM, it requires wast
knowledge on carrier multiplexing techniques for optimal utilization of scarce frequency
resoures.

Capacitor basics

capacitor stores electric charge. It blocks DC and allows AC to pass through. In simplest
form, capacitor is made of two metal plates separated by insulator called as dielectric.
There are two types based on the value i.e. fixed capacitor and variable capacitor.
Further based on polarity there are two types i.e. polarized and non-polarized
capacitors.
Capacitance is measured in farads(F). To simply values there are microfarad, nanofarad
and picofarad units. Capacitor is choosen based on factors such as working voltage,
leakage current, value, tolerance, type and stability.
Capacitor stores charge when voltage is applied across it. Its value Q depends on V
and C.
Q=V*C
Energy (W) stored in a capacitor in Joules = 1/2( Q*V)

Capacitors in series

As shown in the figure, if two capacitors are connected in series, following can be
derived.
Total capacitance is as per equation below.
Total capacitance is as per equation below.
1/C = 1/C1 + 1/C2
Capacitors in series, total capacitance, C= C1*C2/C1+C2

Capacitors in parallel

As shown in the figure, if two capacitors are connected in parallel, following can be
derived.
Total capacitance is as per equation below.
Their voltages are same across but charges are different.
Capacitors in parallel, total capacitance C= C1+C2

Capacitor Impedance
Capacitor reactance Xc = 1/(2*pi*f*C)
Where, C is in farads, f is in Hz. As in resistor, parameters oppose to current flow is
referred as resistance, in capacitor parameter opposed to a.c. is referred as capacitive
reactance.
Capacitive reactance will be translated to a negative imaginary impedance i.e.
impedance at -90 degrees.
capacitor impedance = 0-i*Xc

Capacitor Types
There are various types of fixed capacitors which include polyester, Mica, Ceramic,
Electrolytic etc. These capacitors will have single fixed value and are used for various
applications.
Polyester capacitors are made using two strips of polyester film wound between two
strips of aluminium foil. Two leads are attached with these foils for providing connectivity
with other electronic circuit components or mounting the capacitors on the PCB.
Mica capacitor is made of mica material naturally available. They are used in RF tuned
circuits where low loss is needed. They have very low tolerance but have higher stability
and working voltage.
Ceramic capacitors are of various types and will have value from 10 pF to 1 F. They
are available in different sizes such as rod, disc and plate shaped. They are used in
applications not requiring exact value of capacitance.
Electrolytic capacitors will have polarity and hence need to be connected taking into
consideration their polarity as current flows from positive(+) terminal.

Capacitor manufacturers
The popular capacitor manufacturers are murata, CTR, Electronic concepts, vishay,
DEC, CDE etc.

Vishay
Vishay manufacture capacitors of various types viz. solid and wet tantalum capacitors,
multilayer chip and disk type ceramic capacitors, aluminum, wet tantalum capacitors,
conformal coated capacitors, molded tantalum surface mount capacitors etc.

Inductor basics

An inductor is a coil of wire with a core of either air or a magnetic material such as iron.
Inductors oppose changing currents are said to have inductance denoted by L.
An inductor allows DC to flow from and blocks AC signal. It has function opposite to the
capacitor.
The unit of inductance is Henry(H). The other units such as millihenry (mH) and
microhenry (H) are alternatively used to represent the inductance values. An inductor
with a magnetic core has a much larger inductance compare to air cored inductors.
More the turns of wire on the coil, more is the value of inductor.
Based on its contruction and usage there are various types of inductors made of iron
cores, air cores, iron dust and ferrite cores.

Inductor Impedance
Inductor reactance XL =(2*pi*f*L)
Where, L is in henry, f is in Hz. The inductive reactance will be translated to positive
imaginary impedance i.e. impedance at +90 degrees,
In the inductor parameter opposed to AC is referred as inductive reactance XL.
Inductor impedance = 0+i*XL
As per equation, inductive impedance increases either by increasing the inductance (L)
or by increasing the A.C. frequency.

High Frequency Inductor

The high frequency inductors are used for radio frequency applications. As mentioned it
will have higher reactance at such frequecies. Hence it will block any radio frequencies.
It is used in RF circuits between DC and RF circuit path as shown in the figure. This
helps DC to be applied to rf components and blocks any high frequencies from RF
circuit to damage power supply part (DC part).

Inductor Manufacturers
There are various manufacturers of inductors which include vishay, coilcraft, coil
electronics co. ltd, murata, symcom etc.
Renco Electronics manufacture shielded or unshielded Inductors in the range from 0.1
H to 180 mH. Renco inductors are available in 14 families and with different shapes
which include molded, vaccum impregnated, encapsulated of type radial as well as
surface mount.

Resistor basics
The discrete electronic resistor is used to control the flow of current by way of inserting
resistance in the path. It is used in many electronic circuits for various reasons as
mentioned below:
To obtain desired voltages(power) at various points in the circuit
To obtain variable voltage from fixed voltage using variable resistor
To obtain changing voltage using changing current across resistance in voltage
amplifier

Figure-1 depicts fixed resistor and variable resistor symbols. While purchasing or
selecting resistor for your need tolerance, power rating and stability (against
temperature,physical conditions) specifications are considered. Resistance is measured
in Ohm.
Fixed resistor does not change resistance value. Fixed resistors are of various types
based on their design and material such as carbon composition, carbon film, metal
oxide, wire wound etc. Metal oxide offer highest stability over long time. Wire wound
resistors are used in multimeter design due to its low tolerance(i.e. good accuracy) and
high stability.

Resistor value using Color code

The first three bands provide the resistor value and fourth band provide the tolerance.
The first and second band give the first two numbers and third one gives number of
zeros. Tolerance is as per fourth band color. This is mentioned below in the two tables.

Value codes
Number
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Band Color
Black
Brown
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Violet
Grey
White

If the color codes on the resistor is yellow(4), violet(7), red(two zeros) and silver. The
resistor value will be 4700 Ohm with tolerance of +/-10%

Tolerance codes
Percentage
+/-5
+/-10
+/-20

Band Color
Gold
Silver
No fourth band

Resistors in Series

As shown in the figure, if two resistors are connected in series, following can be derived.
Current flow(I) will be same from them.
Total voltage is summation of voltage across both these resistors. (V=V1+V2) equals
(I*R=I*R1+I*R2)
Total resistance is summation of resistance value of both these resistors. (R=R1+R2)

Resistors in Parallel

As shown in the figure, if two resistors are connected in parallel, following can be
derived.
Votage across both resistors will be same.
Total current is summation of currents through them. (I=I1+I2)equals (V/R) = (V/R1) +
(V/R2)
Total resistance (R) = R1*R2/(R1+R2)
Depending upon applications resistors in series and resistors in parallel configurations
are used in the electronic circuit design.

Resistor Manufacturer
There are many resistor manufacturers across the world which include Mouser
Electronics, vishay, Riedon, murata, precision resistor, ohmite, innovativepp, SRTrestech and so on.

Vishay
Vishay resistors and vishay capacitors are considered to be very accurate and used for
wide variety of applications. User has option to choose resistor based on various
technologies(thick film, thin film, carbon film, metal oxide film, wirewound) as wel

You might also like