Automatic Night Lamp Using a Transistor

AIM:
To construct an automatic night lamp using a transistor and LDR

INTRODUCTION:
In some cities and villages, sometimes street lights glow in day time without any
reason. In mining regions people face many difficulties due to absence of light in the
nights. In frontier and hilly areas, people face many problems due to damaged street
lights. For solving these problems, we create a device in which the lights glow in
night and in day time, they get switched off automatically and don't glow. Due to
use of it, we can solve above problems and can also save electricity. Austro-
Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect
transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually construct a working device at
that time. The first working device to be built was a point-contact transistor invented
in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William
Shockley at Bell Labs. They shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their
achievement. The most widely used transistor is the MOSFET (metal–oxide–
semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor, which was
invented by Egyptian engineer Mohamed Atalla with Korean engineer Dawon
Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. The MOSFET was the first truly compact transistor that
could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses.

FIGURE: Automatic night lamp circuit

Transistors revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and
cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The first transistor
and the MOSFET are on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics. The MOSFET is
the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in
modern electronic systems. An estimated total of 13 sextillion MOSFETs have been
manufactured between 1960 and 2018 (at least 99.9% of all transistors), making the
MOSFET the most widely manufactured device in history.
Most transistors are made from very pure silicon, and some from germanium, but certain
other semiconductor materials can also be used. A transistor may have only one kind of
charge carrier, in a field-effect transistor, or may have two kinds of charge carriers
in bipolar junction transistor devices. Compared with the vacuum tube, transistors are
generally smaller, and require less power to operate. Certain vacuum tubes have
advantages over transistors at very high operating frequencies or high operating
voltages. Many types of transistors are made to standardized specifications by multiple
manufacturers.

FIGURE: Automatic street light controller circuit using relay and LDR

THEORY:
1. Transistor: A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch
electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material
with three terminals for connection to an external circuit. Emitter (E) is the left hand
side thick layer of the transistor which is heavily doped. Base (B) is a central thin
layer of transistor which is lightly doped.
Collector (C) is the right hand side thick layer of the transistor which is moderately
doped.A p-n-p junction transistor is obtained by growing a thin layer of thin layer of
n-type semi-conductor in between two relatively thick layers of p-type semi-
conductor.
A n-p-n junction transistor is obtained by growing a thin layer p-type semi-conductor
in between two relatively thick layers of n-type semi-conductor.
 FIGURE: Common emitter n-p-n transistor (BC-547)
2. Carbon Resistor: A carbon resistor has generally four rings or bands A, B, C
and D of different colours corresponding to the value of resistance. In project, we
use carbon resistance of 1M ohms and 330 ohms.

FIGURE: Carbon Resistor

3. LDR: LDR means light dependent resistance which is used to complete the
circuit.
 FIGURE: LDR

4. LED: A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. When a

light-emitting diode is forward-biased (switched on), electrons are able to recombine
with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. In
this project, we use led of white colour.

FIGURE: LED
5. Battery: This is a rectangular prism shape with rounded edges and a polarized
snap connector at the top. In project, we use 9-Volt battery.

FIGURE: Battrey
6. Wires: A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal.
These are used to connect components.

FIGURE: Wires
7.Breadboard: A breadboard is a construction base for prototyping of electronics.
Because the solderless breadboard does not require soldering, it is reusable.

FIGURE: Breadboard

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
1. A n-p-n transistor;
2. Breadboard;
3. Resistors:330Ω, 1MΩ
4. Connecting Wires;
5. LED;
6. LDR;
7. 9V Battery;

PRINCIPLE:
This project is based on Light Dependent Resistance (L.D.R.). LDR is a resistance,
in which opposing power of current depends on the presence of quantity of light
present, i.e. the resistance of LDR increases or decreases, according to quantity of
light which falls on it. If LDR places in darkness, the resistance of LDR increases
and when light falls on it, the resistance of LDR decreases and act as a conductor.
Any LDR in the presence of light and darkness changes its resistance is depending
on the different types of LDR.

FIGURE: Circuit diagram for automatic street lamp controller

WORKING PRINCIPLE OF LDR:
This resistor works on the principle of photo conductivity. It is nothing but, when
the light falls on its surface, then the material conductivity reduces and also the
electrons in the valence band of the device are excited to the conduction band. These
photons in the incident light must have energy greater than the band gap of the
semiconductor material.This makes the electrons to jump from the valence band to
conduction.

FIGURE: Working Principle of LDR

These devices depend on the light, when light falls on the LDR then the resistance
decreases, and increases in the dark.When a LDR is kept in the dark place, its
resistance is high and, when the LDR is kept in the light its resistance will decrease.

WORKING PRINCIPLE OF TRANSISTOR:

The design of a transistor allows it to function as an amplifier or a switch. This is

accomplished by using a small amount of electricity to control a gate on a much
larger supply of electricity, much like turning a valve to control a supply of water.

Transistors are composed of three parts ' a base, a collector, and an emitter. The base
is the gate controller device for the larger electrical supply. The collector is the larger
electrical supply, and the emitter is the outlet for that supply. By sending varying
levels of current from the base, the amount of current flowing through the gate from
the collector may be regulated. In this way, a very small amount of current may be
used to control a large amount of current, as in an amplifier. The same process is
used to create the binary code for the digital processors but in this case a voltage
threshold of five volts is needed to open the collector gate. In this way, the transistor
is being used as a switch with a binary function: five volts ' ON, less than five volts
' OFF.

FIGURE: PNP AND NPN JUNCTION TRANSISTORS

PROCEDURE:
1. Take a breadboard and connect its two halves
2. Connect a 9V battery on the breadboard.
Connect an NPN transistor on the breadboard with its three legs (Emitter, Base,
Collector) inserted in three different columns of the breadboard.
3. The emitter of the transistor is grounded. Connect one leg of a 1 MΩ resistor to
the base of the transistor, and its other leg to any different column of the
breadboard. Connect the corresponding column to VCC.
4. Connect an LDR between the base and emitter of the transistor.
5. Connect one leg of a 330 Ω resistor to the collector of the transistor, and its
other leg to any different column of the breadboard.
6. Take an LED. Connect its negative terminal to the right leg of 330 Ω resistor, and
its positive terminal to Vcc.

OBSERVATION:
When the circuit is exposed to light, the led remains off. When the circuit is taken
into dark, the led glows.

CONCLUSION:

PRECAUTIONS:
1. Excess current should not be passed through LED.
2. Make all the connections neat, clean and tight.
3. Never exceed the ratings for the current given in the transistor manual.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
 NCERT physics class 12 volume 2 text book
