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How A PNP Transistor Works

A PNP transistor is a bipolar junction transistor made of three regions: the emitter and collector regions are made of p-type semiconductor material containing holes, and the base region is made of n-type semiconductor material containing electrons. Current flows from the emitter to the collector when the transistor is properly biased by applying a positive voltage to the emitter, connecting the base to ground via a resistor to ensure current flows out of the base, and connecting the collector to ground. This biasing arrangement takes advantage of the fact that holes in the p-type emitter region are repelled by the positive emitter voltage and flow toward the collector, and the base must be made sufficiently more negative than the emitter for current

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Berlin Alcayde
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144 views3 pages

How A PNP Transistor Works

A PNP transistor is a bipolar junction transistor made of three regions: the emitter and collector regions are made of p-type semiconductor material containing holes, and the base region is made of n-type semiconductor material containing electrons. Current flows from the emitter to the collector when the transistor is properly biased by applying a positive voltage to the emitter, connecting the base to ground via a resistor to ensure current flows out of the base, and connecting the collector to ground. This biasing arrangement takes advantage of the fact that holes in the p-type emitter region are repelled by the positive emitter voltage and flow toward the collector, and the base must be made sufficiently more negative than the emitter for current

Uploaded by

Berlin Alcayde
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How a PNP Transistor Works

A PNP transistor is a bipolar junction transistor (BJT). A BJT is a transistor that is current-controlled and
allows for current amplification.

In this article, we will go over exactly how a PNP transistor works so that you can know how to power it in
a circuit to allow for amplification and/or switching.

How a PNP Transistor Works


A PNP transistor is a transistor which is made up of 3 regions, the base, emitter, and collector. The
collector and emitter regions are made up of p-type material, which means they are predominately
composed of holes. Holes are deemed as positive charges. The base region is made up of n-type
material. It is predominately composed of electrons.

Below is a visual diagram of the construction and composition of a PNP transistor.

In order for current to flow from the emitter to the collector, the transistor must be biased in the following
way, shown below:
A PNP transistor is a semiconductor. A semiconductor is in an intermediate state between a conductor,
which allows for the free and easy movement of electrons and an insulator, which offers great resistance
to the flow of electrons. However, if a semiconductor is biased properly, meaning voltage is allocated
appropriately to the parts of a transistor, then a great amount of current can flow. This is what we are
doing now, we are biasing the transistor so that current can flow. But to know how to properly bias the
transistor, you must know how the transistor is internally constructed.

As stated before, a PNP transistor is made up of 2 layers of p materials, holes, representing positive
charges, sandwiching a middle layer of n material, made of electrons, negative charges. The end goal is
that we want to bias our circuit so that current flows across from the emitter to collector to power the load
connected to the collector terminal.

Bipolar junction transistors, including the PNP transistor, are made so that current should flow from the
emitter to the collector region. The collector region is the largest region which contains the most charge.
Therefore, this is why we want current to go from the smaller emitter region to the larger collector region,
where the most charge is. This is why the collector region is the destination point. It will give out slightly
more amplified current than the emitter region. This is wh we connect the load we want to power to the
collector side, not emitter.

So we want to bias our circuit so that current flows from the emitter to the collector.

In order to understand how a transistor, there is basically one physics law to understand and that is the
law of charges. If you know this, you can figure out how a transistor works. And this is a very simple
concept. It is the concept that like charges repel each other and opposite charges attract each other. This
means 2 positive charges will repel each other and 2 negative charges will repel each other, while
opposite charges will attract each other. This is all you need to know to understand transistors.

The emitter region of a PNP is made up of P material, which are holes. And we want current to flow from
the emitter to the collector region. Therefore, we place positive voltage to the emitter region. This makes
the holes in the emitter region be repelled by the positive charges. Therefore, current flows downward
toward the collector.

The next region we must bias is the base region, the most important region for controlling the on-off
capability of the transistor. When no current is going into the base region of a PNP transistor, the base
region is very small and offers no real impedement to the flow of current. Thus, current can easily flow
across from emitter to collector. This is because without current flowing, electrons are not going into the
N-material of the base region. Just think, the base region of a PNP transistor is made up of N material,
electrons. If we add more electrons, by allowing current to go in (current is the flow of electrons), we
increase or thicken the base region, increasing the barrier between the emitter and collector region,
blocking current flow. This is why when we give current to the base, it blocks the flow of current from the
emitter to the collector. And when we have no current flowing into the base, current easily flows from
emitter to collector. So if we want our to transistor to be fully on, we make sure that the base is connected
to ground. This ensures tha no current flows into the base.

The last region to bias is the collector region. This simply just connects to ground, because the positive
voltage pushing from the emitter side downward is really all that is needed to produce current flow
through the transistor, if there is no base current.

So to connect a PNP transistor to power on a load, all we need is the following circuit:

Again, just make sure that the base connects to ground and that there is sufficient positive voltage to the
emitter terminal to power the load. The PNP transistor will not work unless the base is connected to
ground. And it cannot be connected to ground directly through a jumper wire. A resistor must be in place
between the base and ground. This makes current flow from the base of the transistor down to ground.
The PHP transistor must have negative current flow from the base in order to operate, meaning current
must flow from the base to ground. The base must be sufficiently more negative than the emitter for the
PNP transistor to operate.

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