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Exp 04

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ta577328
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Experiment No.

04
Transistor as a Switch
Objective:
In this Transistor tutorial, we will learn about the working of a Transistor as a
Switch. Switching and Amplification are the two areas of applications of Transistors
and Transistor as a Switch is the basis for many digital circuits.
Theory:

“William Shockley” invented the transistor in 1947. A transistor is a three-


terminal semiconductor device which can be used for switching applications,
amplification of weak signals and in quantities of thousands and millions of
transistors are interconnected and embedded into a tiny integrated circuit/chip,
which makes computer memories. A Transistor switch, which is used for opening or
closing of a circuit that means the transistor, is commonly used as a switch in the
electronic devices only for the low voltage applications because of its low power
consumption. Transistor work as a switch when it is in cutoff and saturation regions.
In this article, we will discuss how to use a transistor as a switch.

Figure (1)

Types of BJT transistors:


A transistor consists of two PN junctions; these junctions are formed by
sandwiching either N-type or P-type semiconductor material between a pair of
opposite type of semiconductor materials.

Bipolar junction transistors are classified into two types:


NPN PNP
Figure (2)
The transistor has three terminals, namely Base, Emitter, and Collector.

1. The emitter is a heavily doped terminal and it emits the electrons into the
Base region.

2. The Base terminal is lightly doped and passes the emitterinjected


electrons onto the collector.

3. The collector terminal is intermediately doped and collects electrons


from the Base.
• NPN-type transistor is the composition of two N-type doped semiconductor
materials between a P-type doped semiconductor layer as shown above.
• PNP-type transistors are the composition of two P-type doped semiconductor
materials between an N-type doped semiconductor layers as shown above.

Transistor as a Switch:
If either the circuit uses the BJT transistor as a switch,
then the biasing of the transistor, NPN or PNP is arranged to operate the transistor
at the both sides of the I-V characteristics curves shown below. A transistor can be
operated in three modes, active region, saturation region and cut-off region:
In the active region, transistor works as an amplifier. The two operating regions of
transistor Saturation Region (fully ON) and the Cut-off Region (fully OFF) were
used to operate a transistor switch.
• Operating Regions: We can observe from the above characteristics, the pink
shaded area at the bottom of the curves represents the Cut-off region and the
blue area to the left represent the Saturation region of the transistor. These
transistor regions are defined as
Figure (3)

• Cut-off Region: The operating conditions of the transistor are zero input
base current (IB=0), zero output collector current(Ic=0), and maximum
collector voltage (VCE) which results in a large depletion layer and no
current flowing through the device. Therefore, the transistor is switched to
“Fully-OFF”. So we can define the cut-off region when using a bipolar
transistor as a switch as being, bother the junctions of NPN transistors are
reverse biased, VB< 0.7v and Ic=0. Similarly, for PNP transistor, the emitter
potential must be –ve with respect to the base of the transistor.

Cut-off
Region
Figure (4)

• Saturation Region:
In this region, the transistor will be biased so that the
maximum amount of base current (IB) is applied, resulting in maximum
collector current(IC=VCC/RL) and then resulting in the minimum collector-
emitter voltage (VCE ~ 0) drop. At this condition, the depletion layer becomes
as small as the possible and maximum current flowing through the transistor.
Therefore, the transistor is switched “Fully-ON”.

Figure (5)

Procedure:
1. Connect the circuit that shown in the figure below:

10Ω
10Ω
5Vd

4V
AC
Figure (6)
2. Set the AC source (4V) and frequency (200 HZ) (Square wave) and draw it.
3. Set the oscilloscope (first terminal) at the common terminal of collector and
resistance (RL) and (second terminal of OSC) to the emitter of transistor.
4. Draw the wave shown in the screen of the Oscilloscope (Square wave).

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