SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONICS:W.R.

David

Transfer Characteristics

What is transfer Characteristics curve?:The Transfer characteristics curve is a graph drawn

between the output voltage(V0 ) and input voltage(Vi ) of a transistor.
What is its Use? It is used primarily to decide when a transistor can be used as a switch and
when it can be used as an amplifier it can also be used to find the cut-off and saturation voltage of
the transistor.
Circuit for finding transfer characteristics Circuit Analysis:The circuit can be analysed

Figure 1: Circuit for determining the transfer characteristics of a transistor

using the Kirchoffs II law

Input side:
The input side has the base bias voltage VBB ,the voltage drop between the base and emitter
(VBE ),input current or base current IB .Applying the Kirchoffs II law to the input side we get:-

VBB IB RB VBE = 0

or
VBB = IB RB + VBE
VBB is the dc input voltage Vi or VBB = Vi ;hence

Vi = IB RB + VBE

Output side:
The Output side has the Collector bias voltage VCC ,the voltage drop between the Collector and
emitter (VCE ),output current or collector current IC .Applying the Kirchoffs II law to the input side
we get:-
VCC IC RC VCE = 0
or
VCE = VCC IC RC
VCE is the the out put voltage VO ,or VCE = VO ,hence

VO = VCC IC RC

The transfer characteristics curve:- The transfer characteristics curve is drawn between the
output VO and input voltage Vi .As Vi increases from zero onwards,the transistor does not conduct
till the barrier voltage(For transistors made of Si the barrier voltage 0.6V and for Germanium
transistors it is 0.2V) is crossed. When the transistor is not conducting the transistor is said to

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be in cutoff state .As long as the transistor is in the cut off state(not conducting) the collector
current(IC ) is 0 (i.e IC = 0),hence the above equation becomes,

VO = VCC

When Vi becomes greater than the barrier voltage (0.6 V/0.2V) the transistor is said to be in
active state with some current IC in the output path and the output Vo decreases as the term
IC RC increases. With increase of Vi , IC increases almost linearly and so Vo decreases linearly till
its value becomes less than about 1.0 V. Beyond this, the change becomes non linear and transistor
goes into saturation state:In this state the Collector current IC and hence the output voltage(VO )
remains almost constant,even if the input voltage is increased . The curve depicting the variation
of VO with Vi called the Transfer characteristics is shown below:-

Figure 2: The transfer Characteristics of a transistor

The transistor as a switch:-The transistor can be used as a switch in logic or digital circuits.Let
us see now how the transistor is operated as a switch. As long as Vi is low(i.e below the barrier
voltage(0.6V/0.2V),The output is high(VO = VCC ). If Vi is high enough to drive the transistor into
saturation, then Vo is low,very near to zero. When the transistor is not conducting it is
said to be switched off and when it is driven into saturation it is said to be switched
on. A low input to the transistor gives a high output and a high input gives a low output Like a
NOT Gate. The switching circuits are designed in such a way that the transistor does not remain
in active state.
Transistor as an amplifier
An Amplifier is a electronic device used to increase the amplitude of input signals.i.e the power
of the input signals. To operate the transistor as an amplifier it is necessary to fix
its operating point somewhere in the middle of its active region. If we fix the value of
VBB corresponding to a point in the middle of the linear part of the transfer curve then the DC
base current IB would be constant and corresponding collector current IC will also be constant.The
negative slope of the active region of the transfer characteristics curve indicates that the output is
out of phase with the input.
The circuit:-
In the above circuit vi AC is the input signal and vo AC the output.The capacitor C is used to
prevent AC and DC mixing(The capacitor blocks DC and allows AC).
Analysis:
Input side
Between the base and emitter of the transistor there is a voltage drop VBE with the + at the base

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 Figure 3: Transistor Amplifier circuit

and - at the emitter Applying Kirchoffs law we get:

VBB = VBE + IB RB

When the AC input vi is given, IB changes to IB + (IB ) and VBE changes to VBE + VBE hence
the above equation becomes:

VBB + vi = VBE + VBE + (IB + IB )RB (1)

from the input characteristics we know that the in put resistance of a transistor is given by
VBE
ri =
IB
hence
VBE = ri IB
substituting this in 1 and rearranging we get

VBB + vi = (VBE + IB RB ) + IB (RB + ri )

Since VBE + IB RB = VBB

vi = IB (RB + ri )
putting RB + ri = r we get

vi = IB r (2)
Output side:
Applying Kirchoffs law to the out put loop we get

Vcc = VCE + Ic Rc (3)

Due to the AC input, IB changes hence the output current Ic also changes, causing a change in
VC E as VCC is fixed VCC remains constant,hence the change in VCC VCC = 0. Thus the output
equation 3can be written as:-
VCC = 0 = VCE + Ic Rc
Thus from the above equation
VCE = Rc IC
The change in VCE is the output voltage v0 . hence

v0 = VCE = Rc IC (4)

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 we know from the transistor characteristics that
IC
ac =
IB
or

IC = ac IB
inserting in 4 we get
v0 = VCE = ac RC IB (5)
The voltage gain of the amplifier is
vo
Av =
vi
substituting 5 and 2 in the above equation we get
ac RC IB ac RC
Av = = (6)
IB r r
(Canceling IB )
The negative sign represents that output voltage is opposite in phase with the input voltage.
The power gain Ap can be expressed as the product of the current gain and voltage gain. Mathe-
matically
Ap = ac Av
However it should be realised that transistor is not a power generating device. The energy for
the higher ac power at the output is supplied by the battery