1952 PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E.

1493

tion are appropriate. There is no special reason for com- TABLE I

paring the 6AG5 with the junction transistor other than COMPARISON BETWEEN VACUUM TUBE AND TRANSISTOR
CHARACTERISTICS AND PERFORMANCE
that the 6AG5 is a well known vacuum tube. It would
be more appropriate to compare the transistor with the
unconventional vacuum tube of the type shown in Fig. 6AG5 pentode RCA p-n-p junction
transistor
1(b). The large gm and gm/IE ratio of the transistor have Heater power = 1.9 w Heater power = 0 w
already been mentioned. The input impedance of a nega- Grid-cathode voltage = VGK Base-emitter voltage = VBEr
tive grid vacuum tube is very large as compared with Grid =-0.9 v =-0.165 v
current= IG = 0.09 ,ua Base current = IB -0.036 ma
438 ohms for the transistor. The large input impedance Screen-cathode voltage = V8K Collector-emitter voltage = VCE
=125 v
is an important advantage for the vacuum tube and ac- Anode-cathode =-6.2 v
voltage = VAK
counts in part for the large power gain. In order to =125 v
facilitate comparisoA,, a grid resistor of 10 megohms has Screen current = Is = 2.1 ma Collector current = Ic =-2.Oma
Anode current=IA= 7.2 ma
been associated as an integral part of the vacuum tube. Current amplification factor Current amplification factor
Large grid resistors of this magnitude are sometimes (grounded grid) (common base)
= -(faITk) -0.775 = -(I /I) = 0.977
employed in low-frequency, low-level vacuum tube cir- Current amplification factor Current amplification factor
cuits. The current and noise associated with the grid (grounded cathode) (common emitter)
=- (I./I) --80 X 10 = -(I/Ib) =-43.6
resistor are charged to the vacuum tube and account rgk10 MO rb.=953Q
for the grid current, the finite current amplification fac- rga = X rb6 = 0.645 M Q
raAh=0.5 MO r, = 60 KQ
tor and the 3-db noise factor. gm = 5.1 ma/v gm = 45.9 ma/v
In studying the data of Table I it is important to gm/IK = 0.55 gm/IE = 22.6
Rinput match. =10 M Q Rinput match. =438 Q
remember that the transistor selected is an early de- Routputmatch. 0.5 MO Routput match. = 25.3 KQ(
velopmental unit and that transistors are in their early Maximum power gain = 75 db Maximum power gain =40 db
Noise factor at 1 kc =3 db Noise factor at 1 kc = 22 db
stages of development as compared with vacuum tubes.

Matrix Representation of Transistor Circuits*

JACOB SHEKELt, ASSOCIATE, IRE
Summary-The paper outlines a method to treat transistors as as a "black box" with certain relations between the cur-
3-terminal "black boxes," represented by their admittance matrices. rents and voltages at its terminals. For greater ease in
Instead of using an equivalent circuit with internal sources, the treat-
ment is direct and uses only measurable quantities. Once the admit- visualizing its operations, certain equivalent circuits
tance matrix of the grounded-base transistor is measured, it is easy have been proposed, all of them based on the loop-
to derive the matrices for grounded-emitter and grounded-collector equation analysis of networks.
stages. Matrix representation also presents a direct method for Now, in a "black-box" treatment, by definition, the
analyzing cascaded stages. only measurable currents are those entering any ter-
The method is illustrated by an analysis of circuits with a tran-
sistor that has been described elsewhere.1 minal, and the only measurable voltages are those be-
tween pairs of terminals, more often the voltages be-
INTRODUCTION tween any terminal and a reference "ground" terminal.
T HE APPLICATION of transistors as amplifiers Any internal generators introduced into hypothetical
or oscillators has recently received a considerable loops inside the black box are needless complexities that
amount of attention. Apart from the description have, no doubt, some value as aids to visualize relation
of the physical principles underlying transistor opera- between terminal phenomena, but are nevertheless not
tion, some recent papers2' 34 have treated the transistor essential to the representation and computation of the
empirically, describing it-for engineering purposes- circuits.
In this paper an attempt is made to discuss transistor
* Decimal classification: R282.12. Original manuscript received
circuits, specifying a transistor only by its measurable
by the Institute, February 11, 1952. terminal magnitudes: input and transfer impedance (or
t 8, Ben Yehuda St., Haifa, Israel.
I R. M. Ryder and R. J. Kircher, "Some circuit aspects of the admittance). The mathematical method for this treat-
transistor," Bell Sys. Tech. Jour., vol. 28, p. 373; July, 1949. ment was developed in a recent paper,' and its main
2 R. M. Ryder and R. J. Kircher, ibid., p. 367.
J R. L. Wallace, Jr. and G. Raisbeck, 'Duality as a guide in tran- points are briefly reviewed here.
sistor circuit design," Bell Sys. Tech. Jour., vol. 30, p. 381; April,
1951.
4R. L. Wallace, Jr. and W. J. Pietenpol, "Some circuit properties 5 J. Shekel, 'Application of matrices to the analysis of linear net-
and applications of n-p-n transistors," Bell Sys. Tech. Jour., vol. 30, works," Bull. Scien. Dep't., Ministry of Defense, No. 25-26; Tel
p. 530; July, 1951. Also PROC. I.R.E., vol. 39, p. 753; July, 1951. Aviv, Israel; July-August, 1951. (In Hebrew.)
 1494 PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E. November
A terminal of a network is a point at which external is to be grounded. In transistor circuits, this allows
sources and loads may be connected. The only definable equally easy calculation of grounded base, emitter or
and measurable currents are those entering a terminal; collector stages, or even stages where all three terminals
the only definable and measurable voltages are those are ungrounded.
between pairs of terminals.
The current entering a network is the one-column THE GENERAL "BLACK-Box" TREATMENT
matrix I whose components Ii are the currents into the
i-th terminal. As an introduction to matrix representation of tran-
The voltage of the network is a one-column matrix V sistors, the general treatment of an n-terminal "black
whose components V5 are the voltages between the i-th box" will be outlined. For the sake of simplicity in writ-
terminal and an arbitrary reference terminal. ing the matrix expressions, the treatment of a 4-terminal
The admittance of the network is the square matrix Y, box will be shown. The method is easily extended to any
defined by other number of terminals.
When attempting to measure the input and transfer
I=YV. (1) impedances, the ground terminal has to be specified. Let
Owing to the linear nature of (1), this treatment may be thisEquation
be terminal 4.
(1), written out in full, is
applied to linear networks only. In nonlinear networks,
the treatment will give only the "small-signal" ap- yll V13
V12 Vi
proximation, where Ii and Vi are only changes of current
and voltage about a fixed operating point. 12 Y21 Y22 Y23 V2 (2)
I

In an n-terminal network, only n -1 currents are in- I3 VY31 Y32 Y33 V3

dependent, and the voltage of one terminal may be giving, for example,
fixed arbitrarily. It was shown that those two facts put
certain restrictions on Y, namely, that the sum of any 12 = Y21V1 + Y22V2 + Y23V3.
row or any column in it is zero. This singular matrix was
termed the indefinite admittance matrix, due to the fact If all voltages are zero, except, say, Vj, then
of the voltage reference terminal being undefined. Ii = Yi Vi.
The following operations on networks are represented (3)
by corresponding changes in the admittance: The Yhj are, therefore, the short-circuit input and trans-
1. Specifying a terminal as "ground" leads to a re- fer admittances. They, may be determined experi-
duced (n-i) X (n-1) matrix, which is obtained from mentally in two ways:
Y by crossing out the corresponding row and column. 1. In linear circuits, a voltage Vi is applied between
2. Shorting two terminals together is represented by the j-th terminal and ground, and all other terminals
adding the corresponding rows and columns to form one are grounded. The currents into all terminals are then
row and column, respectively. measured, giving the Y,,.
3. When two or more networks are connected in 2. In nonlinear "black boxes," e.g., vacuum tubes, the
parallel, their corresponding admittance matrices are various current-voltage characteristics are plotted, and,
added together. In this way, the admittance of the for any operating point,
composite network may be computed by adding to-
gether the matrices of the composing elements, which 3I~
Y -
may be two-terminal admittors or "black boxes" of iV=
higher complexity.
Main advantages of above-mentioned method are: The "black box" under consideration may be un-
1. In full analogy to the treatment of simple circuits, stable under short-circuit conditions, but then an
the only quantities that are used in representation or alternative method for determining the network matrix
computation are admittances and impedances. No engi- is possible by inverting (2) to give
neer would dream of computing the resistance of a com- VI Zil Z12 Z13 I .
bination of parallel resistors by introducing hypothetical
currents and voltages which later cancel out; nor would V2 Z21 Z22 Z23 IT2 (4)
he compute the voltage transfer ratio of a simple voltage Vs Z31 Z32 Z33 is
divider except by writing down the ratio of two re-
sistances. This same treatment is extended to composite If all currents be zero, except, say, Is,
networks, giving all results without introducing loop Vi = Zi,,1. (5)
currents which are to be cancelled out later.
2. The treatment allows complete freedom in chang- The Ziq are, then, the open-circuit input and transfer
ing the grounded terminal. Once the indefinite admit- impedances, and may be measured directly or computed
tance is known, it is immaterial which terminal, if any, from suitable characteristic curves.
 1952 Shekel: Matrix Representation of Transistor Circuits 1495
Comparing (2) and (4), it is evident that the Z Zii = 530 ohms Z12 = 290 ohms
matrix is the inverse of the Y matrix. Z21= 34,000 ohms Z22 19,000 ohms,
=

Once the Y matrix is found, directly or by inverting

the Z matrix, it is brought to the indefinite form where 1 denotes the emitter terminal and 2 the collector
terminal, and the base terminal is grounded.
y11 Y12 Y13 Y14 The impedance matrix is, then,
Y21 Y22 Y23 Y24
(6) 530 290
Y31 Y32 y33 Y34 , (9)
34,000 19,000
Y41 Y42 Y43 Y44
where Inverting it, the admittance matrix for grounded-base
operation is obtained.
Y14 = - - -Y12-13,Y41= -Y - Y21-31, -
+ 90.48 -1.38
and so on, (10)
-161.90 +2.52
Y44 = Y11 + Y12 + Y13 + Y21 + Y22 + Y23
A third row and column are added, so as to make the
+ Y81 + Y82 + Y33, sum of every row and column equal to zero, thus giving
so that the sum of every row and column is zero. the indefinite admittance matrix of the transistor
If the "black box" is used in a circuit with terminal + 90.48 -1.38 - 89.10
2 grounded, the admittance will be
y = -161.90 +2.52 +159.38 X 10-3. (11)
y11 Y13 Y14
+ 71.42 -1.14 - 70.28
Y31 Y33 Y34 . (7)
The matrix is not symmetric, and a negative value
Y41 Y43 Y44 appears on the main diagonal. The last fact is indicative
Supposing that a conductance C is connected be- of short-circuit instability. Suppose that the emitter and
tween terminals 1 and 3, the admittance of the com- collector should be shorted together and grounded, the
bination will be first and second rows and columns are to be crossed out,
Y11 +G Y13-G Y14 and the matrix degenerates into a single negative con-
ductance of -70.28 millimhos, which is the input ad-
Y31-G Y33+G Y34 . (8) mittance at the base terminal.
Y41 Y43 Y44 GROUNDED-BASE AMPLIFIER
An element connected between any terminal and ground A grounded-base amplifier is shown schematically in
will appear only once, on the main diagonal of the Fig. 1, which is its equivalent circuit for small signals (all
matrix. dc potential differences disregarded). G, is the internal
Let Y be the matrix of the composite network
"black box" and added elements and let Z be the matrix 2
inverse to Y. If i be the input terminal and k the output I0g
terminal, the following relations may be computed:
input impedance = Zii Gg
output impedance = Zkk
open-circuit voltage amplification = Zki:Zii Fig. 1-Grounded-base amplifier.
short-circuit current amplification = Yki: Yii. conductance of the input signal source and G1 the con-
A passive bilateral "black box" is characterized by ductance of the load. Typical values are
an admittance matrix which is symmetric, and has non-
negative elements on its main diagonal and nonpositive Go,= 2 millimhos
elements elsewhere. This is not the case with vacuum G, = 0.05 millimhos.
tubes, neither with transistors, which are active and The admittance of the circuit is constructed as fol-
unilateral elements. lows:
ADMITTANCE MATRIX OF A TYPICAL TRANSISTOR 1. The third row and column are omitted from (11)
(grounded base).
To illustrate the application of the above methods to 2. GC and G1 are added to Yn, and Y22, respectively.
transistors, a typical specimen is chosen.' In a type-A
transistor, the following open-circuit impedances were + 92.48 -1.38
measured at a certain operating point: -161.90 +2.57 X 10-3. (12)
1496 PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E. November
The voltage gain in this circuit is6 By the same general expressions used in the preceding
Z21 -Y21 +161.9 sections,
forward voltage gain = - +63
=
89.10
Z11 F'22 +2.57 forward voltage gain = 948 = + 0.985
Z12 -Y12 1.38 =
backward voltage gain = - = = 0.015. -71 .42
Z22 Y11 92.48 backward voltage gain = = - 1.01,
The positive sign of both ratios shows that there is no 70.38
phase reversal. the negative sign being indicative of a phase reversal in
The power dissipated in the load is V22GI, the avail- the backward direction.
able power from the source is I12 :(4G,), and the power forward power gain /89. 10~= 2
gain is then -I 1.55.
backward power gain \71.42
forward power gain = 4G0G1(V2: Il)2 = 4GgGIZ212
- 4 X 2 X 0.05 X 10-6 CASCADE AMPLIFER
161.9 X10-3 The admittance of a network of cascaded transistors
X 92.48 X 2.57 - 161.9 X 1.38) (Fig. 3) is found as a sum of three admittance matrices,
corresponding to the component networks (Fig. 4).
= 51.

The backward power gain is, similarly, 4G,0GZ122, and 3

the ratio
forward power gain (Z21"2 Y21\2
backward power gain '\Z12 y12) Gl
is independent on the source and load, being a character-
istic of the transistor itself. In this case, the ratio is Fig. 3-Cascaded amplifier stages.
forward power gain /161.9\ 2
=I = 1.37 X 104.
L 3
backward power gain 1.38 I 2 3 2 3
to \ 0 1 2 /
GROUNDED-COLLECTOR AMPLIFER
The admittance matrix of a grounded-collector stage G9 I
(Fig. 2) is constructed in the following steps:
1. Second row and column crossed out of (11) (a) (b) (c)
(grounded collector). Fig. 4-Component networks of the amplifier of Fig. 3.
2
1. The passive network.
Gg 0 0
Ya = 0 0 0 (14)
Lf1 0 0 G1
2. The first transistor, the usual grounded-base
Fig. 2-Grounded-collector amplifier. matrix, with a third row and column of zeroes cor-
responding to the isolated third terminal.
2. The remaining rows and columns are interchanged,
so that the indices 1 and 2 denote base and emitter, + 90.48 -1.38 0
respectively, conforming with Fig. 2. Yb = -161.90 +2.52 0 X 10-3. (15)
3. G, and GI are added to Y1l and Y22, respectively. 0 0 0
To illustrate an actual computation, let
Go = 0. 05 millimhos 3. The second row and column are omitted from the
general matrix (11), and the remaining rows and
Gi = 0. 1 millimhos. columns interchanged to conform with the ter-
-70.38 +71.42 minal numbering in Fig. 4 (c).
Y=
9.10 X90.48x10-3. (13)
-89. 10 +90.48 0 0

6 Zik is the co-factor of Yki, divided by the determinant of Y. The Ye = 0 -70.28 +71.42 X 10-3. (16)
ratio of two Z's is therefore the ratio of the corresponding co-factors,
whicb are, in a 2X2 matrix, iust elements of Y. 0 -89.10 +90.48
1952 12PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E. 1497
The three matrices are then added together. Putting Similarly, all other results may be computed by the
G= 2 millimhos same general expressions.
GI = 0. 1 millimhos,
this gives CONCLUSION
+ 92.48 - 1.38 0
A general method of treating n-terminal "black
Y= -161.90 -67.76 +71.42 X 10-3. (17) boxes" has been outlined, which may be applied to any
0 -89.10 +90.58 linear "black box," whether it be active or passive,
bilateral or unilateral. The method was then applied to
The forward voltage gain is a certain type of transistor, and some circuit arrange-
161.90 -67.76
- ments were analyzed.
z31 0 89.10
-
The paper was not intended to be a treatise on tran-
= sistors but a discussion of methods of circuit analysis;
Z11 67.76 +71.42
-
64.
therefore, no general conclusions were derived about
89. 10 +90.58
- transistor circuits and their properties.

Dynamics of Transistor Negative-Resistance Circuits*

B. G. FARLEYt, ASSOCIATE, IRE
Summary-A general method is presented for calculating ap- of the circuit is picked in terms of which the solution is
proximately the behavior of many nonlinear circuits by dividing the desired. ("Independent variable" here means that such
region of operation into subregions, within each of which the circuit variables can be chosen independently as initial condi-
may be considered linear to a good approximation. The method is
applied to a high-speed transistor switching circuit as an illustrative tions. The number of independent variables is the
example. number of 'degrees of freedom" of the circuit. For the
transistor, the emitter input current and voltage will be
I. INTRODUCTION used as independent variables.) Nonlinearity usually
RANSISTORS have shown considerable promise manifests itself as circuit parameters which depend
as elements of high-speed switching circuits in on current or voltage. An approximation is then made
computer and control systems requiring rapid by dividing the plane or space of the independent
pulse handling. variables into regions within each of which it is con-
Their operation in such circuits is of a type which has sidered that the circuit parameters are sufficiently con-
received relatively little attention in the literature as stant to give a satisfactory result if exact constancy is
yet, and certain complexities arise which are compara- assumed. Thus, the nonlinear problem is broken up
tively new. The purpose of this paper is to present an into several ordinary linear problems, and the solutions
approximate method for analyzing nonlinear circuits are patched together at boundaries of linear regions.
and to show how the method may be applied in ac- It is to be noted that the method outlined above is
cordance with the best present experience to point- of general applicability for circuits having voltage and
contact transistor circuits. These methods will serve to current-dependent elements, and of course, the ap-
elucidate the three main aspects of electronic switching proximation can be made as close as desired, at the
action which it is desirable to be able to calculate, cost of increasing labor, by subdividing the operating
namely the action upon triggering, the output voltage, region into smaller and smaller subregions. The effects
and the rise and fall times of the output wave. in the transistor due to minority-carrier storage may
The method for treating the nonlinear circuit will be not come within the voltage or current dependent class,
simply to approximate it with two or more linear cir- since the effect may depend on previous history. In any
cuits. To accomplish this, a set of independent variables case, calculation of the storage effects is less satisfactory
than the others, at present. This will be discussed in
*Decimal classification: R282.12. Original manuscript received Section VIII.
by the Institute, August 15, 1952. A remark concerning negative resistance is pertinent
t Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill Laboratory, Murray here. Terms like "negative-resistance oscillations" as
Hill, N. J.