IV TRANSISTOR BIASING AND STABILIZATION

4.1 NEED FOR TRANSISTOR BIASING:

If the o/p signal must be a faithful reproduction of the i/p signal, the transistor must be
operated in active region. That means an operating point has to be established in this region .
To establish an operating point (proper values of collector current I c and collector to emitter
voltage VCE) appropriate supply voltages and resistances must be suitably chosen in the ckt. This
process of selecting proper supply voltages and resistance for obtaining desired operating point
or Q point is called as biasing and the ckt used for transistor biasing is called as biasing ckt.

There are four conditions to be met by a transistor so that it acts as a faithful ampr:

1) Emitter base junction must be forward biased (VBE =0.7Vfor Si, 0.2V for Ge) and collector
base junction must be reverse biased for all levels of i/p signal.
2) Vce voltage should not fall below VCE (sat) (0.3V for Si, 0.1V for Ge) for any part of the i/p
signal. For VCE less than VCE (sat) the collector base junction is not probably reverse biased.
3) The value of the signal Ic when no signal is applied should be at least equal to the max.
collector current t due to signal alone.
4) Max. rating of the transistor Ic(max), VCE (max) and PD(max) should not be exceeded at any
value of i/p signal.

Consider the fig shown in fig1. If operating point is selected at A, A represents a condition
when no bias is applied to the transistor i.e, I c=0, VCE =0. It does not satisfy the above said
conditions necessary for faithful amplification.

Point C is too close to PD(max) curve of the transistor. Therefore the o/p voltage swing in the
positive direction is limited.

Point B is located in the middle of active region .It will allow both positive and negative half
cycles in the o/p signal. It also provides linear gain and larger possible o/p voltages and currents

Hence operating point for a transistor amplifier is selected to be in the middle of active
region.
 IC(max)
PD(max)

PD(max)
PD(max)

Vce(sat)
PD(max) fig1

4.2 DC LOAD LINE:

Referring to the biasing circuit of fig 4.2a, the values of V CC and RC are fixed and Ic and VCE
are dependent on R B.

Applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law to the collector circuit in fig. 4.2a, we get
 The straight line represented by AB in fig4.2b is called the dc load line. The coordinates of
the end point A are obtained by substituting VCE =0 in the above equation. Then .

Therefore The coordinates of A are VCE =0 and .

The coordinates of B are obtained by substituting Ic=0 in the above equation. Then Vce =
Vcc. Therefore the coordinates of B are VCE =Vcc and Ic=0. Thus the dc load line AB can be
drawn if the values of Rc and Vcc are known.

As shown in the fig4.2b, the optimum POINT IS LOCATED AT THE MID POINT OF THE
MIDWAY BETWEEN a AND b. In order to get faithful amplification, the Q point must be well
within the active region of the transistor.

Even though the Q point is fixed properly, it is very important to ensure that the operating
point remains stable where it is originally fixed. If the Q point shifts nearer to either A or B, the
output voltage and current get clipped, thereby o/p signal is distorted.

In practice, the Q-point tends to shift its position due to any or all of the following three
main factors.

1) Reverse saturation current, Ico, which doubles for every 10 oC raise in temperature
2) Base emitter Voltage ,VBE, which decreases by 2.5 mV per oC
3) Transistor current gain, hFE or β which increases with temperature.

If base current I B is kept constant since IB is approximately equal to Vcc/RB. If the transistor
is replaced by another one of the same type, one cannot ensure that the new transistor will
have identical parameters as that of the first one. Parameters such as β vary over a range. This
results in the variation of collector current Ic for a given I B. Hence , in the o/p characteristics,
the spacing between the curves might increase or decrease which leads to the shifting of the Q-
point to a location which might be completely unsatisfactory.

4.3 AC LOAD LINE:

After drawing the dc load line, the operating point Q is properly located at the center of
the dc load line. This operating point is chosen under zero input signal condition of the circuit.
Hence the ac load line should also pas through the operating point Q. The effective ac load
resistance Rac, is a combination of RC parallel to RL i.e. || . So the slope of the ac
load line CQD will be . To draw the ac load line, two end points, I.e. V CE(max) and IC(max)

when the signal is applied are required.

 , which locates point D on the Vce axis.

, which locates the point C on the IC axis.

By joining points c and D, ac load line CD is constructed. As R C > Rac, The dc load line is less steep
than ac load line.

4.4 STABILITY FACTOR (S):

The rise of temperature results in increase in the value of transistor gain β and the
leakage current Ico. So, IC also increases which results in a shift in operating point. Therefore,
The biasing network should be provided with thermal stability. Maintenance of the operating
point is specified by S, which indicates the degree of change in operating point due to change in
temperature.

The extent to which IC is stabilized with varying IC is measured by a stability factor S

For CE configuration

Differentiate the above equation w.r.t IC , We get

S should be small to have better thermal stability.

Stability factor S’ and S’’:

 S’ is defined as the rate of change of IC with VBE, keeping IC and VBE constant.

S’’ is defined as the rate of change of IC with β, keeping ICO and VBE constant.

4.5 METHODS OF TRANSISTOR BIASING:

1) Fixed bias (base bias)

This form of biasing is also called base bias. In the fig 4.3 shown, the single power source (for
example, a battery) is used for both collector and base of a transistor, although separate batteries can also be
used.

In the given circuit,

Vcc = IBRB + Vbe

Therefore, I B = (Vcc - Vbe)/R B

Since the equation is independent of current ICR, dIB//dICR =0 and the stability factor is given by
the equation….. reduces to

S=1+β
 Since β is a large quantity, this is very poor biasing circuit. Therefore in practice the circuit is not
used for biasing.

For a given transistor, Vbe does not vary significantly during use. As V cc is of fixed value, on selection
of RB , the base current IB is fixed. Therefore this type is called fixed bias type of circuit.

Also for given circuit, Vcc = ICRC + Vce

Therefore, V ce = V cc - ICRC

Merits:

 It is simple to shift the operating point anywhere in the active region by merely
changing the base resistor (RB).
 A very small number of components are required.

Demerits:

 The collector current does not remain constant with variation in temperature or
power supply voltage. Therefore the operating point is unstable.
 Changes in Vbe will change IB and thus cause RE to change. This in turn will alter
the gain of the stage.
 When the transistor is replaced with another one, considerable change in the
value of β can be expected. Due to this change the operating point will shift.

2) EMITTER-FEEDBACK BIAS:

The emitter feedback bias circuit is shown in the fig 4.4. The fixed bias circuit is modified
by attaching an external resistor to the emitter. This resistor introduces negative feedback that
stabilizes the Q-point. From Kirchhoff's voltage law, the voltage across the base resistor is

VRb = VCC - IeRe - Vbe.

 From Ohm's law, the base current is

Ib = VRb / Rb .

The way feedback controls the bias point is as follows. If V be is held constant and
temperature increases, emitter current increases. However, a larger Ie increases the emitter
voltage Ve = IeRe , which in turn reduces the voltage V Rb across the base resistor. A lower base-
resistor voltage drop reduces the base current, which results in less collector current because I c
= ß IB. Collector current and emitter current are related by I c = α Ie with α ≈ 1, so increase in
emitter current with temperature is opposed, and operating point is kept stable.

Similarly, if the transistor is replaced by another, there may be a change in I C

(corresponding to change in β-value, for example). By similar process as above, the change is
negated and operating point kept stable.

For the given circuit,

IB = (VCC - Vbe)/(RB + (β+1)RE).

Merits:

The circuit has the tendency to stabilize operating point against changes in temperature
and β-value.

Demerits:

 In this circuit, to keep IC independent of β the following condition must be met:

 which is approximately the case if ( β + 1 )R E >> R B.

 As β-value is fixed for a given transistor, this relation can be satisfied either by
keeping RE very large, or making RB very low.

 If RE is of large value, high V CC is necessary. This increases cost as well as

precautions necessary while handling.
 If RB is low, a separate low voltage supply should be used in the base circuit.
Using two supplies of different voltages is impractical.

 In addition to the above, RE causes ac feedback which reduces the voltage gain of
the amplifier.

3) COLLECTOR TO BASE BIAS OR COLLECTOR FEED-BACK BIAS:

This configuration shown in fig 4.5 employs negative feedback to prevent thermal
runaway and stabilize the operating point. In this form of biasing, the base resistor RB is
connected to the collector instead of connecting it to the DC source Vcc. So any thermal
runaway will induce a voltage drop across the RC resistor that will throttle the transistor's base
current.

From Kirchhoff's voltage law, the voltage across the base resistor Rb is
 By the Ebers–Moll model, Ic = βIb, and so

From Ohm's law, the base current , and so

Hence, the base current Ib is

If Vbe is held constant and temperature increases, then the collector current Ic increases.
However, a larger Ic causes the voltage drop across resistor Rc to increase, which in turn reduces
the voltage across the base resistor Rb. A lower base-resistor voltage drop reduces the base
current Ib, which results in less collector current Ic. Because an increase in collector current with
temperature is opposed, the operating point is kept stable.

Merits:

 Circuit stabilizes the operating point against variations in temperature and β (i.e.
replacement of transistor)

Demerits:

 In this circuit, to keep Ic independent of β, the following condition must be met:

which is the case when

 As β-value is fixed (and generally unknown) for a given transistor, this relation
can be satisfied either by keeping Rc fairly large or making Rb very low.

 If R c is large, a high V cc is necessary, which increases cost as well as precautions

necessary while handling.
  If Rb is low, the reverse bias of the collector–base region is small, which limits the
range of collector voltage swing that leaves the transistor in active mode.

 The resistor Rb causes an AC feedback, reducing the voltage gain of the amplifier.
This undesirable effect is a trade-off for greater Q-point stability.

Usage: The feedback also decreases the input impedance of the amplifier as seen from
the base, which can be advantageous. Due to the gain reduction from feedback, this biasing
form is used only when the trade-off for stability is warranted.

4) COLLECTOR –EMITTER FEEDBACK BIAS:

The above fig4.6 shows the collector –emitter feedback bias circuit that can be obtained
by applying both the collector feedback and emitter feedback. Here the collector feedback is
provided by connecting a resistance RB from the collector to the base and emitter feedback is
provided by connecting an emitter Re from emitter to ground. Both feed backs are used to
control collector current and base current IB in the opposite direction to increase the stability
as compared to the previous biasing circuits.

5) VOLTAGE DIVIDER BIAS OR SELF BIAS OR EMITTER BIAS:

 The voltage divider as shown in the fig 4.7 is formed using external resistors R1 and R2.
The voltage across R2 forward biases the emitter junction. By proper selection of resistors R 1
and R2, the operating point of the transistor can be made independent of β. In this circuit, the
voltage divider holds the base voltage fixed independent of base current provided the divider
current is large compared to the base current. However, even with a fixed base voltage,
collector current varies with temperature (for example) so an emitter resistor is added to
stabilize the Q-point, similar to the above circuits with emitter resistor.

In this circuit the base voltage is given by:

voltage across

provided .

Also

For the given circuit,

Let the current in resistor R1 is I1 and this is divided into two parts – current through
base and resistor R2. Since the base current is very small so for all practical purpose it is
assumed that I1 also flows through R2, so we have
 Applying KVL in the circuit, we have

It is apparent from above expression that the collector current is independent of ? thus
the stability is excellent. In all practical cases the value of VBE is quite small in comparison to
the V2, so it can be ignored in the above expression so the collector current is almost
independent of the transistor parameters thus this arrangement provides excellent stability.
Again applying KVL in collector circuit, we have

The resistor RE provides stability to the circuit. If the current through the collector rises,
the voltage across the resistor RE also rises. This will cause VCE to increase as the voltage V2 is
independent of collector current. This decreases the base current, thus collector current
increases to its former value.
Stability factor for such circuit arrangement is given by

If Req/RE is very small compared to 1, it can be ignored in the above expression thus we
have
 Which is excellent since it is the smallest possible value for the stability. In actual
practice the value of stability factor is around 8-10, since Req/RE cannot be ignored as
compared to 1.

Merits:

 Unlike above circuits, only one dc supply is necessary.

 Operating point is almost independent of β variation.
 Operating point stabilized against shift in temperature.

Demerits:

 In this circuit, to keep IC independent of β the following condition must be met:

which is approximately the case if

where R1 || R2 denotes the equivalent resistance of R 1 and R2 connected in parallel.

 As β-value is fixed for a given transistor, this relation can be satisfied either by
keeping RE fairly large, or making R1||R2 very low.

 If RE is of large value, high VCC is necessary. This increases cost as well as

precautions necessary while handling.
 If R1 || R 2 is low, either R1 is low, or R2 is low, or both are low. A low R 1 raises VB
closer to VC, reducing the available swing in collector voltage, and limiting how large RC can be
made without driving the transistor out of active mode. A low R 2 lowers Vbe, reducing the
allowed collector current. Lowering both resistor values draws more current from the power
supply and lowers the input resistance of the amplifier as seen from the base.

 AC as well as DC feedback is caused by R E, which reduces the AC voltage gain of

the amplifier. A method to avoid AC feedback while retaining DC feedback is discussed below.

Usage: The circuit's stability and merits as above make it widely used for linear circuits.

4.6 BIAS COMPENSATION USING DIODE AND TRANSISTOR:

 The various biasing circuits considered use some type of negative feedback to stabilize
the operation point. Also, diodes, thermistors and sensistors can be used to compensate for
variations in current.

DIODE COMPENSATION:

The following fig4.8 shows a transistor amplifier with a diode D connected across the
base-emitter junction for compensation of change in collector saturation current I CO. The diode
is of the same material as the transistor and it is reverse biased by e the emitter-base junction
voltage VBE, allowing the diode reverse saturation current I O to flow through diode D. The base
current IB =I-IO.

As long as temperature is constant, diode D operates as a resistor. As the temperature

increases, ICO of the transistor increases. Hence, to compensate for this, the base current I B
should be decreased.

The increase in temperature will also cause the leakage current I O through D to increase
and thereby decrease the base current IB . This is the required action to keep Ic constant.

This type of bias compensation does not need a change in Ic to effect the change in I C, as
both IO and ICO can track almost equally according to the change in temperature.

THERMISTOR COMPENSATION:
 The following fig4.9 a thermistor RT , having a negative temperature coefficient is
connected in parallel with R 2. The resistance of thermistor decreases exponentially with
increase of temperature. An increase of temperature will decrease the base voltage VBE ,
reducing IB and IC.

SENSISTOR COMPENSATION:

In the following fig4.10 shown a sensistor Rs having a positive temperature coefficient is

connected across R1 or RE. Rs increases with temperature. As the temperature increases, the
equivalent resistance of the parallel combination of R1 and Rs also increases and hence V BE
decreases, reducing IB and Ic. This reduced Ic compensates for increased Ic caused by the
increase in VBE, ICO and β due to temperature.
4.7 THERMAL RUNAWAY AND THERMAL STABILITY:

THERMAL RUNAWAY:
The collector current for the CE circuit is given by The three
variables in the equation, β, , and increases with rise in temperature. In particular, the
reverse saturation current or leakage current changes greatly with temperature. Specifically
it doubles for every 10oC rise in temperature. The collector current causes the collector base
junction temperature to rise which in turn, increase , as a result will increase still further,
which will further rise the temperature at the collector base junction. This process will become
cumulative leading at the collector base junction. This process will become cumulative leading
to “thermal runaway”. Consequently, the ratings of the transistor are exceeded which may
destroy the transistor itself.

The collector is made larger in size than the emitter in order to help the heat developed
at the collector junction. However if the circuit is designed such that the base current is
made to decrease automatically with rise in temperature, then the decrease in will
compensate for increase in the , keeping almost constant.

THERMAL RESISTANCE
 Consider transistor used in a circuit where the ambient temperature of the air around
the transistor is TAoC and the temperature of the collector-base junction of the transistor is TJoC.

Due to heating within the transistor TJ is higher than TA. As the temperature difference TJ- TA is
greater, the power dissipated in the transistor, P D will be greater, i.e, T J- TA PD

The equation can be written as TJ- TA PD. , where is the constant of proportionality
and is called the Thermal resistance. Rearranging the above equation = TJ- TA /PD. Hence is
measured in oC/W which may be as small as 0.2 oC/W
for a high power transistor that has an
efficient heat sink or up to 1000oC/W for small signal, low power transistor which have no
cooling provision.

As Θ represents total thermal resistance from a transistor junction to the ambient

temperature, it is referred to as Θ J-A. However, for power transistors, thermal resistance is
given form junction to case, ΘJ-C.

The amount resistance from junction to ambience is considered to consist of 2 parts.

ΘJ-A = ΘJ-C - ΘC-A.

Which indicates the heat dissipated in the junction must make its way to the surrounding air
through two series paths from junction to case and from case to air. Hence the power
dissipated.

PD = (TJ- TA Θ J-A

=(TJ- TA Θ J-C + Θ C-A)

ΘJ-C is determined by the type of manufacture of the transistor and how it is located I the case,
but ΘC-A is determined by the surface area of the case or flange and its contact with air. If the
effective surface area of the transistor case could be increased, the resistance to heat flows, or
could be increased ΘC-A, could be decreased. This can be achieved by the use of a heat sink.

The heat sink is a relatively large, finned, usually black metallic heat conducting device in
close contact with transistor case or flange. Many versions of heat sink exist depending upon
the shape and size of the transistor. Larger the heat sink smaller is the thermal resistance ΘHS-A.

This thermal resistance is not added to Θ C-A in series, but is instead in parallel with it and if

ΘHS-A is much less than ΘC-A, then ΘC-A will be reduced significantly, thereby improving the
dissipation capability of the transistor. Thus

Θ J-A =Θ J-C + Θ C-A|| ΘHS-A.

4.8 CONDITION FOR THERMAL STABILITY:
For preventing thermal runaway, the required condition I the rate at which the heat is released
at the collector junction should not exceed the rate at which the heat can be dissipated under steady
state condition. Hence the condition to be satisfied to avoid thermal runaway is given by

If the circuit is properly designed, then the transistor cannot runaway below a specified ambient
temperature or even under any conditions.

In the self biased circuit the transistor is biased in the active region. The power generated at the
junction without any signal is

Let us assume that the quiescent collector and the emitter currents are equal. Then

………………….(1)

The condition to prevent thermal runaway can be written as

As Θ and are positive, should be negative in order to satisfy the above condition.

Differentiating equation (1) w.r.t we get

Hence to avoid thermal runaway it is necessary that

SinceVCE=VCC-IC(RE+RC) then eq(4) implies that VCE<VCC/2. IF the inequality of eq(4) is not
satisfied and VCE<VCC/2, then from eq(3), is positive., and the corresponding eq(2) should

be satisfied. Other wise thermal runaway will occur.