Physics of Semiconductor Devices

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Sze problems 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5

A silicon p-n-p transistor has impurity concentrations of 6000000000000000000 cm-3, 7.0E+16 cm-3, and 4.0E+16 cm-3 in the emitter, base and collector, respecitvely. The base width is 1.0 μm, and the device cross-sectional area is 0.2 mm². When the emitter-base junction is forward biased to 0.5 V and the base-collector junction is reverse biased to 5 V, calculate the neutral base width and the minority carrier concentration at the emitter-base junction.

The diffusion constants of the minority carriers in the emitter, base, and collector are 54 cm²/s, 40 cm²/s, and 119 cm²/s respectively; and the corresponding lifetimes are 10-8 s, 10-7 s, and 10-6 s. Find the current components IEp, ICp, IEn, ICn, and IBB.


Source: Sze.

Find the terminal currents IE, IC, and IB of the transistor; calculate the emitter efficiency, base transport factor, common-base current gain, and common-emitter current gain; and comment on how the emitter efficiency and base transport factor can be improved.