EEE 1203: Electronic Devices and Circuits

1st Year 2nd Semester

Transistor
By
Md. Ibrahim Abdullah
Computer Science and Engineering
Islamic University
 Lecture Contents
• PNP and NPN Junction Transistors;
• CB, CE and CC Configurations and their Vc-Ic Characteristics;
• Transistor Action;
• Different Types and Biasing;
• Bias Stabilisation;
• Operating Point; DC and AC Load Lines;
• Dynamic Transfer Curve,
• Current, Voltage and Power Gains.
• Transistor as a Circuit Element,
• Transistor Hybrid Parameters

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 Transistor
• The transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories, USA in 1947 by
three American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and
William Shockley.
• A Transistor is a three terminal semiconductor device that consists
two PN diode connected back to back, regulates and amplify the
electrical signal and acts as a switch for signals.
– The transistor consists two PN diode connected back to back.
– Name of three terminals are Emitter(E), Base(B) and Collector(C)
– Two junctions are : emitter-base (E/B) junction and collector-
base (C/B) junction
• Transistor transfers a weak signal from low resistance circuit to high
resistance circuit.
– The words trans mean transfer property and istor mean
resistance property offered to the junctions.
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 Transistor
• There are two types of Transistor (i) PNP (ii) NPN

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 Transistor
• Emitter - It is more heavily doped than any of the other regions
because its main function is to supply majority charge carries
(either electrons or holes) to the base.
• Base - It forms the middle section of the transistor. It is very thin
(10–6m) as compared to either the emitter or collector and is very
lightly-doped.
• Collector - Its main function is to collect majority charge carriers
coming from the emitter and passing through the base.
• In most transistors, collector region is made physically larger than
the emitter region
– because it has to dissipate much greater power.
– no possibility of inverting the transistor i.e. making its collector
the emitter and its emitter the collector.

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 Transistor
Transistor Biasing
• For proper working of a
transistor
– emitter-base junction is
always forward biased
– collector-base junction
is always reverse-biased
• For a PNP transistor, both
collector and base are
negative w.r.t. the emitter
• For NPN transistor, both
collector and base are
positive w.r.t. the emitter

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 Transistor
• Transistor Currents

• Usually IC  95% to 99% IE

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 Transistor
Transistor Circuit Configurations
– common-base (CB)
– common-emitter (CE)
– common-collector (CC)

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 Transistor
Transistor Static Characteristics
1. Input characteristic - It is the curve of the change in input current
with the variation in input voltage by keeping output voltage
constant.
2. Output characteristic - It is a plot of output current with output
voltage by keeping input current constant.
3. Current transfer characteristic – It shows the variation of output
current with the input current by keeping the voltage constant

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 Transistor
Common-Base (CB)
• In this configuration, emitter current IE is the input current and
collector current IC is the output current.

• Ratio of collector current to the emitter current is called dc alpha

(αdc) of a transistor * (*Neglecting Leakage Current)

• IE flows into the transistor whereas IC flows out of it. Hence, IE is

taken as positive and IC as negative.
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 Transistor
CB Input Characteristics
• This chart will describe the variation of emitter current, IE with
base – Emitter voltage, VBE keeping collector voltage constant, VCB.

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 Transistor
CB Output Characteristics
• This chart shows the variation of collector current, IC with VCB by
keeping emitter current IE constant.

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 Transistor
CB Current Transfer Characteristic

• It shows how IC varies with changes in IE when VCB is held constant.

• Usually, αac is found from output characteristic than from this
characteristic.

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 Transistor
Common-Emitter (CE)
• In this configuration, base current IB is the input current and
collector current IC is the output current.

• Ratio of collector current to the base current is called dc beta (βdc)

of a transistor (*Neglecting Leakage Current)

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 Transistor
CE Input Characteristics
• This chart will describe the variation of base current, IB with base –
Emitter voltage, VBE keeping collector voltage constant, VCE.

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 Transistor
CE Output Characteristics
• This chart shows the variation of collector
current, IC with VCE by keeping base
current IB constant.

• CE Current Transfer Characteristic

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 Transistor
Common-Collector (CC)
• In this configuration, base current IB is the input current and Emitter
current IE is the output current.

• Ratio of emitter current to the base current is called dc gamma (γdc)

of a transistor

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 Transistor
• The CC input characteristic is a plot of VCB versus IB for different
values of VCE
• The output characteristic is IE ~ VCE for fixed values of IB. Since IC≅ IE,
this characteristic is practically identical to the CE circuit.
Input Characteristics Output Characteristics

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 Advantages of BJT
Advantages
• They have a better voltage gain.
• They have a high current density.
• They have a low forward voltage.
• It can be operated in low to high power application.
• BJT has a large gain bandwidth.
• BJT shows better performance at high frequency.
Disadvantages
• The switching frequency of a BJT is low.
• It more noise produced.
• It has a low thermal stability.
• It has a very complex base control. So it may lead to confusion and
requires a skilful handling

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 Why NPN preferred than PNP
• N-P-N transistors or P-N-P transistors both are different transistors
that are being used for different purposes.
• n-p-n transistors are preferred to p-n-p transistors because
electrons have higher mobility than holes and hence high mobility
of energy.
• The mobility of holes is very low when compared to the electrons,
which makes PNP transistors a controlling device instead of an
amplifying device.
• NPN-type is preferred to amplify weak signals and used as amplifier
A. low cost.
B. low dissipation energy
C. Negative Grounding

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 Transistor
Applications
• Everywhere in Electronics either
discrete element or in IC
• Commonly used in amplifier,
oscillator, power control
Home Work
• List the properties and uses of
CB, CE and CC
• List the applications of BJT and
FET

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 Transistor
• Comparison of transistor connections

• The symbols usually used in transistor applications

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 Transistor
• Different Ways of Drawing Transistor Circuits

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 Applying AC to a DC Biased Transistor

• DC bias ensure transistor biasing rules, i.e. E/B junction is Forward

bias and B/C junction is reverse bias
• When ac positive half cycle applied to input it increases base voltage
VBE, hence iB increases, IC increase as iC=βiB. Hence iCRL increases.
According to KVL VCE decrease.
• For ac negative half cycle, input voltage VBE decreases, hence iB
decreases, iC decrease as iC=βiB, iCRL decreases. Thus VCE increase.

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 Cut-Off and Saturation Points
•When a value for the maximum possible collector current is considered,
that point will be present on the Y-axis, which is Saturation point.
•When a value for the maximum possible collector emitter voltage VCE is
considered, that point will be present on the X-axis, which is the Cutoff
point.

the transistor is cut-off when

IC is zero

When values of RB and RL are such that VCE comes

out to be zero. Transistor is said to be saturated

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 DC load line
• The joining line of Cut-off and Saturation points is called Load line

• If this load line is drawn only when DC biasing is given to the

transistor, but no input signal is applied, then such a load line is
called as DC load line.
• Whereas the load line drawn under the conditions when an input
signal along with the DC voltages are applied, such a line is called as
an AC load line.

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 Active Region, Q-point
Active Region
• All operating points (like C, D, E) lying
between cut-off and saturation points
form the active region of the
transistor.
• In this region, E/B junction is forward-
biased and C/B junction is reverse-
biased—conditions necessary for the
proper operation of a transistor.
Quiescent Point/ Q-point
• It is a point on the dc load line, which
represents the values of IC and VCE
that exist in a transistor circuit when
no input signal is applied.
• Usually middle point on dc load line
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 Q-Point
• Cut-off point VCC = 30V
• Saturation Point=VCC/RC
IC(Sat) = 30/(5*103)
• IB=30/(1.5*106)
IB = 2mA
• Now VCE = VCC-ICRC
• VCE = 30 – (2*10-3)(5*103)
• VCE = 20 V
• The point (20,2) is Q-point

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 Faithful Amplification
• Amplification is the process of increasing signal strength.
• Faithful amplification is the process of obtaining complete portions
of input signal (ac signal) by increasing the signal strength.

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 AC Load Line
• When an ac signal is applied, the transistor voltage VCE and collector
current lC vary above and below the quiescent point Q.
• The ac load line provides the values of VCE and IC when an ac signal
is applied.
• For drawing ac load line, take a convenient collector current change
ΔIC (or ICQ) and compute the corresponding collector-emitter
voltage change ΔVCE (or VCEQ) = -ΔIC.RC to obtain another point lying
on the ac load line.
• Now the ac load can be drawn by joining this point and point Q.
• AC load is steeper than dc load line but the two lines intersect at
the quiescent point Q determined by the biasing dc voltages and
currents. AC load line takes into account the ac load resistance
while the dc load line considers only the dc load resistance.
• So point Q is common to both dc and ac load lines.
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AC Load Line

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AC Load Line

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 Need for Biasing a Transistor
• For normal operation of a transistor amplifier circuit, it is essential
that there should be a
(a) forward bias on the emitter-base junction and
(b) reverse bias on the collector-base junction
• If the transistor is not biased correctly, it would
1. work inefficiently and
2. produce distortion in the output signal
• It is desirable that the Q-point should not shift its position
• The main factor that affect the operating point is the temperature.
• As temperature increases, the values of IC, β, VBE gets affected.
– ICBO gets doubled (for every 10o rise)
– VBE decreases by 2.5mv (for every 1o rise)

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 Need for Biasing a Transistor
Stabilization
• The process of making the operating point independent of
temperature changes or variations in transistor parameters is
known as Stabilization.

Need for Stabilization

• Stabilization of the operating point has to be achieved due to the
following reasons.
– Temperature dependence of IC
– Individual variations
– Thermal runaway

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 Stability Factor
• IC should be kept constant in spite of variations of ICBO or ICO.
• The extent to which a biasing circuit is successful in maintaining this
is measured by Stability factor. It denoted by S.
• The rate of change of collector current IC with respect to the
collector leakage current ICO at constant β and IB is called Stability
factor.

• Larger the value of S, greater the thermal instability and vice versa

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 Transistor Biasing
• The proper flow of zero signal collector current and the maintenance of
proper collector-emitter voltage during the passage of signal is known
as Transistor Biasing.
Need for DC biasing
To amplify a signal, two conditions have to be met.
• The input voltage should exceed cut-in voltage to ON the transistor .
• Transistor should be in the active region to operate as an amplifier.
The commonly used methods of transistor biasing are
– Base Resistor method/ Base Bias/ Fixed Bias
– Base bias with emitter feedback
– Base bias with collector feedback
– Base bias with collector and emitter feedbacks
– Voltage-divider bias

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 Transistor Biasing
Base Resistor method/ Base Bias/ Fixed Bias
• A resistor RB of high resistance is
connected in base,
• The required zero signal base current is
provided by VCC which flows through RB.

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 Transistor Biasing
Base Resistor method/ Base Bias/ Fixed Bias
Advantages
• Circuit design and calculation are simple.
• Due to the absence of the resistor at the junction of the base-
emitter, there is no chance of occurrence of the loading effect.
Disadvantages
• Due to the development of heat, the stabilization criterion of the
circuit gets degraded.
• As the value of the stability factor gets high results to thermal
runaway.

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 Transistor Biasing
Base Bias with emitter feedback

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 Transistor Biasing
Collector to Base bias / Base Bias with
Collector Feedback
Advantage
• The change of Q-point is less when
compared to the base bias method.
Disadvantages
• If the RL gets short-circuited the value
of stability becomes large.
• The negative path of feedback
followed makes the voltage gain
smaller.

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 Transistor Biasing
Base Bias with Collector and Emitter
Feedbacks

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 Transistor Biasing
Voltage Divider Bias
Collector current IC -

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 Transistor Biasing
Voltage Divider Bias
• Collector Emitter Voltage VCE-

Advantages:
• (i) It offers excellent stabilisation Disadvantages
and hence Q point does not The signals tend to get mixed
shift. while using this bias in the
• (ii) when used in amplifiers, it circuits.
provides better amplification.
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 Gain of Amplifier Circuit
What is the Gain?
• Gain is the ratio of output to input that is used to describe the
amplification of a signal.
• Gain is an important concept in electronics because it allows us to
control the amount of current or voltage flowing through a circuit.
• Voltage gain (AV) is the ratio of output voltage to the input voltage

• Current gain (AI) is the ratio of output current to the input current

• Power gain is the ratio of output power to the input power of an

amplifier circuit

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 Transistor Equivalent Circuit

The power gain is the product of the

voltage gain and the current gain.

• The unit of power is watts; we measure power gain in decibels.

• Decibel: A unit of measurement used to express the ratio of one
value of a power or field quantity to another on a logarithmic scale,
• Or A unit for expressing the ratio of the magnitudes of two electric
voltages or currents or analogous acoustic quantities equal to 20
times the common logarithm of the voltage or current ratio

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 Transistor Equivalent Circuit
• A transistor “equivalent circuit” is usually a linear approximation
that simplifies circuit analysis of transistor circuit.
• Transistors are nonlinear devices but all circuit analysis is premised
on the circuit elements being linear.
• Equivalent circuits are also divided into small-signal and large-signal
equivalent circuits, depending on the amplitude of signals to be
handled.
• Here we focus on Small Signal Equivalent Circuits of BJT
• Small-signal modeling is a common analysis technique that used in
electronics to approximate the behavior of electronic circuits
containing nonlinear devices with linear equations.
• There are two models commonly used in the small-signal ac analysis
of BJT networks: i) the re model and ii) the hybrid equivalent model

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 Transistor Equivalent Circuit
DC Equivalent Circuit
• CB circuit

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 Transistor Equivalent Circuit
• CE circuit

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 Transistor Equivalent Circuit
Small Signal Performance Parameters
In AC analysis, we are interested to
find
• Input and Output resistance
• Current Gain
• Voltage gain

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• Transistor static characteristics curves are nonlinear. But for small
signal operation, the point of operation moves about the quiescent
operating point over a small range.
– Within this range transistor parameters may be considered to be
constant over this small range of operation.
• Hybrid parameters (or h parameters) are used to represent the
relationship between voltage and current in a two port network.

• The terminal behavior of any two part network can be specified by

the terminal voltages V1 & V2 and current i1 and i2

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• Every linear circuit having input and output terminals can be
analyzed by four parameters (one measured in ohm, one in mho
and two dimensionless).
• H parameters encapsulate all the important linear characteristics of
the circuit, so they are very useful for simulation purposes.
• If the input current i1 and output Voltage V2 are takes as
independent variables, the input voltage V1 and output current i2
can be written as
V1 = h11 i1 + h12 V2
i2 = h21 i1 + h22 V2

Equivalent Circuit Representation of h Parameter

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• h11 is the ratio of input voltage and input current when the output
port is short circuited, therefore it is known Input Impedance. Its
unit is ohm.
• h22 is the ratio of output current and output voltage when input
port is open circuited, therefore it is called Output Admittance of
the network. Its unit is mho.
• h12 is the ratio of input voltage and output voltage when input port
is open circuited, therefore it is called Reverse Voltage Gain. It is a
unit less quantity.
• h21 is the ratio of output current and input current when output
port is short circuited, therefore it is called Forward Current Gain. It
is a unit less quantity.

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor

• Why h-Parameters are used in transistor?

• The h-parameters of a transistor will give a good idea what it
can do, how to use it effectively in a circuit, and whether it is
appropriate for a particular circuit.

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h-parameter Model for Transistor

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h-parameter Model for Transistor

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h-parameter Model for Transistor

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h-parameter Model for Transistor

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• The h-parameter Notation for Transistors

• hi and hr depends upon input characteristics and

• hf and ho depends on output characteristics
• H parameters depends on: Transistor Type, Configuration,
Operating Point, Temperature, Frequency etc.

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
Hybrid CB circuit

Hybrid CC circuit

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• Transistor Circuit Performance in h Parameter (Common Emitter)

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• Transistor Circuit Performance in h Parameter (Common Emitter)

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
• Transistor Circuit Performance in h Parameter (Common Emitter)

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
Limitations of h Parameters
• The h parameter approach provides accurate information regarding
the current gain, voltage gain, input impedance and output
impedance of a transistor amplifier.
• There are two major limitations on the use of these parameters.
(i) It is very difficult to get the exact values of h parameters for a
particular transistor. It is because these parameters are subject to
considerable variation—unit to unit variation, variation due to
change in temperature and variation due to change in operating
point.
(ii) The h parameter approach gives correct answers for small a.c.
signals only. It is because a transistor behaves as a linear device for
small signals only.

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 h-parameter Model for Transistor
Values of h-parameters of a Typical Transistor
S.N. Parameter CE CB CC
1. hi 1100Ω 22Ω 1100Ω
2. hr 2.5×10-4 3×10-4 1
3. hf 50 -0.98 -51
4. h0 25µS 0.5µS 25µS
5. 1/h0 40 kΩ 2 MΩ 40 kΩ

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Semiconductor devices Numbering System
First step:
• Each semiconductor device contains 5 Alpha-Numeric Symbols. So
that there are 2 letters and 3 numbers (eg: AF135) or 3 characters
and 2 numbers (eg: AFX55).
Second step:
• Now, the semiconductor device has 5 Alpha-Numeric Symbols. Out
of which, there are some Alpha Symbols i.e. English letters in them.
• The first letter of the English letters indicates the nature of the
semiconductor device that means which materiel constitutes the
semiconductor device. Here:
• A= germanium
• B= silicon
• C= gallium arsenide
• R= compound material (Cadmium Sulphide)
• For example, AE125 is a germanium tunnel diode and BE149 is a
silicon tunnel diode.
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Semiconductor devices Numbering System
Third step:
• Among these Alpha Symbols of Semiconductor Device 2nd letter indicates
the circuit function of semiconductor device. Here:
A= diode B= variable capacitance diode
C= A.F. low powered transistor D= A.F. power transistor
E= tunnel diode F= H.F. low powered transistor
G= multiple devices H= magnetic sensitive diode
K= hall-effect device L= H.F. power transistor
M= Hall-effect modulator P= radiation sensitive diode
Q= radiation generating diode R= thyristor (SCR or Triac)
S= low power switching transistor T= thyristor (power)
U= power switching transistor X= diode, multiplier
Y= power device Z= zener diode

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Semiconductor devices Numbering System
Third step:
• Among these Alpha Symbols of Semiconductor Device 2nd letter indicates
the circuit function of semiconductor device. Here:
A= diode B= variable capacitance diode
C= A.F. low powered transistor D= A.F. power transistor
E= tunnel diode F= H.F. low powered transistor
G= multiple devices H= magnetic sensitive diode
K= hall-effect device L= H.F. power transistor
M= Hall-effect modulator P= radiation sensitive diode
Q= radiation generating diode R= thyristor (SCR or Triac)
S= low power switching transistor T= thyristor (power)
U= power switching transistor X= diode, multiplier
Y= power device Z= zener diode

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 References
• Electrical Technology (Volume IV)- B.L. Therja
• Principle of Electronics – V. K. Meheta
• https://www.tutorialspoint.com/basic_electronics/basic_electronic
s_transistors.htm
• https://byjus.com/jee/transistor/

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