Electronic – Analysis of high Frequency Hybrid-pi model of a BJT

bjthigh frequencymodeltransistors

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Can someone explain the reason behind this modelling of rx?

I had read in the book: "Microelectronics by Sedra & Smith" that rx is added to model the resistance of the silicon material of the base region between the base terminal and a fictitious internal (or, intrinsic) base terminal which is under the emitter region

Now, what is this fictitious internal base terminal in a BJT?

Best Answer

Hybrid pi model Wikipedia

The full model introduces the virtual terminal, B', so that the base spreading resistance, rbb, (the bulk resistance between the base contact and the active region of the base under the emitter) and rb'e (representing the base current required to make up for recombination of minority carriers in the base region) can be represented separately.

  1. The base is lightly doped compared to the emitter and collector. So resistance felt by the charge carriers while traveling through the base is higher compared to the other two regions.
  2. The BJT works because the base is assumed thin and carriers injected from emitter can pass through the lightly doped and thin base to the collector suffering only a small amount of recombination inside the base.
  3. In actual BJT construction, the base is thin only in some regions. So the BJT action doesn't take place in the thicker regions.
  4. Due to the construction, the carriers need to travel through the thicker regions of the base before reaching the thin active region. The resistance encountered in this journey may not be negligible.
  5. So in the equivalent circuit, the (average? equivalent ?) resistance encountered by the carriers before reaching the part of the base where BJT action takes place can be modeled as a resistor.

Image is a modified form of the image taken from Wikipedia

modified picture of BJT structure with resistance super imposed

The base is distributed over a region. The carriers can cross the EB junction at several locations. The resistance encountered by each individual carrier just before crossing the junction depends on the exact location where it cross the junction. A carrier crossing at location shown by D1 and another crossing the junction at Dn suffer different resistance on their way to the junction. On average we can find a virtual point in the base where all the charges are assumed to cross the junction so that the net effect is the same as the case where the base is distributed over an area.