Electronic – Trouble analyzing transistor’s circuit

bjtcircuit analysistransistors

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

\$V_{cc}=20V\\V_{BE1}=V_{BE2}=0.5V\\V_{BE3}=0.6V\\\beta_1=\beta_2=100\\\beta_3=50\$

I need to find V in this circuit. I tried to use the path for KVL with the least unknowns but a lot of times I end up with linear dependent equations that leads to nowhere. It's been 3 hours since I'm trying and I didn't get anything close to a result on this. I think my major issue is (1) figuring out what path to take on KVL's equations and (2) figuring out when the KVL equation will be linear dependent of another one. What's a good approach to analyze circuits like this?

Best Answer

Normally, a circuit like this really would take careful consideration. But less so, provided some of the givens. I'm a little concerned about your value for \$R_4\$, only because the schematic editor uses that value as a default and I'm not sure you intended that value. \$R_3\$ seems a bit odd, as well. But let's go with it:

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

I think you can see that pretty much everything turns on the value of \$V_x\$. So let's just do nodal analysis and shoot for its value:

$$\begin{align*} \frac{V_x}{R_2} + \frac{V_x}{R_3} + \frac{V_x}{R_4} + I_{B_1} &= \frac{600\:\textrm{mV}}{R_2} + \frac{20\:\textrm{V}}{R_3} + \frac{V_x-1\:\textrm{V}}{R_4} \\ \\ V_x\cdot\left(\frac{1}{R_2} + \frac{1}{R_3}\right) + I_{B_1} &= \frac{600\:\textrm{mV}}{R_2} + \frac{20\:\textrm{V}}{R_3} - \frac{1\:\textrm{V}}{R_4} \\ \\ V_x &\approx 12\:\textrm{V} - 755\cdot I_{B_1} \end{align*}$$

Hmm. We don't know \$I_{B_1}\$. So let's re-group a bit.

You know that \$Q_3\$ has \$\beta=50\$ and that it's collector current must include \$I_{R_4}\$ and the base current of \$Q_2\$. This must be more than \$10\:\textrm{mA}\$. It follows that \$I_{B_3}\ge 200\:\mu\textrm{A}\$. So you know that \$I_{R_2}\ge 260\:\mu\textrm{A}\$ and therefore also that \$V_x\ge 9.18\:\textrm{V}\$.

You also know that \$R_3\$ must include \$I_{R_2}\$, \$I_{R_4}\$, and \$Q_1\$'s base current. So \$I_{R_3}\ge 10.26\:\textrm{mA}\$ and therefore \$V_x\le 12.07\:\textrm{V}\$.

So we now can at least say this:

$$\begin{align*} 9.18\:\textrm{V} \le \left(V_x \approx 12\:\textrm{V} - 755\cdot I_x\right) \le 12.07\:\textrm{V} \end{align*}$$


Thanks for asking questions about this. Here's my additions. I've added the current \$I_{B_1}=I_x\$ to the schematic. (This must be returned to the collector of \$Q_3\$ via the base of \$Q_2\$, since both \$Q_1\$ and \$Q_2\$ share the same \$\beta=100\$ value.)

So we have the above equation. But what is missing is the value for \$I_x\$.

\$I_x\$ adds to the \$10\:\textrm{mA}\$ from \$R_4\$, so that the collector current of \$Q_3\$ increases by that amount. This means that the base current for \$Q_3\$ increases by \$\tfrac{1}{50}\$ of that. So we can set this up:

$$\begin{align*} V_x = 12 - 755\cdot I_x &= 600\:\textrm{mV}+\left(60\:\mu\textrm{A}+\frac{10\:\textrm{mA}}{50}+\frac{I_x}{50}\right)\cdot R_2 \\ \\ 12 - 755\cdot I_x &= 600\:\textrm{mV}+\left(260\:\mu\textrm{A}+\frac{I_x}{50}\right)\cdot R_2 \\ \\ I_x &\approx 2\:\textrm{mA} \end{align*}$$

From this, we can now estimate \$V_x\approx 10.5\:\textrm{V}\$ and then that \$V\approx 10\:\textrm{V}\$.

Thanks for asking additional questions. It helped me to add my own additional thinking to this and to provide what I think is now a more complete answer to your question.