Minimum Limits

Author: Leonard Krugman

The minimum limits of the transistor are generally not critical in practical cases. The minimum collector voltage is set by the non-linear portion of the characteristic curve, which is not reached until the collector voltage is reduced to a few tenths of a volt. The minimum collector current must be greater than the saturation current I_co, which is considerably less than 100 microamperes in most junction types. The error introduced by assuming the minimum limits to be E_c = 0 and I_c - 0 is generally negligible.