Detailed measurements have been made of the base and collector-current characteristics of both n-p-n and p-n-p silicon transistors as a function of temperature. The collector current shows ideal behavior over the temperature range -60 to 150°C in that

. On the other hand, the base current is nonideal:

, where

. The nonideality of I
Bis the main source of the temperature dependence of

. There is no evidence for bandgap narrowing in the devices we have investigated. The temperature dependence of the collector current is given by

, where

or 1.7 for n-p-n or p-n-p devices, respectively.

eV. This result is consistent with the findings of others. The base current is a complicated function of temperature due to the presence of nonideal components.