In common base configuration, emitter is the input terminal, collector is the output terminal and base terminal is connected as a common terminal for both input and output. The base-emitter junction is forward biased and collector-base junction is reverse biased. Keeping emitter current constant, increase Vcb from zero onward, therefore collector current will be approximately constant as shown. With the increase in emitter current, collector current is also increased as shown above. Depending on the variation of Vcb, ic also varies, based on this the curve is divided into three region i.e. saturation, active and cut off region.
Saturation region: In this region Vcb is negative for NPN transistor.
A small change in Vcb result in a large value of current
Active region: In this region, the collector current is constant and is equal to the emitter current.
Cut off region: In this region, a small collector current flows called leakage current when emitter current is zero.