INSTRUCTION MANUAL OF DIAC CHARCTERISTICS

THEORY

A DIAC is a two terminal device which can conduct in both directions. It has no triggering mechanism to initiate conduction, and in this respect it is similar to a piece of ordinary conducting wire. But unlike a wire, it can block up to 30V in either direction before it starts conducting .Once it is conducting, there is a small ( about 3V) voltage drop across the device.

At voltage less than V a very small amount of leakage current BO1 flows through the device. This is not sufficient to conduct the device. So the state 0-A is called blocking state. Whenever voltage reaches break-over voltage it starts conducting with VI characteristics as shown. The value of current corresponding to point is A known as break over current. For negative half cycle the characteristics is similar. Once the device turns on, it can carry a high current with only a small voltage drop across it. DIAC is mainly used to trigger TRIAC. When the current through the switch fall below the holding current, the DIAC goes off. CIRCUIT DAIGRAM:

PROCEDURE: 1. Keep V at minimum position and R at maximum position. 2. Switch ON and vary V in steps of 5V and note down corresponding ammeter reading I . 3. At a particular value of voltage, device conducts as indicated by the sudden rise in ammeter reading and sudden fall in the voltage across the device. This is known as break-over voltage of the device. 4. If start of conduction is not clearly observable; repeat steps (3) and (4) with a reduced value of R . 5.Repeat the same procedure in reverse direction, that is by changing MT connections 1 to MT . We obtain the same readings as in forward bias, note down and draw a graph, Graph is similar to both in forward and reverse directions. OBSERVATION TABLE:
V in VOLTS I in mA