Name: Jake Oxley Lab Partner: Keith Date: 8/30-9/2/2016

Exp. 3: Diodes
3.5 Measuring the diode characteristic
 The maximum current capable of passing through the 100Ω resistor is 0.05A
Using RI2 as power, this ends up dissipating (100)(0.05)2=0.25W, so a ¼ W rating would be
safe.
 Increasing the voltage from 0 to 1.0V in 100mV steps results in the following currents:
V (V) I (A)
0.1 0
0.2 0
0.3 0
0.4 0
0.5 0.07
0.6 0.34
0.7 1.78
0.8 9.84
0.82* 19.4
* this is the maximum voltage that was attainable using the breadboard

I vs V
25

20
Current (A)

15

10

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
Voltage (V)

𝑒𝑉
This curve appears similar to the exponential curve of the equation 𝐼 = 𝐼𝑠 (𝑒 𝑛𝐾𝑇 − 1)
 When V is plotted against lnI, the following values are given:
 V (V) lnI (A)
0.1 N/A
0.2 N/A
0.3 N/A
0.4 N/A
0.5 -2.66
0.6 -1.08
0.7 0.58
0.8 2.29
0.82 2.97

lnI vs V
4

3
y = 17.2x - 11.347
2

1
Natural Log of Current (I)

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
-1

-2

-3

-4
Voltage (V)

This gives somewhat linear values for lnI vs V.

 When the diode is reversed, 4.9μA of reverse current is measured. It is extremely low
because a diode is not meant to allow current through when reversed.
 When the oscilloscope is removed, the current becomes immeasurably low. This is
because the multimeter’s impedance is so low that it cannot measure the current.
When the diode is disconnected, I=4.9μA, and Zscope=1.0MΩ
3.6 Exploring Rectification
 The amplitude of voltage is 28V, and the VRMS=19.6V. This is close to the expected
relationship of 𝑉𝑅𝑀𝑆 √2 = 𝑉0
 The waveform appears to be an ordinary sine wave that does not have a negative voltage,
it simply stays at zero when it otherwise would have gone negative.
V0=21.2 V
ΔV=28-21.2=6.8V. This is unexpected, as ΔV after a rectifier is added should be about
half the original amplitude, not a quarter.
  The measured average voltage VAV=12.7V. This is far from the predicted value of 6.7V*
*If the peak to peak voltage were taken earlier and not the amplitude, the value for VAV
would make sense as well as the value for ΔV.
 The capacitor’s rating is 50V, good enough for the voltages being used.
 The peak-to-peak voltage is equal to 670mV
 The output voltage drop is calculated using the following equation:
−𝑡 1
𝑉(𝑡) = 𝑉0 𝑒 𝑅𝐶 = (42.4)𝑒 −60 = 41.70
42.4-41.7=0.7V, similar to what was measured earlier
 The voltage across RL=10kΩ was 41.6mV, with a waveform similar to the sine squared
function
 When a capacitor is applied, the voltage equaled 33.6mV.
2 (41.6)2⁄
 Using 𝑃 = 𝑉 ⁄𝑅 = 1000 = 1.73𝑊, we find that ¼ W resistors will not work in
this circuit. It would be wise to use 2W resistors instead.
 For a 1.0kΩ resistor, the ripple voltage is 272mV.
3.7 Input and output impedance
 Using Vout and RL, we get the following data:
RL Vout Iout
1000 40.0 0.04
10000 41.6 0.00416
−(41.6−40.0)
𝑍𝑜𝑢𝑡 = (0.0046−0.04) = 44.6𝛺

The output impedance of the circuit is 44.6Ω

𝑉1 𝑉
 Using the equation 𝑅𝑆 = 𝑅𝐿 ⁄𝑉 (1 − 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑⁄𝑉 ), the impedance of the function
𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 1
generator is found to be about 54.0Ω.
 At low frequencies, the impedance is at the full value, while at higher frequencies, it
becomes slightly lower.