TITLE: DIODE CHARACTERISTICS AND APPLICATIONS

OBJECTIVES: (1) To analyse the voltage-current characteristics of a small-signal semiconductor diode. (2) To derive the approximate model parameters of a diode and anaylse diode circuits.

THEORY: A diode is a type of two-terminal electronic component with nonlinear resistance and conductance (i.e., a nonlinear currentvoltage characteristic), distinguishing it from components such as two-terminal linear resistors which obey Ohm's law. A semiconductor diode, the most common type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material connected to two electrical terminals.

The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass in one direction (called the diode's forward direction), while blocking current in the opposite direction (the reverse direction). Thus, the diode can be thought of as an electronic version of a check valve. This unidirectional behavior is called rectification, and is used to convert alternating current to direct current, and to extract modulation from radio signals in radio receiversthese diodes are forms of rectifiers.

However, diodes can have more complicated behavior than this simple onoff action. Semiconductor diodes do not begin conducting electricity until a certain threshold voltage is present in the forward direction (a state in which the diode is said to be forward-biased). The voltage drop across a forward-biased diode varies only a little with the current, and is a function of temperature; this effect can be used as a temperature sensor or voltage reference. A semiconductor diodes behavior in a circuit is given by its currentvoltage characteristic, or IV graph (see graph below). The shape of the curve is determined by the transport of charge carriers through the so-called depletion layer or depletion region that exists at the pn junctionbetween differing semiconductors. When a pn junction is first created, conduction-band (mobile) electrons from the N-doped region diffuse into the Pdoped region where there is a large population of holes (vacant places for electrons) with which the electrons "recombine". When a mobile electron recombines with a hole, both hole and electron vanish, leaving behind an immobile positively charged donor (dopant) on the N side and negatively charged acceptor (dopant) on the P side. The region around the pn junction becomes depleted of charge carriers and thus behaves as an insulator.

Figure: IV characteristics of a pn junction diode (not to scale the current in the reverse region is magnified compared to the forward region, resulting in the apparent slope discontinuity at the origin; the actual IV curve is smooth across the origin).

The Shockley ideal diode equation or the diode law gives the IV characteristic of an ideal diode in either forward or reverse bias (or no bias). The equation is:

where I is the diode current, IS is the reverse bias saturation current (or scale current), VD is the voltage across the diode, VT is the thermal voltage, and n is the ideality factor, also known as the quality factor or sometimes emission coefficient. The ideality factor n varies from 1 to 2 depending on the fabrication process and semiconductor material and in many cases is assumed to be approximately equal to 1 (thus the notation n is omitted).

The thermal voltage VT is approximately 25.85 mV at 300 K, a temperature close to "room temperature" commonly used in device simulation software. At any temperature it is a known constant defined by:

where k is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature of the pn junction, and q is the magnitude of charge on an electron (theelementary charge).

RESULTS: 1) Diode Test Circuit

Calculated VD1 (V) i D1 (mA) VD2 (V) i D2 (mA) rd = VD / i D () Vdo = VD2 - rd i D2 (V) 0.864874 0.51383 0.88786 1.2526 0.031114 0.84889 Table 2.1

Simulated 0.864874 1.1736 0.86487 1.2526 -0.0050633 0.87121

Practically Measured 0.520393 7.0010 -

2) Half-Wave Rectifier

Calculated Vo(peak) (V) Vo(av) (V) Vo(rms) (V) Vr(rms) (V) RF Ton(diode) (ms) 11.700 3.724 5.85 4.51 1.21 Table 2.2

Simulated 11.698 3.27 4.11 8.67

Practically Measured 11.688 3.403 4.224 4.117 1.21 8.337

3) Diode Clamper

For RL =100k

For RL =1k

Simulated Vs(peak) (V) Vs(pk-pk) (V) Vo(peak) (V) for RL = 100k for RL = 1k Vo(pk-pk) (V) for RL = 100k for RL = 1k 4.998 10

Practically Measured 5 10

9.379 4.774

9.122 6.29

10 6.369 Table 2.3

9.9891 7.2675

Reinforcement Exercises Figure 2.5( diode circuit)

Figure2.6 (Diode logic circuit)

VA (V) 5 0 5

VB (V) 0 5 5 Table 2.4

Vout (V) 4.366 4.366 4.400

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DISCUSSION From the first part of the experiment, dealing with Diode Test Circuit, the v-i plot displayed on the oscilloscope shows a AC sine wave in red line which provides a positive-tonegative amplitude as it indicates the current before passing through the diode. Diode has the function to filter AC current into DC current which only displays positive amplitude after filtering process. Therefore, the sine wave in blue line shows the aftermath of the current filtered by the diode and it denotes a DC current applied in the circuit at the moment. The AC sine wave (red line) is very low in positive amplitude due to the resistance induced by the 100 resistor which resists the positive current to pass through in a common rate. Besides, there is error emerged in the resistor caused by the ill-stability of the AC current. In the second part of the experiment which deals with the Half-Wave Rectifier, the diode acts as a half-wave rectifier which filters out the negative part of the wave by applying its known feature, changing AC current to DC current. From the sine wave graph, we can clearly observe the difference between before and after the current has passed through the diode. Before the AC current passes through the diode, the graph shows a full-scale sine wave which displays the positive and negative parts of amplitude completely. While when the current has gone through the device, the amplitude has been cut into half and left with the positive part. It obviously defines the feature of diode being a Half-Wave Rectifier. However, there is some loss of voltage when the AC current passes through diode, changing it to DC current. We can read this phenomenon from the DC sine wave graph which shows a slight drop compared the AC sine wave curve. Apart from that, the experiment moves on to Diode Clamper analysis. When running the simulation for RL = 1k, there is some change observed from the output waveform compared to that for RL = 100k. We find that the DC sine wave has dropped in voltage causing a drop in amplitude for estimated 20%. If we apply the formula V=IR, the lower resistance incurs a lower voltage value after the calculation process. In other words, the resistor plays crucial role in the final value of DC voltage after the current has passed through the diode. Moreover, the DC sinewave (lower RL) was lagged behind the AC sinewave. It is because some error has emerged to DC current, influencing the time scale of the output waveform. Last but not least, we proceed to the reinforcement exercise part, the output voltage Vo for sinusoidal 10mV (peak), 5kHz versus Vs. The capacitor plays a role of passing AC but blocking DC. This might be the reason why we find the DC output waveform to be similar with the input AC waveform. The DC current (after passing through the diode) is changed back to AC typed of waveform. The addition of resistors makes the output voltage to be doubly higher than previous one (Vo for 5V peak, 5kHz).

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CONCLUSION From this experiment, we get to know that the diode has played an important of filtering the AC current into a DC current. The output voltage would have dropped throughout the process of passing through diode due to the loss inside the device. Thus, the DC output voltage would be lower than the AC input voltage. Besides, the resistor in the diode circuits assists in influencing the output voltage and decreases the amplitude of the output waveform. Lastly, the diode plays the most important role as a half-wave rectifier to filter out the negative part of the output waveform and leave it a half-filtered sine wave. All the objectives were attained.

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