A Brief on Shockley Diode its Working and

Advantages

Shockley Diode

The term Shockley diode or PNPN diode is named from the inventor William
Bradford Shockley. It is a four layer semiconductor device and it was the first
semiconductor devices. It is similar to a thyristor with detached gate. Even though,
this type of diode is not available commercially and not particularly useful. But,
this diode is most useful in making other kinds of thyristors such as DIAC, TRIAC
and SCR. Once we understand the basic concept of this diode, we will easily
understand the other concepts covered in thyristors. Let us know the working of a
Shockley diode and applications.

What is a Shockley Diode?

The Shockley diode is a two terminal and four layer semiconductor switching
diode. Where four layers are P-N-P-N and two terminals are anode and cathode.
The function of the Shockley diode is similar to a normal diode without any initiate
i/ps. When the diode is in the forward, the current flows through the diode,
whereas in reverse bias, there is no flow of current. The basic symbol, two
transistor analogy and construction are shown below.
 Symbol and Structure of Shockley Diode

The construction of this diode is done by connecting the four layers to form
PNPN junction. The basic circuit of this diode using two transistors is shown in
above. In the above circuit, the collector terminal of the T1 transistor is connected
to the base terminal of the T1 transistor.

The J1 junction is designed at the EB junction of T1 transistor, J2 is at common

connected BC junction between T1 & T2 transistors, and the J3 is at BE junction
of T2 transistor. So, as the BE junctions, J1& J3 must be forward biased & as a
CB junction, J2 must be reverse biased for linear operation.

Circuit Diagram of Shockley Diode

Shockley diodes are mostly used as a switch in many circuits to turn on an SCR.
The circuit diagram of the Shockley diode is shown below. The circuit below uses
a Shockley diode to turn on the SCR, then it turns in the buzzer until the power is
disconnected.
 Shockley Diode Circuit Diagram

The first part of the circuit is RC circuit, where the RC network is fed DC voltage.
Here, the capacitor will charge up through the resistor. When the DC power is
detached from the circuit, the capacitor will discharge through the diode. This
discharge will be the trigger voltage of the Shockley diode and it will turn the diode
on. Once the diode is switched ON, the SCR will be turned ON and generates an
alarm.

The negative terminal of the diode must be connected to the gate terminal of the
SCR. Once the gate terminal of the SCR receives the ample voltage, it will
conduct the current from anode to cathode until the power is detached. Detaching
the gate current at this point has no effect and the current will still conduct from
positive to negative. For this reason SCRs are very good for switching of devices
like alarm circuits which continue ON until the power is deactivated. And another
reason is, the switch is placed in the positive terminal of the SCR. Whenever you
want to disable the buzzer, you should detach the power from the positive
terminal the SCR. To do this, we kept a normally closed switch (SMPS) on this
anode terminal.

Characteristics of Shockley Diode

The Shockley diode comprises of three junctions namely J1, J2 and J3. Whenever
the voltage is applied to the diode then the anode terminal is made positive with
respect to the cathode, J1 and J3 junctions are forward biased where J2 is
reverse biased. The V-I characteristics of a Shockley diode are shown in the
following figure. The diode consists of two operating modes such as conducting
and non conducting modes, which operates on the lower line with small current
and a voltage less than break over voltage
 V-I Characteristics of Shockley Diode

When the voltage tries to beat the break over voltage, the device breaks down &
turns on along the dotted line to the on-state. This line specifies a temporary
condition. The device can have voltage and current values on the dotted line as it
turns on b/n the two stable operating states. In on-state or conducting state, the
device functions on the greater line. As long as the current through the device is
bigger than the holding current IH, then the voltage across it is somewhat greater
than knee voltage, VK. When the current drops below the holding currents level
IH, the device turns back along with the dotted line to the off-state.

Application of the Shockley Diode

The application of the Shockley diode is a relaxation oscillator circuit that is shown
above. This circuit uses a Shockley diode, that is connected across the power
supply battery and capacitor. When the voltage is applied to the circuit using the
battery, then the capacitor in the circuit charges through a resistor. When the
applied voltage across the capacitor is greater than the break over voltage of the
diode, then it activates and works as a switch. This causes quickly to discharge
the capacitor through the Shockley diode. And when the current through the
Shockley diode is below the holding current of the diode, then the diode becomes
inactivated and again capacitor charges up.
 Relaxation Oscillator Circuit

This is all about what is a Shockley diode, Circuit Diagram, V-I Characteristics and its
Application.

The Shockley equation for a diode

So far, you have developed an understanding of solar cells that is mainly intuitive. Generally, it is very
useful to connect intuition with a quantitative treatment. Therefore, let us use the gained intuition to
understand the famous Shockley equation of the diode.

Let us summarize in the following how, at a given applied bias V, a current I can be driven through a
diode in the dark.

On the selective contacts page, you learned that the contact on n-type (or p-type) allows mainly free
electrons (or free holes) to pass through. Hence, to drive a current through the diode in the dark, the
electrons need to recombine somewhere in the diode, see the currents in the dark page. On
the recombination page, you learned that the recombination rate is limited by the minority carrier
density. This density is proportional to the Boltzmann factor eE/kT, where E is the barrier across the p-n
junction. On the role of the p-n junction page, you learned that this barrier decreases by the amount of
the applied bias.

For all these reasons, the minority carrier density increases exponentially with applied bias, and so does
the recombination rate, and so does the current through the diode.

Hence, we can state purely mathematically:

To derive the constants A, B, and C, you may put physics into the above equation by having a look at
certain situations:

At V = 0 there is J = 0. Enter this into the above equation and you will receive a relation
between A and C.

It was measured, and it is indicated in the figure, that at negative V, Jsaturates to the so-called
saturation current J0. This is a very small current, often between 100 and 1000 fA/cm2 (femto is 1015). So,
take V towards minus infinite, and you receive a physical value for c (and with the first step also for A).
 The assignment of B to a physical entity is done with the Boltzmann factor, where E is replaced
by the voltage B: B = qV/kT, where k = 8.61758 x 105 eV/K. Then, kT/q is called the thermal
voltage Vth and is 25.8 mV at 300K.

With all this you get the Shockley diode equation:

Under illumination, the current-direction is reversed but, otherwise, the shape of the IV curve is the
same as in the dark (see page "Cell under illumination"). This implies that we can simply subtract JSCform
the above equation to get the Shockley diode equation under illumination:

This is an important equation for understanding solar cells, and we will use it for deeper investigations in
subsequent lessons.

Figure: Currentvoltage curves of a solar cell in the dark (blue) and light (red).