CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERITY, POMONA

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

ECE 2200 Lab Experiment #1

Current-Voltage Characteristics of the PN Junction Diode

Objective:

To study the current-voltage relationship of semiconductor PN diodes, and to determine the

reverse saturation current and the diode ideality factor from the I-V characteristic plot of the
diodes.

Pre-Lab:

Capture schematics of Figure 1 and Figure 2 in PSpice.

Parts List:

1. D1N4001 PN Junction diode

2. A second diode D1N1190
3. Resistors, 1K, 100K

Procedure:

1) To study the forward biased portion of the I-V characteristics of the semiconductor diode,
capture the circuit shown in Figure 1.
2) For the circuit in Figure 1, use D1N4001 for the diode,
Starting the supply (Vs) at 0V, increase to 1V in steps of 0.2V then increase from 1V to
10V in steps of 1V.
For each value of Vs, run PSpice simulation and record the voltage drop across the diode
(Vd) and the current through the diode (Id) to complete a table.

3) Repeat step 2 to for the second diode: D1N1190.

4) To study the reverse biased portion of the I-V characteristics of the semiconductor diode,
capture the circuit shown in Figure 2, use D1N4001.
Starting the supply (Vs) at 0V, gradually increase to 10V in steps of 1V. For each value of
Vs, run PSpice simulation to record the voltage drop across the diode and the current
through the diode and complete a table.

5) Repeat step 4 to for the second diode: D1N1190.

Vd
1Κ
Ω

Id Id 10
0ΚΩ
Vs Vd Vs or
Ω ( scope)
1Μ

Figure 1 Figure 2

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 CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERITY, POMONA
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

ECE 2200 Lab Experiment #1

Data Analysis:

Plot forward and reverse Id vs. Vd from the data obtained from your measurements/simulations for
both diodes.

Post Lab:

1) From the data, calculate and tabulate the reverse saturation current Is and the turn-on
voltage Von for both diodes.

2) From the collected data, determine the type of the PN Junction diode (Si or Ge?).

3) From the data, calculate and tabulate the ideality factor η for each diode.

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