Bahir Dar University

Institute Of Technology
Faculty of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
Introduction to electrical Eng.
Lecture Note # 2 For aed-2nd Year
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 Chapter 2

 Characteristics and Analysis of Diode Circuit

 Diode Types

 Application of Diode Circuit

 Voltage Regulator

 Power supplies

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4.1 Characteristics and Analysis of Diode Circuit
 What is Diode?
 A diode is a device which only allows unidirectional flow of current
if operated within a rated specified voltage level.

 A diode only blocks current in the reverse direction while the reverse

voltage is within a limited range otherwise reverse barrier breaks and the

voltage at which this breakdown occurs is called reverse breakdown

voltage.

 A P-N junction is the simplest form of the diode which behaves as

ideally short circuit when it is in forward biased and behaves as ideally

open circuit when it is in the reverse biased.

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Symbol of Diode

• The symbol of a diode is shown below, the arrowhead points in the

direction of conventional current flow.

• A simple PN junction diode can be created by doping donor impurity in

one portion and acceptor impurity in other portion of a silicon or
germanium crystal block.
• These make a p n junction at the middle portion of the block beside
which one portion is p type (which is doped by trivalent or acceptor
impurity) and other portion is n type (which is doped by pentavalent or
donor impurity

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 Working Principle of Diode
 The n side will have a large number of electrons and very few
holes (due to thermal excitation) whereas the p side will have
a high concentration of holes and very few electrons.
 Due to this, a process called diffusion takes place. In this
process free electrons from the n side will diffuse (spread)
into the p side and combine with holes present there, leaving
a positive immobile (not moveable) ion in the n side.
 Hence, few atoms on the p side are converted into negative
ions. Similarly, few atoms on the n-side will get converted to
positive ions.

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• Due to this large number of positive ions and negative ions
will accumulate on the n-side and p-side respectively. This region
so formed is called as depletion region.

• Due to the presence of these positive and negative ions a static

electric field called as "barrier potential" is created across the p-n
junction of the diode.

• It is called as "barrier potential" because it acts as a barrier and

opposes the further migration of holes and electrons across the
junction.

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 Forward Biasing Characteristic of Diode

 When P- terminal connected to positive terminal of battery and N-

terminal connected to negative terminal of battery, it is said to be
forward biased.

• Positive terminal of the battery repels majority carriers, holes, in P-

region and negative terminal repels electrons in the N-region and
push them towards the junction.

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 Reverse Biasing Characteristic of Diode
 In reverse biasing P- terminal is connected to negative terminal of the
battery and N- terminal to positive terminal of battery. Thus applied
voltage makes N-side more positive than P-side.

 This result in decrease in concentration of charge carriers near junction

and width of depletion region increases.
 A small amount of current flow due to minority carriers, called as reverse
bias current or leakage current. As reverse bias voltage is raised depletion
region continues to increase in width and no current flows.

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 4.2 Diode Types

 Photodiodes
 They are intended to sense light, in other words, they are used as
photo detectors.

 Photodiodes are packed in a way that allow light to pass and the
current is generated when photons are absorbed.

 They may be used in photometry, in solar cells or consumer

electronics devices, such as compact disc players and smoke
detectors.

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 Schottky diodes
 They are semiconductor diodes that have metal to semiconductor
contact, which usually results in lower forward voltage drops and
quick responses to changes in voltage.

 Low forward voltage drops make Schottky diodes useful for low-
loss rectifiers.

 The high-switching property comes from lower junction

capacitance and provides their use in high-speed circuitry.

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 Zener diodes
 are designed to operate in breakdown which occurs at a precisely
defined voltage. Although a zener diode allows current flow in the
forward direction as a pn-junction does.

 They are mostly used as reverse-biased in order to provide a

reference voltage for voltage regulators.

 Zener diodes may also be used as voltage shifters or waveform

clippers. The circuit schematic symbol of a zener diode has
representative breakdown curves in addition to the mark that
indicates polarity.

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 Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
 are designed to emit photons when enough current passes
through the diode.

 The wavelength of the light being emitted depends on the material

and wavelengths from infrared to near ultraviolet may be
produced using LEDs.

 Forward voltage drop of a LED is usually greater than the other

types of pn-junction diodes and is around 2 V.

 The packaging of LEDs differ from other diodes and has a variety
of sizes.

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 A solar cell

This is a pn junction device with no voltage directly applied across the junction.
The pn junction, which converts solar energy into electrical energy.

When light hits the space-charge region, electrons and holes are generated. They
are quickly separated and swept out of the space charge region by the electric field,
thus creating a photocurrent.

The generated photocurrent will produce a voltage across the load, which means
that the solar cell has supplied power.
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4.3 Application of Diode Circuit
1. Rectification

 The process of converting an AC signal to Dc signals.

i) Half Wave Diode Rectifier
• A diode is connected to an ac source that provides the input voltage,
Vin, and to a load resistor, RL, forming a half-wave rectifier.

– on the positive half- cycle, the diode is forward biased.

– on the negative half –cycle the diode is reverse biased.

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II) Full Wave Diode Rectifier

• The full-wave bridge rectifier uses four diodes, as shown on

the next slide

– When the input cycle is positive as in part (a), diodes D1

and D2 are forward-biased and conduct current, while
diodes D3 and D4 are reverse-biased

– When the input cycle is negative as in part (b), diodes D3

and D4 are forward-biased and conduct current, while
diodes D1 and D2 are reverse-biased

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Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier

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 Clippers
● Clipper circuits, also called limiter circuits, are used to eliminate
portion of a signal that are above or below a specified level – clip
value.
● The purpose of the diode is that when it is turn on, it provides the clip
value
● Clip value = V’. To find V’, use KVL at L1
● The equation is : V’ – VB - V  0  V’  VB  V
Vi

V’  VB  V
L1

 Then, set the conditions

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 If Vi > V’, what happens?  diode conducts, hence Vo = V’
Parallel Based Clippers

 Positive and negative clipping can be performed simultaneously

by using a double limiter or a parallel-based clipper.

 The parallel-based clipper is designed with two diodes and two

voltage sources oriented in opposite directions.
 This circuit is to allow clipping to occur during both cycles;
negative and positive

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 Clampers
● Clamping shifts the entire signal voltage by a
DC level.

 Consider, the sinusoidal input voltage

signal, vI.

 1st 900, the capacitor is charged up to

the peak value of Vi which is VM.

 Then, as Vi moves towards the –ve cycle,

 the diode is reverse biased.
 Ideally, capacitor cannot discharge,
hence Vc = VM

 By KVL, we get

NOTE: The input signal is shifted by a dc

level; and that the peak-to-peak value is
the same
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Clampers
● A clamping circuit that includes an independent voltage source VB.
Peak value VM

 STEP 1: Knowing what value that the capacitor is charged to.

And from the polarity of the diode, we know that it is charged
during positive cycle. Using KVL,
 VC + VB – VS = 0  VC  VM – VB

 STEP 2: When the diode is reversed biased and VC is already a

constant value
 VO – VS + VC = 0  VO  VS – VC.

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Power Supplies

 The dc power supply converts the standard 110 V, 60 Hz ac

available at the wall outlets into a constant dc voltage.

 A capacitor is used to filter the output of the rectifier, charging

during each quarter-cycle that the input voltage exceeds the
capacitor voltage, and discharging through the load when the
input voltage decreases below the capacitor voltage, at which
point the diodes become reverse biased

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 Voltage Regulators
• An integrated circuit regulator (three-terminal regulator) is a
device that is connected to the output of a filtered rectifier

• It maintains constant voltage output despite change in the input

voltage or current load.

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Thank you

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