EXPERIMENT

7 ZENER DIODE AND

APPLICATIONS
LESSONS COVERED

This experiment covers the lessons in the Chapter 7: Filtered Power Supply,
Voltage Multipliers and Regulators in the lecture part of this course.

DURATION

3 hours

OBJECTIVES

1. To be able to obtain IV Characteristics of zener diode

2. To be able to see how a zener diode works as a voltage

Regulator and calculate its load and line regulation.

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Zener diode
Bread board, Resistor (1K ohm)
Connecting wires,
Ammeters (0‐ 10mA, 0‐ 100 μ A)
DC power supply (0‐ 30V)
10 K ohm pot ,
Multimeter

NOTE

The following materials and equipment listed above are to be used in order to perform
this experiment. But because of the ongoing limitations to access these materials and
equipment, all the procedures in this experiment will be performed through simulation
for now, using NI Multisim software.

BRIEF DISCUSSION

A Zener diode is one of the specially designed diodes that predominately works in
reverse biased conditions. They are more heavily doped than ordinary diodes, due to
which they have narrow depletion region. While regular diodes get damaged when the
voltage across them exceeds the reverse breakdown voltage, Zener diodes work
exclusively in this region. The depletion region in Zener diode goes back to its normal
state when the reverse voltage gets removed. This particular property of Zener diodes

Experiment 1: Amplitude Modulation 1

makes it useful as a voltage regulator. Let us see how this happens. Let us first
comprehend how a Zener diode works before we understand Zener diode as a
voltage regulator.

When we apply a reverse voltage to a Zener diode, a negligible amount of current

flows through the circuit. When a voltage higher than Zener breakdown voltage is
applied, Zener breakdown occurs. Zener breakdown is a phenomenon where a
significant amount of current flows through the diode with a negligible drop in voltage.
When we increase the reverse voltage further, the voltage across the diode remains at
the same value of Zener breakdown voltage whereas the current through it keeps on
rising as seen in the graph above. Here in the graph Vz refers to the Zener breakdown
voltage. Zener breakdown voltage typically can range from 1.2 V to 200 V depending
on its application.

Here the Zener diode is connected across the load RL. We want the voltage across the
load to be regulated and not cross the value of Vz. Depending on our requirement, we
choose the suitable Zener diode with a Zener breakdown voltage near to the voltage
we require across the load. We connect the Zener diode in reverse bias condition.
When the voltage across the diode exceeds the Zener breakdown voltage, a
significant amount of current starts flowing through the diode. As the load is in parallel
to the diode, the voltage drop across the load is also equal to the Zener breakdown
voltage. The Zener diode provides a path for the current to flow and hence the load
gets protected from excessive currents. Thus the Zener diode serves two purposes
here: Zener diode as a voltage regulator as well as it protects the load from excessive
current.

EXPERIMENT PROPER

A) V - I Characteristics of Zener Diode

1) Identify the components required and make the connections on bread board as
per circuit diagram.
2) Connect the circuit diagram in Figure 1 for diode in forward biasing mode.
3) Switch on the power supply and increase applied voltage gradually.
4) Note down voltmeter and ammeter readings.

Experiment 1: Amplitude Modulation 2

5) Repeat steps 2 to 4 for reverse bias mode.
6)Tabulate the observations and plot the graphs for zener diode separately.
7) From your observations obtain the VZ.

Figure 1. Voltage Regulator Circuit

Table 1. Forward- Biased Measurements

Vin (V) Vs (V) VZ (V) VL (V) IL (mA) IZ (mA) IR (mA)
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
‘

Table 2. Reverse- Biased Measurements

Vin (V) Vs (V) VZ (V) VL (V) IL (mA) IZ (mA) IR (mA)
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0

Experiment 1: Amplitude Modulation 3

B) Zener diode as voltage regulator & find its line regulation

1) Identify the components required and make the connections on bread board as
Seen in Figure 1 circuit diagram.
2) Note down the no load voltage of circuit.
3) Vary Vin in steps of 1V & tabulate voltmeter and ammeter reading
4) Plot the graphs for Vin Vs VL & Find % line regulation

Table 3. Line Regulation, take RL = 1KΩ

Vi (V) Vo (V)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

C) Zener diode as voltage regulator & find its load regulation

1) Identify the components required and make the connections on bread board as
per Figure 1 circuit diagram.
2) Note down the no load voltage of circuit.
3) Vary RL in steps of 1KΩ & tabulate voltmeter and ammeter reading
4) Plot the graphs for VL, Vs, IL & find % load regulation.

Load Regulation, set Vi = 10V

RL(KΩ) Vo (V)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Experiment 1: Amplitude Modulation 4

CALCULATION:

Cut in voltage = ________V

Break down voltage = __________V
% line regulation= [(V2‐ V1) / V2]*100 = _________%
% load regulation= [( VNL‐ VFL ) / VNL ]*100 = ________%

RESULT:
Cut in voltage = ___________V
Break down voltage = _________V
% line regulation = ____________%
% load regulation = _________%

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

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CONCLUSION

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Experiment 1: Amplitude Modulation 5

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Experiment 1: Amplitude Modulation 6