ECE 427

Lab 2-Diode Characteristics

Introduction

 The purpose of this laboratory assignment is to investigate the behavior of diodes

and to introduce some practical circuits using diodes.
 To determine experimentally the volt ampere characteristics of a junction diode
and rectification

1. 1N4148 Diode

Build the basic diode circuit shown.

Figure 1: Basic diode circuit.

1. Measure the diode voltage VD as the power supply is varied from 0 to 10 volts
using the steps (.2, .4, .6, .8, 1, 2 , 3 ,6, 10). Put the measured values in a table.

For each of the voltage steps above, determine the diode current ID by measuring
the voltage drop across the 1kΩ resistor. Since the value of the resistor is known,
the current flowing through the resistor can easily be calculated.

2. Plot the V-I characteristic for the diode. This plot will have the Diode Voltage on
the horizontal (x) axis and the Diode Current on the vertical (y) axis.
3. Set the power supply to 10 Volts and then vary the supply voltage by 20%.
Record the diode voltages, VDmin and VDmax at both points.
4. Set the supply voltage back to its nominal value. Add a 1k load across the
diode. Measure the drop in output voltage.

Remember in the first case there is no load, and no load current. By adding the
resistor you have added a load to your diode circuit. You can easily determine the
load current if you know the voltage drop across the load resistor.

Questions:

1. What is the function of the resistor in this circuit ? How much current would have to
flow through the diode if there was no resistor between the diode and the voltage source
?

2. What can be said about the voltage drop across the two diode terminals, if there is
current flowing through the diode, what would you expect the voltage drop to be ?

2 Half Wave Rectifier

Build the rectifier circuit shown below.

 Figure 4: Single diode rectifier.

1. Use the function generator to set up the signal source ( Vs ). Use a sine wave at
100 Hz with a peak amplitude of 2 Volts.
2. Use the transient analysis to display both the input and the output at the same
time. Screenshot these waveforms.
3. Use a DC operating point analysis to record the input and output voltages.
4. Measure and record the input and output waveform as shown in the graph.

3. Full-wave Rectifier

This first circuit is not very effective as a rectifier as it only uses one half-period of the
sine wave. A more commonly used circuit is the bridge rectifier. Build the bridge rectifier
shown below:

Figure 5: Bridge rectifier.

1. Use a sinusoidal input voltage at 100 Hz with an amplitude of 10 V. Measure and

sketch the input and output of the circuit using transient analysis.

2. Now add a capacitor 1uF parallel to the output as shown in the figure below. (Be
careful with the polarity of the capacitor), sketch the new output.

Figure 6: Bridge Rectifier with Capacitor

In most of the applications a transformer is used to scale the input voltage. To build a
power supply, for example, the 110V AC signal would be reduced to 10V AC using a
transformer. The output of the transformer would be a sinusoidal signal with 10V peak
amplitude, that is just like the one generated by the function generator in this lab.

Conclusion:
1. Is Diode characteristic Linear?
2. Is diode characteristic symmetrical?
3. Does Diode conduct for all positive voltages?