Diode

Theory
Diode is an electrical device which is of a
semiconductor of PN junction. In a diode, there are
two terminals, and negative side is marked with a
line to differentiate. Unlike a resistor which follows a
linear relation of current and voltage, V=I.R, diode
follows Id = Is exp(vd/vt): where Id is the diode
current, Is is reverse saturation current and vt= kT/q.
the I-V characteristic is shown as below.
To connect a diode in a circuit in forward bias, we
need to connect positive terminal of battery to anode
of diode and negative to cathode. To connect it in
reverse bias, we do the opposite of above.
To compute voltage or current of diode in practical
circuits we use ideal diode model or constant voltage
model to simply our calculations.
In ideal diode model, diode is considered as “ON”
when volatage is positive. Then we replace diode by
a wire. And diode is considered as “OFF” when
volatage across it is negative, then diode is left open.
In costant volatage model, we consider diode as
“ON” when voaltage acroos it is more than 0.7V, we
then replace it by a battery of 0.7 V battery. It is
considered as “OFF” when voltage across it is less
than 0.7V, it is treated as same as we did in ideal
diode model, i.e., we open the circuit.
 A diode switches on when the voltage drop
across it exceeds 0.7 V.
 Current always flows from Anode to Cathode in a
diode. For most practical circuits involving
rectifier diodes, it is safe to assume that current
cannot be negative, that is, it cannot flow from
Cathode to Anode (or N to P).
 When the diode is in ‘on’ state, a 60 mV change
in voltage across its terminals causes a 10 fold
increase in the current through it. This can be
verified from the equations given above.
 The reverse saturation current Is depends on the
cross-sectional area of the diode, apart from
other parameters.
Full Wave Rectifer
A full wave rectifier is a circuit designed to
covnvert an AC (time varying signals) into a DC
(there is no time change in signal with passage of
time). So in this circuit we use 4 diodes ; 2 pairs of
connected in series and then these are connected
in parallel. As 4 diodes are connected in a
combination, when in an AC signal, during
positive half, current follows through opposite
diodes and other two diodes are switched off.
During the negative half of the signal, current
follows through other two diodes and the first
two diodes are treated as switched off. So when
seen through as oscilloscope across the output,
we see a full wave is being rectified. This is known
as bridge rectifier.
If the input signal is a sine wave, the signal across
the resistor will also be a sine wave but with the
negative swing now flipped to the positive side.
The signal we have now is still not a DC signal. A
pure DC signal does not have any change in time
whereas the output across R is a signal changing
in time. To make this signal remain constant, we
make use of a capacitor which smoothens the
signal and therefore is called as a smoothing
capacitor.

CLIPPER AND CLAMPER

In a clipping circuit, some part of voltage is
getting clipped as diodes are connected opposite
to each other. As shown in the circuit diagram,
when the input voltage is given, D1
Will be on and D2 is off as its connected in
reverse bias. During positive signal, when voltage
is more than 2.7 V, will get clipped. And same
goes with negative half of the cycle, as D1 is
treated as switched off. When oscilloscope is
connected across the resistor, we see the signal
getting clipped.

In a clamping circuit, we add DC level to an AC

signal. It is also called as level shifter as it shifts
the DC level of signal. The circuit is connected as
shown. Current flows through a capacitor only
when there is a change of voltage across its
terminals. The negative current cannot flow
through the diode and therefore the diode
switches off (or open circuited) when this
happens.
Now, when the input signal goes from -6 V to 4 V,
the slope of the voltage being positive, current
flows from the input and through the capacitor
but it is stopped by the diode (as the current
direction is opposite to the that which would flow
in a diode) and the diode is now open. Since the
diode is open, no current flows through the diode
and therefore no current should flow through the
capacitor. If no current flows through the
capacitor, the voltage difference across its
terminals must be a constant current. If the
terminal of the capacitor (node1),connected to
the voltage source goes from -6 V to 4 V, the
voltage at the other terminal of the capacitor
(node 2) which is open must also increase in such
a way that the voltage drop across the capacitor
is kept constant. Since the other terminal at node
2 in initially 0 V, as the voltage at node 1 changes
by 10 V in going from - 6 V to 4 V, the voltage at
node 2 must also change by 10 V and therefore
goes to 10 V. same happens for opposite half of
the cycle.

NPN Transistor
A transistor is a 3 terminal device which is having
differently doped semiconductors and is called as
bipolar junction transistor. In BJTs there are two
types, NPN and PNP. In our study of transistors,
we consider NPN. In a transistor, there is a base,
emitter and collector. Base is moderately doped
thin P-type material, emitter is a heavily dopped
N type semiconductor and collector is also
moderately doped with N type material. To use a
transistor in a circuits, we can bias it in different
ways, but as shown in the table, we coonect and
study its characteristics.

E-B junction C-B Junction Mode

Reverse reverse Cut-off
Forward Reverse Active
forward Forward Saturation
 In active mode, electrons from emitter travel
towards base. These electrons that reach the
collector junction will be swept across the
collector-base junction as the collector is more
positive.
In saturation mode, elctrons flow toward base
from collector, as this is opposite to the flow of
electrons from emitter, it reduces. Sometimes it
reduces to zero current through collector.
In cut-off mode, current of emitter terminal is
zero ( expected) and collector current is only due
to emitter current, the collector current is also
zero.