Electronic Devices and Circuits

Unit I
ELECTRON

It is a stable elementary particle with a charge of negative electricity, found in all atoms and
acting as the primary carrier of electricity in solids.

ELECTRONICS

 Electronics is the movement of electrons in a vacuum, gas, semiconductor, etc., in devices in

which the flow is controlled and utilized.
 Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical components such as
vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection
technologies.

ELECTRON DEVICES

An electronic component is any physical entity in an electronic system used to affect the
electrons or their associated fields in a manner consistent with the intended function of the
electronic system.

SEMICONDUCTOR

A semiconductor is a material which has electrical conductivity to a degree between that of a

metal (such as copper) and that of an insulator (such as glass). Semiconductors are the
foundation of modern electronics, including transistors, solar cells, light -emitting diodes
(LEDs), quantum dots and digital and analog integrated circuits.

DIODE

Diode – Di + ode
Di means two and ode means electrode. So physical contact of two electrodes is known as diode
and its important function is alternative current to direct current.

PN JUNCTION

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When the N and P-type semiconductor materials are first joined together a very large density
gradient exists between both sides of the junction so some of the free electrons from the donor
impurity atoms begin to migrate across this newly formed junction to fill up the holes in the P-
type material producing negative ions. However, because the electrons have moved across the
junction from the N-type silicon to the P-type silicon, they leave behind positively charged donor
ions (ND) on the negative side and now the holes from the acceptor impurity migrate across the
junction in the opposite direction into the region are there are large numbers of free electrons. As
a result, the charge density of the P-type along the junction is filled with negatively charged
acceptor ions (NA), and the charge density of the N-type along the junction becomes positive.
This charge transfer of electrons and holes across the junction is known as diffusion.

V-I characteristics of PN junction diode

A p–n junction is a boundary or interface between two types of semiconductor material, p-
type and n-type, inside a single crystal of semiconductor. A PN Junction Diode is one of the
simplest Semiconductor Devices around, and which has the characteristic of passing current in
only one direction only. p–n junctions are elementary "building blocks" of most semiconductor
electronic devices such as diodes, transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and integrated circuits; they are
the active sites where the electronic action of the device takes place. For example, a common
type of transistor, the bipolar junction transistor, consists of two p–n junctions in series, in the
form n–p–n or p–n–p. The discovery of the p–n junction is usually attributed to American
physicist Russell Ohl of Bell Laboratories.

There are two operating regions and three possible ―biasing‖ conditions for the standard Junction
Diode and these are:

Forward Bias – The voltage potential is connected positive, (+ve) to the P-type material and
negative, (-ve) to the N-type material across the diode which has the effect of Decreasing the PN
junction diodes width.

Reverse Bias – The voltage potential is connected negative, (-ve) to the P-type material and
positive, (+ve) to the N-type material across the diode which has the effect of Increasing the PN
junction diode‘s width.

Forward Biased PN Junction Diode

When a diode is connected in a Forward Bias condition, a negative voltage is applied to the N-
type material and a positive voltage is applied to the P-type material. If this external voltage
becomes greater than the value of the potential barrier, approx. 0.7 volts for silicon and 0.3 volts
for germanium, the potential barriers opposition will be overcome and current will start to flow.

This is because the negative voltage pushes or repels electrons towards the junction giving them
the energy to cross over and combine with the holes being pushed in the opposite direction
towards the junction by the positive voltage. This results in a characteristics curve of zero current

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flowing up to this voltage point, called the ―knee‖ on the static curves and then a high current
flow through the diode with little increase in the external voltage as shown below.

Forward Characteristics Curve for a Junction Diode

The application of a forward biasing voltage on the junction diode results in the depletion layer
becoming very thin and narrow which represents a low impedance path through the junction
thereby allowing high currents to flow. The point at which this sudden increase in current takes
place is represented on the static I-V characteristics curve above as the ―knee‖ point.

Reduction in the Depletion Layer due to Forward Bias

This condition represents the low resistance path through the PN junction allowing very large
currents to flow through the diode with only a small increase in bias voltage. The actual potential

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difference across the junction or diode is kept constant by the action of the depletion layer at
approximately 0.3v for germanium and approximately 0.7v for silicon junction diodes.

Reverse Biased PN Junction Diode

When a diode is connected in a Reverse Bias condition, a positive voltage is applied to the N-
type material and a negative voltage is applied to the P-type material.

The positive voltage applied to the N-type material attracts electrons towards the positive
electrode and away from the junction, while the holes in the P-type end are also attracted away
from the junction towards the negative electrode.

The net result is that the depletion layer grows wider due to a lack of electrons and holes and
presents a high impedance path, almost an insulator. The result is that a high potential barrier is
created thus preventing current from flowing through the semiconductor material.

Increase in the Depletion Layer due to Reverse Bias

This condition represents a high resistance value to the PN junction and practically zero current
flows through the junction diode with an increase in bias voltage. However, a very small leakage
currentdoes flow through the junction which can be measured in micro-amperes, ( μA ).

One final point, if the reverse bias voltage Vr applied to the diode is increased to a sufficiently
high enough value, it will cause the diode‘s PN junction to overheat and fail due to the avalanche
effect around the junction. This may cause the diode to become shorted and will result in the
flow of maximum circuit current, and this shown as a step downward slope in the reverse static
characteristics curve below.

Reverse Characteristics Curve for a Junction Diode

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Sometimes this avalanche effect has practical applications in voltage stabilising circuits where a
series limiting resistor is used with the diode to limit this reverse breakdown current to a preset
maximum value thereby producing a fixed voltage output across the diode. These types of diodes
are commonly known as Zener Diodes and are discussed in a later tutorial.

Ideal Diodes-current equation

The diode equation gives an expression for the current through a diode as a function of voltage.
The Ideal Diode Law, expressed as:

where:
I = the net current flowing through the diode;
I0 = "dark saturation current", the diode leakage current density in the absence of light;
V = applied voltage across the terminals of the diode;
q = absolute value of electron charge;
k = Boltzmann's constant; and
T = absolute temperature (K).
The "dark saturation current" (I0 ) is an extremely important parameter which differentiates one
diode from another. I0 is a measure of the recombination in a device. A diode with a larger
recombination will have a larger I0 .

Note that:

 I0 increases as T increases; and

 I0 decreases as material quality increases.
At 300K, kT/q = 25.85 mV, the "thermal voltage".

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Non-Ideal Diodes

For actual diodes, the expression becomes:

where:
n = ideality factor, a number between 1 and 2 which typically increases as the current decreases.
The diode equation is plotted on the interactive graph below. Change the saturation current and
watch the changing of IV curve. Note that although you can simply vary the temperature and
ideality factor the resulting IV curves are misleading. In the simulation it is implied that the input
parameters are independent but they are not. In real devices, the saturation current is strongly
dependent on the device temperature. Similarly, mechanisms that change the ideality factor also
impact the saturation current.

Applications of Diodes

Some of the typical applications of diodes include:

 Rectifying a voltage, such as turning AC in to DC voltages

 Isolating signals from a supply

 Voltage Reference

 Controlling the size of a signal

 Mixing signals

 Detection signals

 Lighting

Half Wave Rectifier

A simple Half Wave Rectifier is nothing more than a single pn junction diode connected in
series to the load resistor. If you look at the above diagram, we are giving an alternating
current as input. Input voltage is given to a step down transformer and the resulting reduced
output of transformer is given to the diode ‗D‘ and load resistor RL. The output voltage is
measured across load resistor RL.

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 As part of our ―Basic Electronics Tutorial‖ series, we have seen that rectification is the most
important application of a PN junction diode. The process of rectification is converting
alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC).

Half Wave Rectifier Operation

The operation of a half wave rectifier is pretty simple. A PN junction diode conducts current
only when it is forward biased. The same principle is made use of in a half wave rectifier to
convert AC to DC. The input we give here is an alternating current. This input voltage is
stepped down using a transformer. The reduced voltage is fed to the diode ‗D‘ and load
resistance RL. During the positive half cycles of the input wave, the diode ‗D‘ will be
forward biased and during the negative half cycles of input wave, the diode ‗D‘ will be
reverse biased. We take the output across load resistor RL. Since the diode passes current
only during one half cycle of the input wave, we get an output as shown in diagram. The
output is positive and significant during the positive half cycles of input wave. At the same
time output is zero or insignificant during negative half cycles of input wave. This is
called half wave rectification.

When a single rectifier diode unit is placed in series with the load across an ac supply, it
converts alternating voltage into uni-directional pulsating voltage, using one half cycle of the
applied voltage, the other half cycle being suppressed because it conducts only in one
direction. Unless there is an inductance or battery in the circuit, the current will be zero,
therefore, for half the time. This is called half-wave rectification. As already discussed, diode
is an electronic device consisting of two elements known as cathode and anode. Since in a
diode electrons can flow in one direction only i.e. from cathode to anode, the diode provides
the unilateral conduction necessary for rectification. This is true for diodes of all types-
vacuum, gas- filled, crystal or semiconductor, metallic (copper oxide and selenium types)
diodes. Semiconductor diodes, because of their inherent advantages are usually used as a
rectifying device. However, for very high voltages, vacuum diodes may be employed.

Working of a Half wave rectifier

The half-wave rectifier circuit using a semiconductor d iode (D) with a load resistance RL but
no smoothing filter is given in figure. The diode is connected in series with the secondary of

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 the transformer and the load resistance RL. The primary of the transformer is being connected
to the ac supply mains.

The ac voltage across the secondary winding changes its polarity after every half cycle of
input wave. During the positive half-cycles of the input ac voltage i.e. when upper end of the
secondary winding is positive w.r.t. its lower end, the diode is forward biased and therefore
conducts current. If the forward resistance of the diode is assumed to be zero (in practice,
however, a small resistance exists) the input voltage during the positive half-cycles is directly
applied to the load resistance RL, making its upper end positive w.r.t. its lower end. The
waveforms of the output current and output voltage are of the same shape as that of the input
ac voltage.

During the negative half cycles of the input ac voltage i.e. when the lower end of the
secondary winding is positive w.r.t. its upper end, the diode is reverse biased and so does not
conduct. Thus during the negative half cycles of the input ac voltage, the current through and
voltage across the load remains zero. The reverse current, being very small in magnitude, is
neglected. Thus for the negative half cycles no power is delivered to the load.

Thus the output voltage (VL) developed across load resistance RL is a series of positive half
cycles of alternating voltage, with intervening very small constant negative voltage levels, It
is obvious from the figure that the output is not a steady dc, but only a pulsating dc wave. To
make the output wave smooth and useful in a DC power supply, we have to use a filteracross
the load. Since only half-cycles of the input wave are used, it is called a half wave rectifier.

Full Wave Rectifier Circuit

The full wave rectifier circuit consists of two power diodes connected to a single load resistance
(RL) with each diode taking it in turn to supply current to the load. When point A of the
transformer is positive with respect to point C, diode D1 conducts in the forward direction as
indicated by the arrows.
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When point B is positive (in the negative half of the cycle) with respect to point C,
diode D2 conducts in the forward direction and the current flowing through resistor R is in the
same direction for both half-cycles. As the output voltage across the resistor R is the phasor sum
of the two waveforms combined, this type of full wave rectifier circuit is also known as a ―bi-
phase‖ circuit.

As the spaces between each half- wave developed by each diode is now being filled in by the
other diode the average DC output voltage across the load resistor is now double that of the
single half-wave rectifier circuit and is about 0.637Vmax of the peak voltage, assuming no
losses.

Where: VMAX is the maximum peak value in one half of the secondary winding and VRMS is the
rms value.

The peak voltage of the output waveform is the same as before for the half- wave rectifier
provided each half of the transformer windings have the same rms voltage value. To obtain a
different DC voltage output different transformer ratios can be used. The main disadvantage of
this type of full wave rectifier circuit is that a larger transformer for a given power output is
required with two separate but identical secondary windings making this type of full wave
rectifying circuit costly compared to the ―Full Wave Bridge Rectifier‖ circuit equivalent.

The Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

Another type of circuit that produces the same output waveform as the full wave rectifier circuit
above, is that of the Full Wave Bridge Rectifier. This type of single phase rectifier uses four
individual rectifying diodes connected in a closed loop ―bridge‖ configuration to produce the
desired output. The main advantage of this bridge circuit is that it does not require a special
centre tapped transformer, thereby reducing its size and cost. The single secondary winding is
connected to one side of the diode bridge network and the load to the other side as shown below .

The four diodes labelled D1 to D4 are arranged in ―series pairs‖ with only two diodes conducting
current during each half cycle. During the positive half cycle of the supply,

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diodes D1 and D2 conduct in series while diodes D3 and D4 are reverse biased and the current
flows through the load as shown below.

The Positive Half-cycle

During the negative half cycle of the supply, diodes D3 and D4 conduct in series, but
diodes D1 and D2switch ―OFF‖ as they are now reverse biased. The current flowing through the
load is the same direction as before.

The Negative Half-cycle

As the current flowing through the load is unidirectional, so the voltage developed across the
load is also unidirectional the same as for the previous two diode full-wave rectifier, therefore
the average DC voltage across the load is 0.637Vmax .

Typical Bridge Rectifier

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However in reality, during each half cycle the current flows through two diodes instead of just
one so the amplitude of the output voltage is two voltage drops ( 2 x 0.7 = 1.4V ) less than the
input VMAX amplitude. The ripple frequency is now twice the supply frequency (e.g. 100Hz for a
50Hz supply or 120Hz for a 60Hz supply.)

Although we can use four individual power diodes to make a full wave bridge rectifier, pre- made
bridge rectifier components are available ―off-the-shelf‖ in a range of different voltage and
current sizes that can be soldered directly into a PCB circuit board or be connected by spade
connectors.

The image to the right shows a typical single phase bridge rectifier with one corner cut off. This
cut-off corner indicates that the terminal nearest to the corner is the positive or +ve output
terminal or lead with the opposite (diagonal) lead being the negative or -ve output lead. The
other two connecting leads are for the input alternating voltage from a transformer secondary
winding.

The Smoothing Capacitor (Filters)

We saw in the previous section that the single phase half-wave rectifier produces an output wave every
half cycle and that it was not practical to use this type of circuit to produce a steady DC supply. The full-
wave bridge rectifier however, gives us a greater mean DC value (0.637 Vmax) with less superimposed
ripple while the output waveform is twice that of the frequency of the input supply frequency. We can
therefore increase its average DC output level even higher by connecting a suitable smoothing capacitor
across the output of the bridge circuit as shown below.

Full-wave Rectifier with Smoothing Capacitor (Filters)

The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output of the rectifier into a smooth DC
output voltage. Generally for DC power supply circuits the smoothing capacitor is an Aluminium

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Electrolytic type that has a capacitance value of 100uF or more with repeated DC voltage pulses
from the rectifier charging up the capacitor to peak voltage.
However, their are two important parameters to consider when choosing a suitable smoothing
capacitor and these are its Working Voltage, which must be higher than the no- load output value
of the rectifier and its Capacitance Value, which determines the amount of ripple that will appear
superimposed on top of the DC voltage.

Too low a capacitance value and the capacitor has little effect on the output waveform. But if the
smoothing capacitor is sufficiently large enough (parallel capacitors can be used) and the load
current is not too large, the output voltage will be almost as smooth as pure DC. As a general
rule of thumb, we are looking to have a ripple voltage of less than 100mV peak to peak.

Rectifier Ripple Voltage

Where: I is the DC load current in amps, ƒ is the frequency of the ripple or twice the input
frequency in Hertz, and C is the capacitance in Farads.

The main advantages of a full- wave bridge rectifier is that it has a smaller AC ripple value for a
given load and a smaller reservoir or smoothing capacitor than an equivalent half- wave rectifier.
Therefore, the fundamental frequency of the ripple voltage is twice that of the AC supply
frequency (100Hz) where for the half- wave rectifier it is exactly equal to the supply frequency
(50Hz).

The amount of ripple voltage that is superimposed on top of the DC supply voltage by the diodes
can be virtually eliminated by adding a much improved π-filter (pi- filter) to the output terminals
of the bridge rectifier. This type of low-pass filter consists of two smoothing capacitors, usually
of the same value and a choke or inductance across them to introduce a high impedance path to
the alternating ripple component

Ripple Factor
The ripple factor for a Full Wave Rectifier is given by

The average voltage or the dc voltage available across the load resistance is

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 RMS value of the voltage at the load resistance is

Efficiency
Efficiency, h is the ratio of dc output power to ac input power

The maximum efficiency of a Full Wave Rectifier is 81.2%.

Transformer Utilization Factor
Transformer Utilization Factor, TUF can be used to determine the rating of a transformer
secondary. It is determined by considering

the primary and the secondary winding separately and it gives a value of 0.693.

Rectifier with Filter

The output of the Full Wave Rectifier contains both ac and dc components. A majority of the
applications, which cannot tolerate a high value ripple, necessitates further processing of the
rectified output. The undesirable ac components i.e. the ripple, can be minimized using filters.

Zener diode
A Zener diode is a diode which allows current to flow in the forward direction in the same
manner as an ideal diode, but also permits it to flow in the reverse direction when the voltage is
above a certain value known as the breakdown voltage, "Zener knee voltage", "Zener voltage",
"avalanche point", or "peak inverse voltage".

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The device was named after Clarence Zener, who discovered this electrical property. A Zener
diode is one in which the reverse breakdown is due to electron quantum tunnelling under high
electric field strength—the Zener effect.

Operation

Current-voltage characteristic of a Zener diode with a breakdown voltage of 17 volts. Notice the
change of voltage scale between the forward biased (positive) direction and the reverse biased
(negative) direction.

TC depending on Zener voltage

A conventional solid-state diode allows significant current if it is reverse-biased above its

reverse breakdown voltage. When the reverse bias breakdown voltage is exceeded, a
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conventional diode is subject to high current due to avalanche breakdown. Unless this current is
limited by circuitry, the diode may be permanently damaged due to overheating. A Zener diode
exhibits almost the same properties, except the device is specially designed so as to have a
reduced breakdown voltage, the so-called Zener voltage. By contrast with the conventional
device, a reverse-biased Zener diode exhibits a controlled breakdown and allows the current to
keep the voltage across the Zener diode close to the Zener breakdown voltage. For example, a
diode with a Zener breakdown voltage of 3.2 V exhibits a voltage drop of very nearly 3.2 V
across a wide range of reverse currents. The Zener diode is therefore ideal for applications such
as the generation of a reference voltage (e.g. for an amplifier stage), or as a voltage stabilizer for
low-current applications.[1]
Another mechanism that produces a similar effect is the avalanche effect as in theavalanche
diode.[1] The two types of diode are in fact constructed the same way a nd both effects are present
in diodes of this type. In silicon diodes up to about 5.6 volts, the Zener effect is the predominant
effect and shows a marked negative temperature coefficient. Above 5.6 volts, the avalanche
effect becomes predominant and exhibits a positive temperature coefficient. [2]
In a 5.6 V diode, the two effects occur together, and their temperature coefficients nearly cancel
each other out, thus the 5.6 V diode is useful in temperature-critical applications. An alternative,
which is used for voltage references that need to be highly stable over long periods of time, is to
use a Zener diode with a temperature coefficient of +2 mV/°C (breakdown voltage 6.2–6.3 V)
connected in series with a forward-biased silicon diode (or a transistor B- E junction)
manufactured on the same chip.[3] The forward-biased diode has a temperature coefficient of −2
mV/°C, causing the TCs to cancel out.
Modern manufacturing techniques have produced devices with voltages lower than 5.6 V with
negligible temperature coefficients,[citation needed] but as higher- voltage devices are encountered, the
temperature coefficient rises dramatically. A 75 V diode has 10 times the coefficient of a 12 V
diode.
Zener and avalanche diodes, regardless of breakdown voltage, are usually ma rketed under the
umbrella term of "Zener diode".
The main application of zener diodes are as voltage regulator, as a fixed reference voltage in
transistor biasing circuit, as peak clipper or limiters in wave shaping circuits and as a protector of
volt meter damages.

Overvoltage protection is done by using Zener diodes because there is current flowing through
the diode after the reverse bias voltage exceeds a certain value. This circuit provides safety for
the equipment connected at the terminals. Normally the current should not exceed normal valve
but if due to any fault in the circuit the current exceeds the maximum allowable limit, the
equipment of the system can be damaged permanently.

Clipper
Clipping circuits (also known as limiters, amplitude selectors, or slicers), are used to
remove the part of a signal that is above or below some defined reference level. A simple diode
clipper can be made with a diode and a resistor. This will remove either the positive, or the

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negative half of the waveform depending on the direction the diode is connected. The simple
circuit clips at zero voltage (or to be more precise, at the small forward voltage of the
forward biaseddiode) but the clipping voltage can be set to any desired value with the addition of
a reference voltage. The diagram illustrates a positive reference voltage but the reference can be
positive or negative for both positive and negative clipping giving four possible configurations in
all.

The simplest circuit for the voltage reference is a resistor potential divider connected between the
voltage rails. This can be improved by replacing the lower resistor with a zener diode with
a breakdown voltage equal to the required reference voltage. The zener acts as a voltage
regulator stabilising the reference voltage against supply and load variations.

Full Wave Voltage Multiplier

The above circuit shows a basic symmetrical voltage multiplier circuit made up from two half-
wave rectifier circuits. By adding a second diode and capacitor to the output of a standard half-
wave rectifier, we can increase its output voltage by a set amount. This type of voltage multiplier
configuration is known as a Full Wave Series Multiplier because one of the diodes is conducting
in each half cycle, the same as for a full wave rectifier circuit.

When the sinusoidal input voltage is positive, capacitor C1 charges up through diode D1 and
when the sinusoidal voltage is negative, capacitor C2 charges up through diode, D2 . The output
voltage 2VP is taken across the two series connected capacitors.

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The voltage produced by a voltage multiplier circuit is in theory unlimited, but due to their
relatively poor voltage regulation and low current capability there are generally designed to
increase the voltage by a factor less than ten. However, if designed correctly around a suitab le
transformer, voltage multiplier circuits are capable of producing output voltages in the range of a
few 100‘s to tens‘s of 1000‘s of volts, depending upon their original input voltage value but all
with low currents in the milliamperes range.

The Voltage Doubler

As its name suggests, a Voltage Doubler is a voltage multiplier circuit which has a voltage
multiplication factor of two. The circuit consists of only two diodes, two capacitors and an
oscillating AC input voltage (a PWM waveform could also be used). This simple diode-capacitor
pump circuit gives a DC output voltage equal to the peak-to-peak value of the sinusoidal input.
In other words, double the peak voltage value because the diodes and the capacitors work
together to effectively double the voltage.

DC Voltage Doubler Circuit

So how does it work. The circuit shows a half wave voltage doubler. During the negative half
cycle of the sinusoidal input waveform, diode D1 is forward biased and conducts charging up the
pump capacitor, C1 to the peak value of the input voltage, (Vp). Because there is no path for
capacitor C1 to discharge into, it remains fully charged and acts as a storage device in series with
the voltage supply. At the same time, diode D2 conducts via D1 charging up capacitor, C2.

During the positive half cycle, diode D1 is reverse biased blocking the discharging of C1 while
diode D2is forward biased charging up capacitor C2. But because there is a voltage across
capacitor C1 already equal to the peak input voltage, capacitor C2 charges to twice the peak
voltage value of the input signal.

In other words, V(positive peak) + V(negative peak) as on the negative half-

cycle, D1 charges C1 to Vpand on the positive half-cycle D2 adds the AC peak voltage
to Vp onC1 and transfers it all to C2. The voltage across capacitor, C2 discharges through the
load ready for the next half cycle.

Then the voltage across capacitor, C2 can be calculated as: Vout = 2Vp, (minus of course the
voltage drops across the diodes used) where Vp is the peak value of the input voltage. Note that

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this double output voltage is not instantaneous but increases slowly on each input cycle,
eventually settling to2Vp.

As capacitor C2 only charges up during one half cycle of the input waveform, the resulting
output voltage discharged into the load has a ripple frequency equal to the supply frequency,
hence the name half wave voltage doubler. The disadvantage of this is that it can be difficult to
smooth out this large ripple frequency in much the same way as for a half wave rectifier circuit.
Also, capacitor C2 must have a DC voltage rating at least twice the value of the peak input
voltage.

The advantage of ―Voltage Multiplier Circuits‖ is that it allows higher voltages to be created
from a low voltage power source without a need for an expensive high voltage transformer as the
voltage doubler circuit makes it possible to use a transformer with a lower step up ratio than
would be need if an ordinary full wave supply were used. However, while voltage multipliers
can boost the voltage, they can only supply low currents to a high-resistance (+100kΩ) load
because the generated output voltage quickly drops-off as load current increases.

By reversing the direction of the diodes and capacitors in the circuit we can also reverse the
direction of the output voltage creating a negative voltage output. Also, if we connected the
output of one multiplying circuit onto the input of another (cascading), we can continue to
increase the DC output voltage in integer steps to produce voltage trip lers, or voltage quadruplers
circuits, etc, as shown.

DC Voltage Tripler Circuit

By adding an additional single diode-capacitor stage to the half-wave voltage doubler circuit
above, we can create another voltage multiplier circuit that increases its input voltage by a factor
of three and producing what is called a Voltage Tripler Circuit.

A ―voltage tripler circuit‖ consists of one and a half voltage doubler stages. This voltage
multiplier circuit gives a DC output equal to three times the peak voltage value (3Vp) of the
sinusoidal input signal. As with the previous voltage doubler, the diodes within the voltage
tripler circuit charge and block the discharge of the capacitors depending upon the direction of
the input half- cycle. Then 1Vpis dropped across C3 and 2Vp across C2 and as the two capacitors
are in series, this results in the load seeing a voltage equivalent to 3Vp.
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Note that the real output voltage will be three times the peak input voltage minus the voltage
drops across the diodes used, 3Vp – V(diode).

If a voltage tripler circuit can be made by cascading together one and a half voltage multipliers,
then aVoltage Quadrupler Circuit can be constructed by cascading together two full voltage
doubler circuits as shown.

DC Voltage Quadrupler Circuit

The first voltage multiplier stage doubles the peak input voltage and the second stage doubles it
again, giving a DC output equal to four times the peak voltage value (4Vp) of the sinusoidal
input signal. Also, using large value capacitors will help to reduce the ripple voltage.

Voltage Multiplier Summary

Then we have seen that Voltage Multipliers are simple circuits made from diodes and capacitors
that can increase the input voltage by two, three, or four times and by cascading together
individual half or full stage multipliers in series to apply the desired DC voltage to a given load
without the need for a step- up transformer.

Voltage multiplier circuits are classified as voltage doubler‘s, tripler‘s, or quadrupler‘s, etc,
depending on the ratio of the output voltage to the input voltage. In theory any desired amount of
voltage multiplication can be obtained and a cascade of ―N‖ doublers, would produce an output
voltage of 2N.Vp volts.

For example, a 10-stage voltage multiplier circuit with a peak input voltage of 100 volts would
give a DC output voltage of about 1,000 volts or 1kV, assuming no losses, without the use of a
transformer.

However, the diodes and capacitors used in all multiplication circuits need to have a minimum
reverse breakdown voltage rating of at least twice the peak voltage across them as multi-stage
voltage multiplication circuits can produce very high voltages, so take care. Also, voltage
multipliers usually supply low currents to a high-resistance loads as the output voltage quickly
drops away as the load current increases.

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The Voltage Multiplication Circuits shown above, are all designed to give a positive DC output
voltage. But they can also be designed to give negative voltage outputs by simply reversing the
polarities of all the multiplier diodes and capacitors to produce a negative voltage doubler.

Applications of voltage multipliers:

The high- voltage supplies for cathode ray tubes often use voltage multipliers with the final-stage
smoothing capacitor formed by the interior and exterior aqua dag coatings on the CRT itself. A
common type of voltage multiplier used in high-energy physics is the Cockcroft–Walton
generator (which was designed by John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton
Walton for a particle accelerator, for use in research that won them the Nobel Prize in Physics in
1951).

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