Taiz University

Al-saeed Faculty for Engineering

and Information Technology
IT Department

Electronic Devices Laboratory Reports

Experiment 3
Clipping and Clamping circuits

By
1. ALA SALAH
2. KHALIL MOHAMMED
3. FORSAN SADIQ
4. OMER AMEEN
5. ZAID ALI

.
Supervisor
Eng. Haitham Alboraihi

2023
Objectives
The purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate the operation of diode clipping and
clamping circuits.
Required Parts and Equipment
1. Function Generator
2. Dual-Channel Oscilloscope
3. DC Power Supply
4. Electronic test board
5. Resistors 1KΩ, 68KΩ
6. Silicon diode 1N4007
7. Leads and adaptors
Theory
In addition to the use of diodes as rectifiers, there are a number of other interesting
applications. For example, diodes are frequently used in applications such as wave-
shaping, detectors, voltage multipliers, switching circuits, protection circuits, and
mixer. In this experiment, we will investigate two widely used applications of diode
circuits, namely diode clipping circuits and diode clamping circuits.
Procedure and results
1. Practical unbiased parallel clipping circuits

Figure 7: Practical unbiased parallel clipping circuit

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2. Practical biased parallel clipping circuit

Figure 8: practical biased parallel clipping circuit

3. Practical unbiased series clipping circuit

Figure 9: practical unbiased series clipping circuit

3
4. Practical biased series clipping circuit

Figure 10: practical biased series clipping circuit

4
5. Practical unbiased clamping circuit

Figure 11: practical unbiased clamping circuit

6. Practical biased clamping circuit

Figure 12: practical biased clamping circuit

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 Discussion
1. What is the effect of the diode voltage drop on the output of the
clipping circuit in Fig.4? Compare the waveforms with those obtained
when assuming ideal diodes.
Ansewr:
The diode voltage will take 0.7v from the output voltage if the
diode was silicon, and it will take 0v if the diode was ideal.

Silicon diode Ideal diode

2. If the diode in the circuit of Fig.2 was reversed, then sketch the output
waveform in this case and explain briefly the operation of the circuit.
Ansewr:

The diode will be forward biased at the beginning form the DC source, so the
waveform will not begin form the zero. And in the positive half cycle the diode will
reverse biased if the input voltage more than voltage of diode and DC, and in the
negative half cycle the diode will be forward.

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3. Design a clipping circuit that will limit the output voltage to 5V when
applying an input sinusoidal waveform with a peak value of 10V.
Assume available diodes with voltage drop of 0.5V. Sketch the output
waveform of the circuit.

Ansewr:

4. Sketch the output waveform for the clipping circuit of Fig.1 if a load
resistance RL of value 1 kΩ is connected at the output terminals in
parallel with the diode.

Ansewr:

5. Discuss how diode limiters and diode clampers differ in terms of their function.

Ansewr:

Diode limiter: limits or clips the output waveform at specific value, and
there are two kind of limiter, the first one is positive limiter which effects
or limits the positive part of output waveform and the second is negative
limiter which effects or limits the negative part of output waveform.

Diode clamper: increases or decreases the output waveform, and there are
two kind of clamper the first one is positive clamper which increases or
clamps the negative part of output waveform and the second one is
negative clamper which decreases the positive part of output waveform.

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6. Design a clamper circuit that shifts the DC level of an input sinusoidal
waveform by +6V if the peak value of the input signal is 3V, and its
frequency is 500 Hz. Assume diode voltage drop is 0.6V.
Ansewr:

7. What is the effect of reducing the load resistor on the output of the
clamper circuit shown in Fig.5 if the input signal is a square wave?
Ansewr:
Nothing will change.

8. What is the difference between a positive clamper and a negative

clamper? Explain with the aid of circuit diagrams and output waveforms.
Ansewr:
Positive clamper:
increases or clamps the negative part of output waveform.

Circuit of positive clamper output waveform

Negative clamper:
decreases the positive part of output waveform.

Circuit of negative clamper output waveform

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Conclusion
We observed from this experiment that , there are also two kind of diode applications
which are:
1) clipper circuits: that clips or limit the input voltage from going above or below
as needed, and there are two kind of clipper circuits dividing into a parallel
clipper which is connected in a branch parallel to the load resistance and the
another series clipper which is connected in series with the load resistance.

2) Clamper circuits: that increases or decreases the signal input voltage that has
passed through the capacitor, and also there are two kind of clamper circuits
dividing into a positive which shift the negative part of the input voltage to the
positive part, and the another one is a negative clamper which shift the
positive part of the input voltage to the negative part.