Special Purpose Diodes

Prof. Sana Mehreen, Assistant Professor

Electrical Engineering
 ZENER DIODE
• Zener diode is basically like an ordinary PN junction diode but normally operated in
reverse biased condition.
• But ordinary PN junction diode connected in reverse biased condition is not used as
Zener diode practically.
• A Zener diode is a specially designed, highly doped PN junction diode.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
• When a PN junction diode is reverse biased, the depletion layer becomes wider.
• If this reverse biased voltage across the diode is increased continuously, the depletion
layer becomes more and more wider.
• At the same time, there will be a constant reverse saturation current due to minority
carriers.
• After certain reverse voltage across the junction, the minority carriers get sufficient
kinetic energy due to the strong electric field.
• Free electrons with sufficient kinetic energy collide with stationary ions of the depletion
layer and knock out more free electrons.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
• These newly created free electrons also get sufficient kinetic energy due to the same
electric field, and they create more free electrons by collision cumulatively.
• Due to this commutative phenomenon, very soon, huge free electrons get created in the
depletion layer, and the entire diode will become conductive.
• This type of breakdown of the depletion layer is known as avalanche breakdown, but this
breakdown is not quite sharp.
• There is another type of breakdown in depletion layer which is sharper compared to
avalanche breakdown, and this is called Zener breakdown.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
• When a PN junction is diode is highly doped, the concentration of impurity atoms will be
high in the crystal.
• This higher concentration of impurity atoms causes the higher concentration of ions in
the depletion layer hence for same applied reverse biased voltage, the width of the
depletion layer becomes thinner than that in a normally doped diode.
• When a zener diode is connected across a voltage source, and the source voltage is more
than Zener voltage, the voltage across a Zener diode remain fixed irrespective of the
source voltage. Although at that condition current through the diode can be of any value
depending on the load connected with the diode.
• That is why we use a Zener diode mainly for controlling voltage in different circuits.
•
 ZENER DIODE CIRCUIT
• Zener Diode is nothing but a single diode connected in a reverse bias, we have already
stated that. A diode connected in reverse bias position in a circuit is shown here.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A ZENER DIODE
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A ZENER DIODE
• When the diode is connected in forward bias, this diode acts as a normal diode but when
the reverse bias voltage is greater than zener voltage, a sharp breakdown takes place.
• In the V-I characteristics above Vz is the zener voltage. It is also the knee voltage because
at this point the current increases very rapidly.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A ZENER DIODE
• A graph of current through vs the voltage across the device is called the characteristic of
Zener diode.
• The first quadrant is the forward biased region. Here the Zener diode acts like an ordinary
diode. When a forward voltage is applied, current flows through it. But due to higher
doping concentration, higher current flows through the Zener diode.
• In the third quadrant, the magic happens. The graph shows the current vs voltage curve
when we apply a reverse bias to the diode.
• The Zener breakdown voltage is the reverse bias voltage after which a significant amount
of current starts flowing through the Zener diode. Here in the diagram, VZ refers to the
Zener breakdown voltage.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A ZENER DIODE
• Until the voltage reaches Zener breakdown level, tiny amount of current flows through
the diode.
• Once the reverse bias voltage becomes more than the Zener breakdown voltage, a
significant amount of current starts flowing through the diode due to Zener breakdown.
• The voltage remains at the Zener breakdown voltage value, but the current through
the diode increases when the input voltage gets increased.
• Due to the unique property of Zener diode, the depletion region regains its original
position when the reverse voltage gets removed.
• The Zener diode doesn’t get damaged despite this massive amount of current flowing
through it. This unique functionality makes it very useful for many applications.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A ZENER DIODE
• As the voltage remains at the Zener breakdown voltage, we use Zener diodes for voltage
regulation.
• We use them in voltage stabilizers and various other protection circuits. We also use
them in clipping circuit and clamping circuit.
• They provide a low-cost solution for voltage regulation.
 ZENER DIODE AS A VOLTAGE REGULATOR
• Zener breakdown voltage typically can range from 1.2 V to 200 V depending on its
application.
• The exciting part of this diode is that we can choose the Zener diode with a suitable
breakdown voltage to work as a voltage regulator in our circuit.

• For example, we want that the voltage across a load in our circuit does not exceed, let’s
say, 12 volts. Then we can select a Zener diode with a breakdown voltage of 12 volts and
connect it across the load. Then even if the input voltage exceeds that value, the voltage
across the load will never exceed 12 volts.
ZENER DIODE AS A VOLTAGE REGULATOR
 ZENER DIODE AS A VOLTAGE REGULATOR
• 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.
 ZENER DIODE AS A VOLTAGE REGULATOR
• 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
 OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES
• Optoelectronics deals with the study and application of electronic devices that interacts
with light which might be detection of light, its creation, and exploitation for several
purposes.
 OPTOELECTRONIC DIODES
Optoelectronic Diodes
• These are the diodes which are operated on light.
• The word “Opto” means Light.
• There are types that conduction depending upon the light intensity and other types whose
conduction delivers some light.
• Each type has got applications of their own.
• There are two main types of diodes in this category. They are:
1. Photo diodes
2. Solar cells
 OPTOELECTRONIC DIODES
Photo Diode
• Photo diode, as the name implies, is a PN junction which works on light.
• The intensity of light affects the level of conduction in this diode.
• The photo diode has a P type material and an N-type material with an intrinsic material
or a depletion region in between.
• This diode is generally operated in reverse bias condition.
• The light when focused on the depletion region, electron-hole pairs are formed and flow
of electron occurs.
• This conduction of electrons depends upon the intensity of light focused.
 OPTOELECTRONIC DIODES
• When the diode is connected in reverse bias, a small reverse saturation current flows due to
thermally generated electron hole pairs.
• As the current in reverse bias flows due to minority carriers, the output voltage depends
upon this reverse current.
• As the light intensity focused on the junction increases, the current flow due to minority
carriers increase.
• The following figure shows the basic biasing arrangement of a photo diode.
OPTOELECTRONIC DIODES
 LIGHT EMITTING DIODE
• This is also a normal PN junction diode except that instead of silicon and germanium, the
materials like gallium arsenide, gallium arsenide phosphide are used in its construction.
• The figure below shows the symbol of a Light emitting diode
 LIGHT EMITTING DIODE
• Like a normal PN junction diode, this is connected in forward bias condition so that the
diode conducts.
• The conduction takes place in a LED when the free electrons in the conduction band
combine with the holes in the valence band.
• This process of recombination emits light. This process is called as Electroluminescence.
• The color of the light emitted depends upon the gap between the energy bands.
 LIGHT EMITTING DIODE
• The materials used also effect the colors like, gallium arsenide phosphide emits either
red or yellow, gallium phosphide emits either red or green and gallium nitrate emits blue
light.
• Whereas gallium arsenide emits infrared light. The LEDs for non-visible Infrared light are
used mostly in remote controls.
 LIGHT EMITTING DIODE
• As shown in the figure, as the electrons
jump into the holes, the energy is dissipated
spontaneously in the form of light.
• LED is a current dependent device.
• The output light intensity depends upon the
current through the diode.
 SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY
• Seven segment displays are the output display device that provide a way to display
information in the form of image or text or decimal numbers which is an alternative to
the more complex dot matrix displays.
• It is widely used in digital clocks, basic calculators, electronic meters, and other electronic
device that display numerical information.
• It consists seven segments of light emitting diodes (LEDs) which is assembled like
numerical 8.
SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY
 SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY
• The number 8 is displayed when the power is given to all the segments and if you
disconnect the power for ‘g’, then it displays number 0.
• In seven segment display, power (or voltage) at different pins can be applied at the same
time, so we can form combinations of display numerical from 0 to 9.
• Since seven segment display can not form alphabet like X and Z, so it can not be used for
alphabet and it can be used only for displaying decimal numerical magnitudes.
• However, seven segment displays can form alphabets A, B, C, D, E, and F, so it can also
used for representing hexadecimal digits.
SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY
 SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY
TRUTH TABLE