Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and

Technology, Topi, Pakistan

ME203
Circuits and Electronic Devices

Lecture No: 22

Instructor
Dr. Abid Imran
------Faculty of Mechanical Engineering------ Fall Semester
1 2020
 Outline of the lecture

• Zener diode
• Voltage regulator
• Zener limiter
• Light Emitting diode
• BJT
• BJT curve

2
 Zener Diode
• A Zener diode is a silicon pn junction device that is
designed for operation in the reverse-breakdown region.

Regulation

• For Zener operation

𝐼  𝑧𝑘 < 𝐼 𝑧 < 𝐼 𝑧 𝑀
OR
𝑉  𝐼𝑁 ( 𝑉 𝑅 )>𝑉 𝑧
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 Zener Diode Applications

• As a regulator
• Variable input
• Variable output.
• Zener limiter

4
 Voltage regulation: Variable input
• Minimum/Maximum current for Zener operation
𝐼  𝑍𝐾 =0.25 𝑚𝐴

• For the minimum Zener current,

the voltage across the resistor is

• By KVL

• For the maximum zener current,

the voltage across the resistor is
 Voltage regulation: variable load.
 •Zener voltage regulator with a variable load resistor across the terminals.
• The zener diode maintains a nearly constant voltage across as long as the
Zener current is greater than and less than
 Voltage regulation: variable load.
Determine
  the minimum and the maximum load currents for which the Zener diode
 From No Load to Full Load
in Figure will maintain regulation. What is the minimum value of that can be used?
and Assume an ideal Zener diode where remains a constant 12 V over the range of
current values, for simplicity.

  • When 0 and is

24 −𝑉𝑧
𝐼  𝑍(𝑚𝑎𝑥 )= 𝐼 𝑇 = =25.5 𝑚𝐴
𝑅

• For minimum load resistance calculation

  • Should be at least for regulation

• By applying KCL

  𝐿 = 𝑉𝑧 = 12 =𝟒𝟗𝟎 𝜴
𝑅
𝐼  𝐿 =𝐼 𝑇 − 𝐼 𝑍𝐾 =24.5mA By applying the ohm law 𝐼 𝐿 24.5
 Limiter: ZENER
Zener Limiter
In addition to voltage regulation applications, Zener diodes
can be used in ac applications to limit voltage swings to
desired levels

𝑭𝒐𝒓
  𝑽 𝒊𝒏 >𝑽 𝒛

Reverse biased
OP: Vz when Vin>Vz
Otherwise same as input. 𝑡 𝑜 𝑡 1

Reverse biased
 Limiter: ZENER
• For the negative cycle.
Simple diode
Forward biased
curve

0.7𝑉
  Forward biased 𝑡 1 𝑡 2

𝑡 𝑜

Forward biased
 Limiter: ZENER
• For two diodes: Positive cycle

FB 0.7
RB Vz1

• For toe diode: Positive cycle

RB Vz1

FB -0.7
 Limiter: ZENER: Example
Example: Determine the output voltage for each Zener limiting circuit
• For +ve cycle:

FB>+0.7

RB
>Vz when Vin>Vz
>Otherwise input.

• For -ve cycle:

RB
>-Vz when Vin>Vz
>Otherwise input.

FB>-0.7
 Limiter: ZENER: Example
Example: Determine the output voltage for each Zener limiting circuit
• For +ve cycle:

RB
>Vz when Vin>Vz
>Otherwise input.

FB>+0.7

• For -ve cycle:

FB>-0.7

RB
>-Vz when Vin>Vz
>Otherwise input.
 Light Emitting Diode

• Visible type of diode that emit visible

light at different colored wavelengths,
• Invisible infra-red light for remote
controls or laser type light when a
forward current is passed through them.

• LED will pass current in its forward

direction but block the flow of
current in the reverse direction.

• When the diode is forward biased,

electrons from conduction band
recombine with holes from the valence
band releasing sufficient energy to
produce photons which emit a
monochromatic (single color) of light.

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 Light Emitting Diode

• Normal lamps/bulbs generates large amounts of

heat when illuminated,
• The light emitting diode produces a “cold”
generation of light which leads to high efficiencies
than the normal “light bulb”

• LEDs are operated at low voltage DC supply and

series resistor, RS is used to limit the forward current
for LED operation.
• A series LED resistive circuit is shown in Fig.
• The series resistor value RS is calculated by simply
using Ohm´s Law, by knowing the required forward
current IF of the LED,

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Content
• Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
• BJT parameters and characteristics
• Collector Characteristic Curves.
• The BJT as Amplifier.
• The BJT as Switch
 Bipolar Junction Transistor
• The BJT is constructed with three doped semiconductor regions separated by two pn junctions
• Three regions are called emitter, base, and collector.
• The pn junction joining the base region and the emitter region is called the base-emitter junction.
• The pn junction joining the base region and the collector region is called the base-collector junction.
Doping level
• The base region is lightly doped and very thin compared to
the heavily doped emitter and the moderately doped
collector regions
 BJT Operation
• BJT to operate properly as an amplifier, the two pn junctions must be correctly biased
with external dc voltages.

• In Both cases the base-emitter (BE) junction is forward-biased and the base-collector
(BC) junction is reverse-biased

• This condition is called

forward-reverse bias.
BJT Operation
BOOK: Electronic Devices, electron flow version.
Chapter 3: SECTION: 3-1, 3-2. 3-4 (LED)
Chapter 4: SECTION: 4-1, 4-2
Relevant examples.

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