Module 1: Semiconductor

Diodes and Applications

1
 Syllabus Total Hours -12

Semiconductor diodes: PN junction diode,

Characteristics and Parameters, Diode rectifiers-
Half wave rectifier, Full wave rectifier, Zener diode
as voltage regulators, Block diagram of DC power
Supply.

2
 Course Outcome,

• Apply the knowledge of

Semiconductor diode,
Bipolar Junction transistors
for different applications.

3
 Useful Resources
• 1) Diode basics, Characteristics,
Rectifiers:
• https://archive.nptel.ac.in/courses/108/10
5/108105188/

4
 Lesson Plan
Topics Sub-topics Hours
PN junction diode, Introduction, Basics of PN Junction, Forward and Reverse Biasing.
Characteristics and Parameters 01

VI-Characteristic, diode parameters, Diode as a switch. 01

Diode rectifier-Half wave and Half wave rectifier, Full wave bridge rectifier- Circuit operation with
Full wave waveform. 01

Expression for Vdc, Vrms, efficiency and ripple factor etc. for HWR,
FWR and Performance comparison. 01

Zener diode voltage regulators Zener diode basics, Voltage Regulator- line & Load regulation with
expressions. 01

DC Power Supply Block diagram of DC power supply- Discuss the functions of each
block 01

Numerical Simple problems on rectifiers-finding DC voltage, current &

efficiency 01

Problems on Zener Voltage Regulator 01

Lab experiments Familiarization with Basic Electronic components, Electronic
equipment’s usage and Introduction to EDA tool (Multisim)
02

Design and demonstrate the DC power supply circuit 02

5
Text Book:

1. D. P. Kothari, I .J. Nagarath , “Basic Electronics”, 2nd

edition, Mc Graw Hill, 2018.
2. David A. Bell, “Electronic Devices and Circuits”,
Oxford University Press, 5th Edition, 2008
3. Mike Tooley.(2015) Electronic Circuits,
Fundamentals & Application (4th ed). Elsevier.

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 Text Books: snapshots

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INTRODUCTION
 Based on electrical properties, material are classified as,
i. Conductors (Metals): Allows electric current to pass through it.
ii.Insulators: Doesn’t allow electric current to pass through it.
iii.Semiconductors: Electrical conductivity is between that of
conductor and insulator.

Fig: Energy Diagrams –

Insulator, Semiconductor, and
Conductor the energy
diagram for the three types
of solids

 Semiconductors are classified as,

i. Intrinsic: Pure semiconductor
ii. Extrinsic: Impure semiconductor, by adding impurity atoms to pure
semiconductor
 The process of adding impurity atoms to a pure semiconductor is called
doping.
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 Extrinsic semiconductors are classified as,
N-type: Which are obtained by adding pentavalent impurity atoms such as
Arsenic, Antimony, Phosphors, etc,. In N-type semiconductor, current
conduction is due to electrons, hence electrons are majority charge
carriers and holes are minority charge carriers. Since donor impurity
donates an electron it becomes positive ions and is shown in below figure.
P-type: Which are obtained by adding trivalent impurity atoms such as
Aluminum, Bronz etc,. In P-type semiconductor, current conduction is due
to holes, hence holes are majority charge carriers and electrons are
minority charge carriers. Since acceptor impurity has accepted electron it
becomes negative ions and is shown in below figure.

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PN-JUNCTION DIODE
The pn-junction is formed when thin layers of P- and N-type semiconductors are
joined together.
The majority holes from P-side diffuse into N-side and vice versa.
• Recombination of electrons and holes in a narrow region on both sides of the
junction results in uncovered fixed positive ions on N-side and fixed negative
ions on P-side.
• This is the depletion region where no free electrons and holes are present.
• The electric field set up by the positive and negative ions prevents further flow
of electrons and holes. The electric field causes the movement of minority
carriers in opposite direction that provides a minority carrier drift current.

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Reverse Bias
In reverse bias, the positive terminal of the battery is connected to N-
side (cathode) and negative terminal of the battery is connected to P-
side (anode) .

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Forward Bias
The positive terminal of the battery is connected to the anode (P-
side) and negative terminal, to cathode (N-side).

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Forward Bias: In forward bias the depletion region shrinks slightly in width. With
this shrinking the energy required for charge carriers to cross the
depletion region decreases exponentially. Therefore, as the
V>0 applied voltage increases, current starts to flow across the
junction. The barrier potential of the diode is the voltage at which
appreciable current starts to flow through the diode. The barrier
potential varies for different materials.

Reverse Bias: Under reverse bias the depletion region widens. This causes the
electric field produced by the ions to cancel out the applied reverse
bias voltage. A small leakage current, Is (saturation current) flows
V< 0 under reverse bias conditions. This saturation current is made up
of electron-hole pairs being produced in the depletion region.
Saturation current is sometimes referred to as scale current
because of it’s relationship to junction temperature.

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Diode Relationship
ID= Is
where
Is = reverse saturation current

ղ = 1 for both Ge and Si for higher level of current beyond the knee
Tk = Tc + 273°, and
Tc = operating temperature (25°C)
VT = offset, threshold.
It is quite accurate to assume that ID = 0 up to VT and then increases almost
linearly at a sharp slope. The values of VT are
VT = 0.7 V for Si diode
VT = 0.3 V for Ge diode

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 Diode Characteristic and Parameters

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RECTIFICATION
Rectifier: An electrical device used for rectification
offers a low resistance to the current in one direction
but a very high resistance to the current in the opposite
direction. It is a circuit which converts ac voltage into
pulsating dc voltage.

Rectifier are classified into:

Half wave rectifier
Full wave rectifier, which is further classified into:
i. Centre tapped full wave rectifier
ii. Bridge rectifier

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 Half – Wave Rectifier:
• The rectifiers which conducts current or voltage only during one half cycle of ac input is
called half wave rectifier.

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 Input voltage Vi is a sinusoidal waveform it can be represented
mathematically as,
During positive half cycle of Vi, the diode is forward biased and acts as
short circuit. The current flows through RL and VO follows Vi.
(Practically Vo= Vi-VF, where is voltage drop across the diode).

 During negative half cycle of Vi, the diode is reverse biased and acts
as open circuit and no current flows through RL. Therefore no output
voltage during this time. (Practically very small negative voltage levels
produced by the diode reverse saturation current (IR). So Vo= -IRRL

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Advantages:
1. Only one diode is required.
2. Centre tap transformer is not required.

Disadvantages:
3. Ripple factor is too high ( γ= 1.21).
4. Efficiency of rectification is low (ɳ = 40.6%).
5. DC saturation of transformer secondary winding takes place.
6. Transformer utilization factor is low.
7. AC supply delivers power only during half of the time, therefore
output is low.

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 Full Wave Rectifiers:

• The rectifiers which conducts during both positive and

negative half cycles of ac input is called full wave
rectifier.

• Full wave rectifiers are classified into two types:

i. Center tapped full wave rectifier
ii.Bridge rectifier

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Bridge Rectifier:

Let Vi= Vm sin(wt) be the instantaneous voltage appearing across the secondary.

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 During the positive half cycle,
Vo = Vi – 2VF

 During the negative half cycle,

Vo = Vi – 2VF

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  The instantaneous value of current and voltage of transformer
secondary is given by,

Advantages:
1.Transformer cost is less.
2.Peak inverse voltage of diode is one half of the diode used in center tapped
rectifier.
3.Centre tapped transformer is not required.
4.It can be used in applications, where floating output terminals are allowed.
Disadvantages:
1. It requires four diodes.
2. During each half cycle of ac input, two diodes that conducts are in
series and therefore voltage drop in the internal resistance of rectifying
unit will be twice as compared to center tapped circuit.
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Comparison of Half wave rectifier, Full wave Bridge rectifier

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 Capacitive filter

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Here, a capacitor is used in parallel to load resistor.
The fluctuations in voltage are grounded through
capacitor.
During the alternating cycles of power input, the
capacitor charges and discharges itself, thereby
maintaining the output current in same direction and
hence the output voltage at a little higher level than its
unfiltered value.
The reactance of capacitor is small as compared with
load resistance, thereby providing a path to fluctuating
current and pure dc supply appears across the load.

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ZENER DIODE
Zener diodes are heavily doped silicon diodes which, unlike
normal diodes, exhibit an abrupt reverse breakdown at relatively
low voltages (typically less than 6 V).
It is connected in a circuit such that it is reverse biased.
• It conducts only if reverse bias exceeds Vz. For positive bias, it
acts as short circuit.

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Zener Diode as a Voltage Regulator
• Voltage regulators are the devices used to maintain constant voltage across a
load despite of fluctuations in the input voltage and load currents.
• The Zener diode in its reverse bias region is widely used as a voltage
regulator as it continues to operate till the magnitude of current becomes
less than IZ(min).
• For all the values of current within the breakdown region, the voltage across
the diode will remain fixed at VZ, giving a constant supply across its load

• .

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Case I: When no load is connected (IL = 0)
• The current flowing in the circuit entirely passes through Zener diode
• The diode dissipates maximum power. Thus, utmost care must be
taken while selecting the series resistor so as to maintain the power
dissipation within the range of maximum power dissipating capability
of the diode.

Case II: When load resistance RL is connected across the diode

• Here, since the load is parallel to Zener diode, the output voltage will
be equal to VZ.
• The Zener current must always be above Iz(min) (current for which
the stabilization of voltage is effective).
• The higher limit of current allowed to flow in the circuit depends
upon the power dissipating capability of the components used.
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The voltage regulation can be done through two techniques:

1. Line Regulation
In this case, series resistance and load resistance are kept constant and it is
assumed that all the variations in voltage arise due to fluctuations in input power
supply. The regulated output voltage is achieved for input voltage above certain
minimum level. The percentage of regulation is given by X 100

where V0 is the output voltage, VIN is the input voltage, and ΔV0 is the change in outpu
voltage for a particular change in input voltage ΔVIN.

2. Load Regulation
In this, the input voltage is fixed while the load resistance is varied. The
constant output voltage is obtained as long as the load resistance is maintained above
a minimum value. The percentage of regulation is given by x100

where VNL is the voltage across the Zener Diode when no load is applied and VFL is the
full load resistor voltage.
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 Excerise-1: A zener diode has a breakdown voltage of 10V. It is
supplied from a voltage source varying between 20-40V in series
with resistance of 820Ω, using an ideal zener diode model obtain
minimum and maximum zener currents.

Solution:
Given, Vz = 10V, Vs(min) = 20V, Vs(min) = 40V, Rs = 820 Ω

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 DC Power Supply

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