Diodes and

Diode Circuits
Slides taken from:
A.R. Hambley, Electronics, Prentice Hall, 2/e, 2000
A. Sedra and K.C. Smith, Microelectronic Circuits,
Oxford University Press, 4/e, 1999

Semiconductor Diode

Figure3.1Semiconductordiode.
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The diode equation (1)

For forward and reverse bias region:

The diode equation (2)

Zooming in the v-i characteristic

Figure 3.2 Volt-ampere characteristic for a typical small-signal silicon diode at a

temperature of 300 K. Notice the changes of scale.

Forward Region

Reverse Region

Forward & Reverse regions (1)

Forward & Reverse regions (2)

Breakdown region

The breakdown region is entered when the magnitude of

the reverse voltage exceed a threshold called
breakdown voltage or the zener knee voltage.
In the breakdown region the current increase rapidly with
a very small increase in the associated voltage.
There is an avalanche of electrons flowing across the
junction with the result that the diode overheat.
Provided that the power dissipated in the diode is limited
by external circuitry to a safe level (typically specified in
the data sheets) breakdown wont be destructive.

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Ideal diode approximation

Figure 3.8 Ideal-diode volt--ampere characteristic.

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Improved approximated diode model

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Half-wave rectifier

Fig. 3.3 (a) Rectifier circuit. (b) Input waveform. (c) Equivalent circuit when
(d) Equivalent circuit when v1 0 (e) Output waveform.

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Half-wave rectifier with

smoothing capacitor

Fig. 3.41 Voltage and current waveforms in the peak rectifier circuit with CR T.
The diode is assumed ideal.

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Full-wave rectifier

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Figure 3.13 Full-wave rectifier.

Full-wave bridge rectifier

Figure 3.14 Diode-bridge full-wave rectifier.

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Full-wave bridge rectifier

Fig. 3.39 The bridge rectifier: (a) circuit and (b) input and output waveforms.

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Limiters (=Clipping circuits) (1)

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Limiters (=Clipping circuits) (2)

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Clamping circuits (1)

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Clamping circuits (2)

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Clamping circuits (3)

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More clamping circuits (1)

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More clamping circuits (2)

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More clamping circuits (3)

Figure 3.19 Another Example of clamp circuit.

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Voltage doubler (1)

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Voltage doubler (2)

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Voltage doubler (3)

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Diode small signal model

So

far we have been mainly focused on using

the ON-OFF behavior of the diode. In these
applications usually the applied signal is
relatively large so the models seen so far are
more than adequate !
There are other applications where the diode
is biased to operate at a certain point (VDQ, IDQ)
on the i-v characteristic and a small AC signal
is superimposed on the DC quantities
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The Load Line Analysis

Figure 3.27 Analysis of a circuit containing a singular nonlinear element can be accomplished by
load-line analysis of a simplified circuit.

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The device operating point

(= bias point = Q-point)

Figure 3.4 Circuit for load-line analysis.

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The load-line concept

Figure 3.5 Load-line analysis of the circuit

of Figure 3.4.

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The device Q-point (quiescent)

Figure 3.31 Diode characteristic, illustrating the Q-point.

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The device small signal model

Fig. 3.25 Development of the diode small-signal model.

Note that the numerical values shown are for a diode
with = 2.

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Diode small signal model

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Diode small signal model

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Diode small signal model

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Diode small signal model

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Diode small signal model

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Example of small signal application

Figure 3.33 Variable attenuator using a diode as a controlled resistance.

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DC equivalent circuit

Figure 3.34 Dc circuit equivalent to Figure 3.33 for Q-point analysis.

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Small signal AC equivalent circuit

Figure 3.35 Small-signal ac equivalent circuit for Figure 3.33.

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Zener Diode

Fig. 3.31 The diode i-v characteristic with the breakdown region shown in some detail.

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Clipper circuits using zeners

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Voltage Regulator (1)

Figure 3.24 A voltage regulator supplies constant voltage to a load.

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Voltage Regulator (2)

Figure 3.25 A simple regulator circuit that provides a nearly constant output voltage from
a variable supply voltage.

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Voltage Regulator (3)

Figure3.26SeeExample3.4

.
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Designing a power supply

Fig. 3.36 Block diagram of a dc power supply.

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