Electronics I Lab EE277

Objectives:
1. To understand small signal diode circuits.
2. To understand large signal diode circuits.

Equipments Required:
1. DC-voltage source.
2. Digital Multimeter (DMM).
3. Coupling wires.
4. Probes.
5. Object board.
6. Resistors (270 Ω, 11 kΩ).
7. Variable resistor (Potentiometer).
8. Ordinary diode.
9. Function generator.
10. Oscilloscope.

Background:
(1) Small Signal Diode Circuit:
Small signal is that signal which applied on the diode terminal in the forward region, but it
is not enough to cause a change in the diode current (See Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1
So we connect a dc-source in series with the ac-source as in the circuit of Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-2
The dc load line of the diode can be found by shorting the ac-source and then applying
KVL.(See Figure 2-3).

Figure 2-3

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Electronics I Lab EE277
− Vdc + V D + I D R = 0 ⇒ I D R = Vdc − V D
Vdc − VD
∴ ID =
When ID = 0A R B V D = Vdc
V
and when VD = 0V B I D = dc
R
The Q-point is the point of intersection of the dc-load line with the characteristics curve of
the diode (See Figure 2-4).

Figure 2-4
But the voltage across the diode has two
components:
1. DC- component.
2. AC-component.
So the total diode voltage is given by:

Vd ( t ) = dc component + ac component
rd
Vd ( t ) = 0.7 + A sin( ωt )
rd + R
Where:
A: The peak-value of the ac-source.
rd: the ac resistance of the diode.
Then:
i d ( t ) = dc component + ac component
Vdc − 0.7 A
∴ id ( t ) = + sin( ωt )
R rd + R
So the ac load line swing between two value as in Figure 2-5.

(2) Large Signal Diode Circuit:

Large signal is that signal which has a peak value greater than threshold voltage of the
diode, in other words its peak value can operate the diode in the forward biased region
(See Figure 2-6) where A ≥ 0.7V .

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Electronics I Lab EE277

Figure 2-5

Figure 2-6
This circuit is called half wave rectifier because only one half of the ac signal can pass
through the diode (positive half wave) while the other half (negative half wave) is ejected.
Drawing the relation between input and output signal, see Figure 2-7.

Figure 2-7
Experimental Procedure:
(1) Small Signal Diode Circuit:
• We connected the circuit shown in Figure 2-8
• Measuring the value of the resistor 270Ω it is found that:
Measured Theoretical
Value Value
271.7Ω 270Ω

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Electronics I Lab EE277

Figure 2-8
• To find the Q-point, we shorted the ac-source and measured the dc-voltage across the
diode to find (VdQ) and measured the voltage across the resistor to calculate (IdQ).
We found that:
Vd VR Id
0.655V 2.398V 8.8mA
• To measure the ac-component and dc-component we used the oscilloscope and found
that:
dc-comp ac-comp
2.2 V 0.39 V
Sketching the input and output voltage we get the curves of Figure 2-9.

Figure 2-9
(2) Large Signal Diode Circuits:
• After connecting the circuit shown in Figure 2-10, we used dual trace oscilloscope to
measure the input and the output, and sketch them as in Figure 2-11.

Figure 2-10

Figure 2-11

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Electronics I Lab EE277
• Then we reversed the diode terminals (as in Figure 2-12) and used dual trace
oscilloscope to measure the input and the output and sketch them as in Figure 2-13.

Figure 2-12

Figure 2-13
• We connected the circuit shown in Figure 2-14 to study the effect of changing the
equivalent resistance on the output voltage.

Figure 2-14
We found that as the equivalent resistance increases the output voltage

Conclusions:
1. In small signal diode circuit, to make the diode operating, we need to connect a dc voltage
source.
2. In this circuit we can use the diode as half-wave-rectifier.
3. In large signal diode circuit, we don't need any voltage source.
Errors:
There are some errors in our experiment which related to:
1. Personal errors.
2. Mutual coupling between the wires.
3. The resolution of the measuring devices used.
4. Thermal drift of resistors and diodes.
5. Measuring errors.

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