UNIT IV SPECIAL SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES: Tunnel diode and characteristics- PIN diode- Varactor diode- Schottky diode- Gunn

diodeLaser diode- photo conductive sensors- photo voltaic sensors- Light Emitting Diode (LED)- Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)- Charge coupled device (CCD)- Silicon Control Rectifier (SCR)- two transistor equivalent, DIAC, TRIAC, Applications of SCR, DIAC, TRIAC, Unijunction Transistor (UJT).

PIN diode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Layers of a PIN diode A PIN diode is a diode with a wide, lightly doped 'near' intrinsic semiconductor region between a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor region. The p-type and n-type regions are typically heavily doped because they are used for ohmic contacts. The wide intrinsic region is in contrast to an ordinary PN diode. The wide intrinsic region makes the PIN diode an inferior rectifier (one typical function of a diode), but it makes the PIN diode suitable for attenuators, fast switches, photodetectors, and high voltage power electronics applications.

Contents
[hide]

1 Operation 2 Characteristics 3 Applications o 3.1 RF and Microwave Switches o 3.2 RF and Microwave Variable Attenuators

3.3 Limiters 3.4 Photodetector and photovoltaic cell 4 Example Diodes 5 See also 6 References
o o

7 External links

[edit] Operation
A PIN diode operates under what is known as high-level injection. In other words, the intrinsic "i" region is flooded with charge carriers from the "p" and "n" regions. Its function can be likened to filling up a water bucket with a hole on the side. Once the water reaches the hole's level it will begin to pour out. Similarly, the diode will conduct current once the flooded electrons and holes reach an equilibrium point, where the number of electrons is equal to the number of holes in the intrinsic region. When the diode is forward biased, the injected carrier concentration is typically several orders of magnitude higher than the intrinsic level carrier concentration. Due to this high level injection, which in turn is due to the depletion process, the electric field extends deeply (almost the entire length) into the region. This electric field helps in speeding up of the transport of charge carriers from P to N region, which results in faster operation of the diode, making it a suitable device for high frequency operations.

[edit] Characteristics
A PIN diode obeys the standard diode equation for low frequency signals. At higher frequencies, the diode looks like an almost perfect (very linear, even for large signals) resistor. There is a lot of stored charge in the intrinsic region. At low frequencies, the charge can be removed and the diode turns off. At higher frequencies, there is not enough time to remove the charge, so the diode never turns off. The PIN diode has a poor reverse recovery time. The high-frequency resistance is inversely proportional to the DC bias current through the diode. A PIN diode, suitably biased, therefore acts as a variable resistor. This high-frequency resistance may vary over a wide range (from 0.1 ohm to 10 k in some cases[1]; the useful range is smaller, though). The wide intrinsic region also means the diode will have a low capacitance when reverse biased. In a PIN diode, the depletion region exists almost completely within the intrinsic region. This depletion region is much larger than in a PN diode, and almost constant-size, independent of the reverse bias applied to the diode. This increases the volume where electron-hole pairs can be generated by an incident photon. Some photodetector devices, such as PIN photodiodes and phototransistors (in which the base-collector junction is a PIN diode), use a PIN junction in their construction.

The diode design has some design tradeoffs. Increasing the dimensions of the intrinsic region (and its stored charge) allows the diode to look like a resistor at lower frequencies. It adversely affects the time needed to turn off the diode and its shunt capacitance. PIN diodes will be tailored for a particular use.

[edit] Applications
PIN diodes are useful as RF switches, attenuators, and photodetectors.

[edit] RF and Microwave Switches

A PIN Diode RF Microwave Switch. Picture courtesy of Herley Under zero or reverse bias, a PIN diode has a low capacitance. The low capacitance will not pass much of an RF signal. Under a forward bias of 1 mA, a typical PIN diode will have an RF resistance of about 1 ohm, making it a good RF conductor. Consequently, the PIN diode makes a good RF switch. Although RF relays can be used as switches, they switch very slowly (on the order of 10 milliseconds). A PIN diode switch can switch much more quickly (e.g., 1 microsecond). The capacitance of an off discrete PIN diode might be 1 pF. At 320 MHz, the reactance of 1 pF is about 500 ohms. In a 50 ohm system, the off state attenuation would be about 20 dB -- which may not be enough attenuation. In applications that need higher isolation, switches are cascaded to improve the isolation. Cascading three of the above switches would give 60 dB of attenuation. PIN diode switches are used not only for signal selection, but they are also used for component selection. For example, some low phase noise oscillators use PIN diodes to range switch inductors.[2]

[edit] RF and Microwave Variable Attenuators

A RF Microwave PIN diode Attenuator. Picture courtesy of Herley By changing the bias current through a PIN diode, it's possible to quickly change the RF resistance. At high frequencies, the PIN diode appears as a resistor whose resistance is an inverse function of its forward current. Consequently, PIN diode can be used in some variable attenuator designs as amplitude modulators or output leveling circuits. PIN diodes might be used, for example, as the bridge and shunt resistors in a bridged-T attenuator.

[edit] Limiters
PIN diodes are sometimes used as input protection devices for high frequency test probes. If the input signal is within range, the PIN diode has little impact as a small capacitance. If the signal is large, then the PIN diode starts to conduct and becomes a resistor that shunts most of the signal to ground.

[edit] Photodetector and photovoltaic cell

The PIN photodiode was invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa and his colleagues in 1950. PIN photodiodes are used in fibre optic network cards and switches. As a photodetector, the PIN diode is reverse biased. Under reverse bias, the diode ordinarily does not conduct (save a small dark current or Is leakage). A photon entering the intrinsic region frees a carrier. The reverse bias field sweeps the carrier out of the region and creates a current. Some detectors can use avalanche multiplication. The PIN photovoltaic cell works in the same mechanism. In this case, the advantage of using a PIN structure over conventional semiconductor junction is the better long wavelength response of the former. In case of long wavelength irradiation, photons penetrate deep into the cell. But only those electron-hole pairs generated in and near the depletion region contribute to current generation. The depletion region of a PIN structure extends across the intrinsic region, deep into

the device. This wider depletion width enables electron-hole pair generation deep within the device. This increases the quantum efficiency of the cell. Typically, amorphous silicon thin-film cells use PIN structures. On the other hand, CdTe cells use NIP structure, a variation of the PIN structure. In a NIP structure, an intrinsic CdTe layer is sandwiched by n-doped CdS and p-doped ZnTe. The photons are incident on the n-doped layer unlike a PIN diode. A PIN photodiode can also detect X-ray and gamma ray photons.

[edit] Example Diodes

SFH203 or BPW43 are cheap general purpose PIN diodes in 5 mm clear plastic case with bandwidth over 100 MHz. They are used in RONJA telecommunication systems and other circuitry applications.

Definition

Edit

The meaning of varactor diode is variable capacitance diode.varactor=variable reactor,referring to the voltage varying ppty of capacitance . BY :-- vinay

Principle

Edit

We know that holes are majority charge carriers in P-type semiconductor material and electrons are majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductor material. There is a neutral region (Junction) between these two which do not have any majority carriers. There are two plates in the capacitor between which there is a dielectric material. There in no current carrier in this dielectric material. In. this way, it is cleared that capacitor and diodes both are almost similar in construction, means diode can be used similarly as a capacitor. BY:--Ihsan

Working producer

Edit

You very well know that if distance between the two plates of capacitor is increased than its capacity reduces. Opposite to it if distance between the two plates is reduced than dielectric between them will also reduce and due to which its capacity increases. The same thing can also be seen in the varactor diode. When varactor diode is reverse biased than the neutral region between P and N layers increases and when the reverse biasing is decreases than this neutral region is also decreased. From this, it is concluded that diode also has the capacity like a

capacitor the difference is only that capacity in the capacitor varies due to dielectric between the two plates and in the diode capacity varies with the neutral region (junction barrier) thus dielectric region of the capacitor can be considered as neutral region of the diode and in this way diode can be considered as capacitor whose capacity change with the reverse voltage. All the diodes changes their capacity with the reverse voltage but some diodes are manufactured specially which changes their capacity with the reverse voltage of a definite capacity range. These varactor diodes are available from 20 PF To 500 PF value. These are mostly used for signal modulation and demodulation. simple and awsome explntion....

What is modulation and demodulation?

Edit

Ans. The method used for transmitting weak signal to a longer distance is known as modulation. In this weak signal wave is overlapped on the high frequency wave and than it is transmitted as a result the strength of signal does not reduces even at the longer distance. Demodulation is just opposite of modulation. In this process, high frequency wave is removed from the modulation signal and main signal wave is received in its original state.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia View on Wikipedia

Varicap
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Varactor diode) Jump to: navigation, search

Varicap schematic symbol

In electronics, a varicap diode, varactor diode, variable capacitance diode, variable reactance diode or tuning diode is a type of diode which has a variable capacitance that is a function of the voltage impressed on its terminals.

Contents

1 2 3 4

Applications Operation See also Further reading

5 External links

[edit] Applications
Varactors are used as voltage-controlled capacitors, rather than as rectifiers. They are commonly used in parametric amplifiers, parametric oscillators and voltage-controlled oscillators as part of phase-locked loops and frequency synthesizers. For example, varactors are used in the tuners of television sets to electronically tune the receiver to different stations.

[edit] Operation

Internal structure of a varicap

Operation of a varicap

Varactors are operated reverse-biased so no current flows, but since the thickness of the depletion zone varies with the applied bias voltage, the capacitance of the diode can be made to vary. Generally, the depletion region thickness is proportional to the square root of the applied voltage; and capacitance is inversely proportional to the depletion region thickness. Thus, the capacitance is inversely proportional to the square root of applied voltage. All diodes exhibit this phenomenon to some degree, but specially made varactor diodes exploit the effect to boost the capacitance and variability range achieved - most diode fabrication attempts to achieve the opposite.

In the figure we can see an example of a crossection of a varactor with the depletion layer formed of a p-n-junction. But the depletion layer can also be made of a MOS-diode or a Schottky diode. This is very important in CMOS and MMIC technology.

[edit] See also

Heterostructure barrier varactor diode Ferroelectric capacitor

[edit] Further reading

Mortenson, Kenneth E. (1974). Variable capacitance diodes: the operation and characterization of varactor, charge storage and PIN diodes for RF and microwave applications. Dedham, Mass.: Artech House. Penfield, Paul and Rafuse, Robert P. (1962). Varactor applications. Cambridge, M.I.T. Press.

[edit] External links

Media related to Varicaps at Wikimedia Commons Learning by Simulations Calculation of the characteristics of a varactor diode for various doping profiles [1] Trimless IF VCO: Part 1: Design Considerations from Maxim. Basics of varactor diode with design tips v d eElectronic components

Avalanche diode Barretter Darlington transistor DIAC Diode Field-effect transistor (FET) Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) Semiconduct JFET Light-emitting diode (LED) Memristor MOSFET ors Photodetector PIN diode Silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) Thyristor Transistor TRIAC Unijunction transistor (UJT) Zener diode

Vacuum tubes

Cold cathode Compactron Nuvistor Pentode Pentagrid converter Tetrode Triode

Vacuum tubes (RF)

Backward wave oscillator (BWO) Cavity magnetron Crossed-field amplifier Gyrotron Inductive output tube (IOT) Klystron Maser

Traveling-wave tube

Adjustable

Potentiometer Thermostat Variable capacitor Varicap Varistor Humidistat

Passive

Connector (Electrical power, Baseband, RF) Ferrite Fuse Resettable fuse Resistor (Thermistor) Transformer

Reactive

Capacitor Ceramic resonator Crystal oscillator Inductor

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicap" Categories: Diodes | Capacitors

Source
Description above from the Wikipedia article Varactor diode, licensed under CC-BYSA full list of contributors here. Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.

Schottky diode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "Schottky effect" redirects here. For the enhancement of thermionic emission with applied voltage, see Thermionic emission.

Schottky diode schematic symbol

Various Schottky barrier diodes: Small signal rf devices (left), medium and high power Schottky rectifying diodes (middle and right). The Schottky diode (named after German physicist Walter H. Schottky; also known as hot carrier diode) is a semiconductor diode with a low forward voltage drop and a very fast switching action. The cat's-whisker detectors used in the early days of wireless can be considered primitive Schottky diodes. When current flows through a diode there is a small voltage drop across the diode terminals. A normal silicon diode has a voltage drop between 0.61.7 volts, while a Schottky diode voltage drop is between approximately 0.150.45 volts. This lower voltage drop can provide higher switching speed and better system efficiency.

Contents
[hide]

1 Construction 2 Reverse recovery time 3 Limitations 4 Silicon carbide Schottky diode 5 Applications o 5.1 Voltage clamping o 5.2 Reverse current / discharge protection o 5.3 Power supply 6 Designation 7 Alternatives 8 See also 9 External references

[edit] Construction
A metal-semiconductor junction is formed between a metal and a semiconductor, creating a Schottky barrier (instead of a semiconductorsemiconductor junction as in conventional diodes). Typical metals used are molybdenum, platinum, chromium or tungsten; and the semiconductor would typically be N-type silicon.[1] The metal side acts as the anode and N-type semiconductor

acts as the cathode of the diode. This Schottky barrier results in both very fast switching and low forward voltage drop.

[edit] Reverse recovery time

The most important difference between p-n and Schottky diode is reverse recovery time, when the diode switches from non-conducting to conducting state and vice versa. Where in a p-n diode the reverse recovery time can be in the order of hundreds of nanoseconds and less than 100 ns for fast diodes, Schottky diodes do not have a recovery time, as there is nothing to recover from (i.e. no charge carrier depletion region at the junction). The switching time is ~100 ps for the small signal diodes, and up to tens of nanoseconds for special high-capacity power diodes. With p-n junction switching, there is also a reverse recovery current, which in high-power semiconductors brings increased EMI noise. With Schottky diodes switching essentially instantly with only slight capacitive loading, this is much less of a concern. It is often said that the Schottky diode is a "majority carrier" semiconductor device. This means that if the semiconductor body is doped n-type, only the n-type carriers (mobile electrons) play a significant role in normal operation of the device. The majority carriers are quickly injected into the conduction band of the metal contact on the other side of the diode to become free moving electrons. Therefore no slow, random recombination of n- and p- type carriers is involved, so that this diode can cease conduction faster than an ordinary p-n rectifier diode. This property in turn allows a smaller device area, which also makes for a faster transition. This is another reason why Schottky diodes are useful in switch-mode power converters; the high speed of the diode means that the circuit can operate at frequencies in the range 200 kHz to 2 MHz, allowing the use of small inductors and capacitors with greater efficiency than would be possible with other diode types. Small-area Schottky diodes are the heart of RF detectors and mixers, which often operate up to 50 GHz.

[edit] Limitations
The most evident limitations of Schottky diodes are the relatively low reverse voltage rating for silicon-metal Schottky diodes, 50 V and below, and a relatively high reverse leakage current. Diode designs have been improving over time. Voltage ratings now can reach 200 V. Reverse leakage current, because it increases with temperature, leads to a thermal instability issue. This often limits the useful reverse voltage to well below the actual rating.

[edit] Silicon carbide Schottky diode

Since 2001 another important invention was presented by CREE (NC, USA): a silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky diode. SiC Schottky diodes have about 40 times lower reverse leakage current compared to silicon Schottky diodes. As of 2011, they are available from several manufacturers in variants up to 1700 V. Silicon carbide has a high thermal conductivity and temperature has little influence on its switching and thermal characteristics. With special packaging it is possible to have operating

junction temperatures of over 500 K, which allows passive radiation cooling in aerospace applications.

[edit] Applications
[edit] Voltage clamping
While standard silicon diodes have a forward voltage drop of about 0.6 volts and germanium diodes 0.3 volts, Schottky diodes' voltage drop at forward biases of around 1 mA is in the range 0.15 V to 0.46 V (see the 1N5817[2] and 1N5711 datasheets found online at manufacturer's websites), which makes them useful in voltage clamping applications and prevention of transistor saturation. This is due to the higher current density in the Schottky diode.

[edit] Reverse current / discharge protection

Schottky diodes are used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to prevent a reverse current flowing through the PV modules. For instance, they are used in stand-alone ("off-grid") systems to prevent batteries from discharging through the solar cells at night, and in grid-connected systems with multiple strings connected in parallel, in order to prevent reverse current flowing from adjacent strings through shaded strings if the bypass diodes have failed.

[edit] Power supply

They are also used as rectifiers in switched-mode power supplies; the low forward voltage and fast recovery time leads to increased efficiency. Schottky diodes can be used in power supply "OR"ing circuits in products that have both an internal battery and a mains adapter input, or similar. However, the high reverse leakage current presents a problem in this case, as any high-impedance voltage sensing circuit (e.g. monitoring the battery voltage or detecting whether a mains adaptor is present) will see the voltage from the other power source through the diode leakage.

[edit] Designation
Commonly encountered Schottky diodes include the 1N5817 series (1 Ampere) rectifiers. Schottky metal-semiconductor junctions are featured in the successors to the 7400 TTL family of logic devices, the 74S, 74LS and 74ALS series, where they are employed as clamps in parallel with the collector-base junctions of the bipolar transistors to prevent their saturation, thereby greatly reducing their turn-off delays. Small signal Schottky diodes like the 1N5711, 1N6263, 1SS106, 1SS108 or the BAT4143, 45 49 series are widely used in high frequency applications as detectors, mixers and nonlinear elements, and have replaced germanium diodes, rendering them obsolete. They are also suitable for ESD protection of ESD sensitive devices like III-V-semiconductor devices, laser diodes and, to a lesser extent, exposed lines of CMOS circuitry.

[edit] Alternatives
When less power dissipation is desired a MOSFET and a control circuit can be used instead, in an operation mode known as active rectification. A super diode consisting of a pn-diode or Schottky diode and an operational amplifier provides an almost perfect diode characteristic due to the effect of negative feedback, although its use is restricted to frequencies the operational amplifier used can handle.

Semiconductor device
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For information on semiconductor physics, see semiconductor. Semiconductor devices are electronic components that exploit the electronic properties of semiconductor materials, principally silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as organic semiconductors. Semiconductor devices have replaced thermionic devices (vacuum tubes) in most applications. They use electronic conduction in the solid state as opposed to the gaseous state or thermionic emission in a high vacuum. Semiconductor devices are manufactured both as single discrete devices and as integrated circuits (ICs), which consist of a numberfrom a few (as low as two) to billionsof devices manufactured and interconnected on a single semiconductor substrate. The main reason semiconductor materials are so useful is that the behavior of a semiconductor can be easily manipulated by the addition of impurities, known as doping. Semiconductor conductivity can be controlled by introduction of an electric or magnetic field, by exposure to light or heat, or by mechanical deformation of a doped monocrystalline grid; thus, semiconductors can make excellent sensors. Current conduction in a semiconductor occurs via mobile or "free" electrons and holes, collectively known as charge carriers. Doping a semiconductor such as silicon with a small amount of impurity atoms, such as phosphorus or boron, greatly increases the number of free electrons or holes within the semiconductor. When a doped semiconductor contains excess holes it is called "p-type", and when it contains excess free electrons it is known as "n-type", where p (positive for holes) or n (negative for electrons) is the sign of the charge of the majority mobile charge carriers. The semiconductor material used in devices is doped under highly controlled conditions in a fabrication facility, or fab, to precisely control the location and concentration of p- and n-type dopants. The junctions which form where n-type and p-type semiconductors join together are called p-n junctions.

Contents
[hide]

1 Diode 2 Transistor 3 Semiconductor device materials 4 List of common semiconductor devices 5 Semiconductor device applications o 5.1 Component identifiers 6 History of semiconductor device development o 6.1 Cat's-whisker detector o 6.2 Metal rectifier o 6.3 World War II o 6.4 Development of the diode o 6.5 Development of the transistor o 6.6 The first transistor o 6.7 Origin of the term "transistor" o 6.8 Improvements in transistor design 7 See also 8 References

[edit] Diode
The diode is a device made from a single p-n junction. At the junction of a p-type and an n-type semiconductor there forms a region called the depletion zone which blocks current conduction from the n-type region to the p-type region, but allows current to conduct from the p-type region to the n-type region. Thus when the device is forward biased, with the p-side at higher electric potential, the diode conducts current easily; but the current is very small when the diode is reverse biased. Exposing a semiconductor to light can generate electronhole pairs, which increases the number of free carriers and its conductivity. Diodes optimized to take advantage of this phenomenon are known as photodiodes. Compound semiconductor diodes can also be used to generate light, as in light-emitting diodes and laser diodes.

[edit] Transistor

An NPN bipolar junction transistor structure Bipolar junction transistors are formed from two p-n junctions, in either n-p-n or p-n-p configuration. The middle, or base, region between the junctions is typically very narrow. The other regions, and their associated terminals, are known as the emitter and the collector. A small current injected through the junction between the base and the emitter changes the properties of the base-collector junction so that it can conduct current even though it is reverse biased. This creates a much larger current between the collector and emitter, controlled by the base-emitter current. Another type of transistor, the field effect transistor operates on the principle that semiconductor conductivity can be increased or decreased by the presence of an electric field. An electric field can increase the number of free electrons and holes in a semiconductor, thereby changing its conductivity. The field may be applied by a reverse-biased p-n junction, forming a junction field effect transistor, or JFET; or by an electrode isolated from the bulk material by an oxide layer, forming a metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor, or MOSFET. The MOSFET is the most used semiconductor device today. The gate electrode is charged to produce an electric field that controls the conductivity of a "channel" between two terminals, called the source and drain. Depending on the type of carrier in the channel, the device may be an n-channel (for electrons) or a p-channel (for holes) MOSFET. Although the MOSFET is named in part for its "metal" gate, in modern devices polysilicon is typically used instead. MOSFET is an IC which is semiconductor device.

[edit] Semiconductor device materials

Main article: Semiconductor materials

By far, silicon (Si) is the most widely used material in semiconductor devices. Its combination of low raw material cost, relatively simple processing, and a useful temperature range make it currently the best compromise among the various competing materials. Silicon used in semiconductor device manufacturing is currently fabricated into boules that are large enough in diameter to allow the production of 300 mm (12 in.) wafers. Germanium (Ge) was a widely used early semiconductor material but its thermal sensitivity makes it less useful than silicon. Today, germanium is often alloyed with silicon for use in veryhigh-speed SiGe devices; IBM is a major producer of such devices. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is also widely used in high-speed devices but so far, it has been difficult to form large-diameter boules of this material, limiting the wafer diameter to sizes significantly smaller than silicon wafers thus making mass production of GaAs devices significantly more expensive than silicon. Other less common materials are also in use or under investigation. Silicon carbide (SiC) has found some application as the raw material for blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and is being investigated for use in semiconductor devices that could withstand very high operating temperatures and environments with the presence of significant levels of ionizing radiation. IMPATT diodes have also been fabricated from SiC. Various indium compounds (indium arsenide, indium antimonide, and indium phosphide) are also being used in LEDs and solid state laser diodes. Selenium sulfide is being studied in the manufacture of photovoltaic solar cells. The most common use for organic semiconductors is Organic light-emitting diodes.

[edit] List of common semiconductor devices

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. Two-terminal devices:

DIAC Diode (rectifier diode) Gunn diode IMPATT diode Laser diode Light-emitting diode (LED) Photocell PIN diode Schottky diode Solar cell Tunnel diode VCSEL

VECSEL Zener diode

Three-terminal devices:

Bipolar transistor Darlington transistor Field-effect transistor, including MOSFET IGBT transistor Silicon controlled rectifier Thyristor TRIAC Unijunction transistor

Four-terminal devices:

Hall effect sensor (magnetic field sensor)

Multi-terminal devices:

Integrated circuit (ICs) Charge-coupled device (CCD) Microprocessor Random-access memory (RAM) Read-only memory (ROM)

[edit] Semiconductor device applications

All transistor types can be used as the building blocks of logic gates, which are fundamental in the design of digital circuits. In digital circuits like microprocessors, transistors act as on-off switches; in the MOSFET, for instance, the voltage applied to the gate determines whether the switch is on or off. Transistors used for analog circuits do not act as on-off switches; rather, they respond to a continuous range of inputs with a continuous range of outputs. Common analog circuits include amplifiers and oscillators. Circuits that interface or translate between digital circuits and analog circuits are known as mixed-signal circuits. Power semiconductor devices are discrete devices or integrated circuits intended for high current or high voltage applications. Power integrated circuits combine IC technology with power semiconductor technology, these are sometimes referred to as "smart" power devices. Several companies specialize in manufacturing power semiconductors.

[edit] Component identifiers

The type designators of semiconductor devices are often manufacturer specific. Nevertheless, there have been attempts at creating standards for type codes, and a subset of devices follow those. For discrete devices, for example, there are three standards: JEDEC JESD370B in USA, Pro Electron in Europe and JIS in Japan.

[edit] History of semiconductor device development

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2007)

[edit] Cat's-whisker detector

Main article: Cat's-whisker detector Semiconductors had been used in the electronics field for some time before the invention of the transistor. Around the turn of the 20th century they were quite common as detectors in radios, used in a device called a "cat's whisker". These detectors were somewhat troublesome, however, requiring the operator to move a small tungsten filament (the whisker) around the surface of a galena (lead sulfide) or carborundum (silicon carbide) crystal until it suddenly started working. Then, over a period of a few hours or days, the cat's whisker would slowly stop working and the process would have to be repeated. At the time their operation was completely mysterious. After the introduction of the more reliable and amplified vacuum tube based radios, the cat's whisker systems quickly disappeared. The "cat's whisker" is a primitive example of a special type of diode still popular today, called a Schottky diode.

[edit] Metal rectifier

Main article: Metal rectifier Another early type of semiconductor device is the metal rectifier in which the semiconductor is copper oxide or selenium. Westinghouse Electric (1886) was a major manufacturer of these rectifiers.

[edit] World War II

During World War II, radar research quickly pushed radar receivers to operate at ever higher frequencies and the traditional tube based radio receivers no longer worked well. The introduction of the cavity magnetron from Britain to the United States in 1940 during the Tizard Mission resulted in a pressing need for a practical high-frequency amplifier.[citation needed] On a whim, Russell Ohl of Bell Laboratories decided to try a cat's whisker. By this point they had not been in use for a number of years, and no one at the labs had one. After hunting one

down at a used radio store in Manhattan, he found that it worked much better than tube-based systems. Ohl investigated why the cat's whisker functioned so well. He spent most of 1939 trying to grow more pure versions of the crystals. He soon found that with higher quality crystals their finicky behaviour went away, but so did their ability to operate as a radio detector. One day he found one of his purest crystals nevertheless worked well, and interestingly, it had a clearly visible crack near the middle. However as he moved about the room trying to test it, the detector would mysteriously work, and then stop again. After some study he found that the behaviour was controlled by the light in the roommore light caused more conductance in the crystal. He invited several other people to see this crystal, and Walter Brattain immediately realized there was some sort of junction at the crack. Further research cleared up the remaining mystery. The crystal had cracked because either side contained very slightly different amounts of the impurities Ohl could not removeabout 0.2%. One side of the crystal had impurities that added extra electrons (the carriers of electrical current) and made it a "conductor". The other had impurities that wanted to bind to these electrons, making it (what he called) an "insulator". Because the two parts of the crystal were in contact with each other, the electrons could be pushed out of the conductive side which had extra electrons (soon to be known as the emitter) and replaced by new ones being provided (from a battery, for instance) where they would flow into the insulating portion and be collected by the whisker filament (named the collector). However, when the voltage was reversed the electrons being pushed into the collector would quickly fill up the "holes" (the electron-needy impurities), and conduction would stop almost instantly. This junction of the two crystals (or parts of one crystal) created a solid-state diode, and the concept soon became known as semiconduction. The mechanism of action when the diode is off has to do with the separation of charge carriers around the junction. This is called a "depletion region".

[edit] Development of the diode

Armed with the knowledge of how these new diodes worked, a vigorous effort began to learn how to build them on demand. Teams at Purdue University, Bell Labs, MIT, and the University of Chicago all joined forces to build better crystals. Within a year germanium production had been perfected to the point where military-grade diodes were being used in most radar sets.

[edit] Development of the transistor

After the war, William Shockley decided to attempt the building of a triode-like semiconductor device. He secured funding and lab space, and went to work on the problem with Brattain and John Bardeen. The key to the development of the transistor was the further understanding of the process of the electron mobility in a semiconductor. It was realized that if there was some way to control the flow of the electrons from the emitter to the collector of this newly discovered diode, an amplifier could be built. For instance, if contacts are placed on both sides of a single type of

crystal, current will not flow between them through the crystal. However if a third contact could then "inject" electrons or holes into the material, current would flow. Actually doing this appeared to be very difficult. If the crystal were of any reasonable size, the number of electrons (or holes) required to be injected would have to be very large, making it less than useful as an amplifier because it would require a large injection current to start with. That said, the whole idea of the crystal diode was that the crystal itself could provide the electrons over a very small distance, the depletion region. The key appeared to be to place the input and output contacts very close together on the surface of the crystal on either side of this region. Brattain started working on building such a device, and tantalizing hints of amplification continued to appear as the team worked on the problem. Sometimes the system would work but then stop working unexpectedly. In one instance a non-working system started working when placed in water. Ohl and Brattain eventually developed a new branch of quantum mechanics, which became known as surface physics, to account for the behaviour. The electrons in any one piece of the crystal would migrate about due to nearby charges. Electrons in the emitters, or the "holes" in the collectors, would cluster at the surface of the crystal where they could find their opposite charge "floating around" in the air (or water). Yet they could be pushed away from the surface with the application of a small amount of charge from any other location on the crystal. Instead of needing a large supply of injected electrons, a very small number in the right place on the crystal would accomplish the same thing. Their understanding solved the problem of needing a very small control area to some degree. Instead of needing two separate semiconductors connected by a common, but tiny, region, a single larger surface would serve. The electron-emitting and collecting leads would both be placed very close together on the top, with the control lead placed on the base of the crystal. When current flowed through this "base" lead, the electrons or holes would be pushed out, across the block of semiconductor, and collect on the far surface. As long as the emitter and collector were very close together, this should allow enough electrons or holes between them to allow conduction to start.

[edit] The first transistor

A stylized replica of the first transistor

The Bell team made many attempts to build such a system with various tools, but generally failed. Setups where the contacts were close enough were invariably as fragile as the original cat's whisker detectors had been, and would work briefly, if at all. Eventually they had a practical breakthrough. A piece of gold foil was glued to the edge of a plastic wedge, and then the foil was sliced with a razor at the tip of the triangle. The result was two very closely spaced contacts of gold. When the wedge was pushed down onto the surface of a crystal and voltage applied to the other side (on the base of the crystal), current started to flow from one contact to the other as the base voltage pushed the electrons away from the base towards the other side near the contacts. The point-contact transistor had been invented. While the device was constructed a week earlier, Brattain's notes describe the first demonstration to higher-ups at Bell Labs on the afternoon of 23 December 1947, often given as the birthdate of the transistor. what is now known as the "PNP point-contact germanium transistor" operated as a speech amplifier with a power gain of 18 in that trial. John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain, and William Bradford Shockley were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for their work.

[edit] Origin of the term "transistor"

Bell Telephone Laboratories needed a generic name for their new invention: "Semiconductor Triode", "Solid Triode", "Surface States Triode" [sic], "Crystal Triode" and "Iotatron" were all considered, but "transistor", coined by John R. Pierce, won an internal ballot. The rationale for the name is described in the following extract from the company's Technical Memoranda (May 28, 1948) [26] calling for votes: Transistor. This is an abbreviated combination of the words "transconductance" or "transfer", and "varistor". The device logically belongs in the varistor family, and has the transconductance or transfer impedance of a device having gain, so that this combination is descriptive.

[edit] Improvements in transistor design

Shockley was upset about the device being credited to Brattain and Bardeen, who he felt had built it "behind his back" to take the glory. Matters became worse when Bell Labs lawyers found that some of Shockley's own writings on the transistor were close enough to those of an earlier 1925 patent by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld that they thought it best that his name be left off the patent application. Shockley was incensed, and decided to demonstrate who was the real brains of the operation[citation needed]. A few months later he invented an entirely new, considerably more robust, type of transistor with a layer or 'sandwich' structure. This structure went on to be used for the vast majority of all transistors into the 1960s, and evolved into the bipolar junction transistor. With the fragility problems solved, a remaining problem was purity. Making germanium of the required purity was proving to be a serious problem, and limited the yield of transistors that actually worked from a given batch of material. Germanium's sensitivity to temperature also limited its usefulness. Scientists theorized that silicon would be easier to fabricate, but few investigated this possibility. Gordon K. Teal was the first to develop a working silicon transistor,

and his company, the nascent Texas Instruments, profited from its technological edge. From the late 1960s most transistors were silicon-based. Within a few years transistor-based products, most notably easily portable radios, were appearing on the market. A major improvement in manufacturing yield came when a chemist advised the companies fabricating semiconductors to use distilled rather than tap water: calcium ions present in tap water were the cause of the poor yields. "Zone melting", a technique using a band of molten material moving through the crystal, further increased crystal purity. The Silicon Controlled Rectifier The basic four-layer diode has a number of useful properties and capabilities, but would become even more useful if it could be more accurately controlled. To do this, however, we must gain access to more than just the outer ends of the device.

The four-layer construction shown to the right is known as a Silicon Controlled Rectifier, or SCR. To form it, we have added a connection to the p-type region next to the cathode. This connection is known as the gate. If we ground both the cathode and the gate, and apply a positive voltage to the anode, no current will flow through this device. This is in keeping with the basic four-layer diode. In this case, however, we will not allow the applied anode voltage to exceed the SCR breakover voltage. Thus, if nothing happens, the SCR will remain turned off indefinitely. However, if we now apply a small positive voltage to the gate lead sufficiently to forward bias the cathode junction, the device will immediately turn fully on. Again, this is in keeping with the behavior of the basic four-layer diode. The difference is that we can accurately control the timing and the applied gate voltage, if necessary. Thus, we can determine the conditions under which the SCR will fire more accurately than we can for the basic four-layer diode.

A modern application for the SCR is the "cyclops" brake light on all cars now sold in the USA. This circuit, as shown in the schematic diagram to the right, uses two SCRs cross-connected with each other (each gate connected to the other SCR's anode) and triggered from the regular brake lights on either side of the rear of the vehicle. The lights are connected to the two cathodes, which are connected together so that either SCR can keep both lights on once they are triggered. If only one SCR is triggered (as when you use a turn signal), the triggered SCR gets no anode voltage from the opposite brake light, so the "cyclops" light remains off. Only if both brake lights are on together will the "cyclops" turn on. Once it does, it remains on regardless of turn signals as long as the brake is applied. When you release the brake, power is removed from the "cyclops" as well as from the brake lights and they all turn off. The two resistors have a relatively high resistance, and are not critical in any case. They ensure that the gates of the two SCRs are held off while the brake lights are unpowered. The resulting circuit is simple and inexpensive, yet quite robust and easily able to handle the bumps and jolts of an automotive environment.

Another practical application is in a telephone "hold" circuit. Triggering the SCR causes the circuit to contiuously draw current through the telephone wires, thus causing the switching station to assume a phone is still in use. You must hang up the phone while still pressing the

button in order to ensure that the SCR remains triggered. Picking up the same or another receiver in the house reduces the current through the SCR enough that it turns off. You can use multiple copies of this circuit. However, only the LED on the active "hold" circuit will light up. Also, pressing the button while no phone is in use will engage that "hold" circuit at once, so it should be used with care. And of course you should check with your local phone company before connecting anything to the phone line. This is to protect your circuitry as much as to protect the phone company from improper and possibly damaging connections. The Diac and Triac One of the drawbacks of all of the four-layer diodes is that they all require a dc voltage of the correct polarity in order to operate. It would be nice if we could have some sort of SCR that works for either polarity, so it can be used with an applied ac voltage. Now, we created the four-layer devices by essentially connecting two transistors back to back in a single silicon crystal. Can we extend this concept and connect two SCRs back to back?

The diagram to the right shows the resulting five-layer device, which is known as a diac. At first glance, it seems unreasonable or even impossible, considering that each connection to the semiconductor crystal overlaps a pn junction. However, the device does work, and indeed works well. The terms anode and cathode no longer apply, so the connections are simply named terminal 1 (T1) and terminal 2 (T2). Each terminal can serve as either anode or cathode, according to the polarity of the applied voltage. That same applied polarity also determines which of the end junctions is active, and which one is bypassed. Thus, if T1 is positive with respect to T2, T1's N-type region is ignored (electrons are pulled away from that junction) and its P-type region serves as the anode. At the same time, the relative negative voltage at T2 pulls holes from the P-type region towards the terminal (removing them from the next junction), but tends to push electrons from its N-type region across that junction into the P-type region, thus making them available for conduction.

The diac, like the four-layer diode, remains non-conducting until its breakover voltage is reached, at which point it turns on fully and remains on until the applied voltage or circuit current are reduced below the holding values at which conduction can be maintained. Since the diac is normally used in ac circuits, operating as part of the control circuit for devices powered from a household wall socket or similar source, this is not a problem. In such applications, the diac is triggered each half-cycle of ac power, and then turns off at the end of the half-cycle when the line voltage reverses polarity.

The drawback of the diac is the same as it was for the four-layer diode: it cannot be triggered at just any point in the ac power cycle; it triggers at its preset breakover voltage only. If we could add a gate to the diac, we could have variable control of the trigger point, and therefore a greater degree of control over just how much power will be applied to the line-powered device. The figure to the right shows the result. This device is known as a triac. Here, the main connections are simply named main terminal 1 (MT1) and main terminal 2 (MT2). The gate designation still applies, and is still used as it was with the SCR. The useful feature of the triac is that it not only carries current in either direction, but the gate trigger pulse can be either polarity regardless of the polarity of the main applied voltage. The gate can inject either free electrons or holes into the body of the triac to trigger conduction either way. For this reason, you may see the triac referred to as a "four-quadrant" device.

As with the diac, the triac is used in an ac environment, so it will always turn off when the applied voltage reaches zero at the end of the current half-cycle. If we apply a turn-on pulse at some controllable point after the start of each half cycle, we can directly control what percentage of that half-cycle gets applied to the load, which is typically connected in series with MT2. This makes the triac an ideal candidate for light dimmer controls and motor speed controls. This is a common application for triacs.

A Gunn diode, also known as a transferred electron device (TED), is a form of diode used in high-frequency electronics. It is somewhat unusual in that it consists only of N-doped semiconductor material, whereas most diodes consist of both P and N-doped regions. In the Gunn diode, three regions exist: two of them are heavily N-doped on each terminal, with a thin layer of lightly doped material in between. When a voltage is applied to the device, the electrical gradient will be largest across the thin middle layer. Conduction will take place as in any conductive material with current being proportional to the applied voltage. Eventually, at higher field values, the conductive properties of the middle layer will be altered, increasing its resistivity and reducing the gradient across it, preventing further conduction and current actually starts to fall down. In practice, this means a Gunn diode has a region of negative differential resistance. The negative differential resistance, combined with the timing properties of the intermediate layer, allows construction of an RF relaxation oscillator simply by applying a suitable direct current through the device. In effect, the negative differential resistance created by the diode will negate the real and positive resistance of an actual load and thus create a "zero" resistance circuit which will sustain oscillations indefinitely. The oscillation frequency is determined partly by the properties of the thin middle layer, but can be tuned by external factors. Gunn diodes are therefore used to build oscillators in the 10 GHz and higher (THz) frequency range, where a resonator is usually added to control frequency. This resonator can take the form of a waveguide, microwave cavity or YIG sphere. Tuning is done mechanically, by adjusting the parameters of the resonator, or in case of YIG spheres by changing the magnetic field. Gallium arsenide Gunn diodes are made for frequencies up to 200 GHz, gallium nitride materials can reach up to 3 terahertz.[1][2] The Gunn diode is based on the Gunn effect, and both are named for the physicist J. B. Gunn who, at IBM in 1962, discovered the effect because he refused to accept inconsistent experimental results in Gallium arsenide as "noise", and tracked down the cause. Alan Chynoweth, of Bell Telephone Laboratories, showed in June 1965 that only a transferredelectron mechanism could explain the experimental results.[3] The interpretation refers to the Ridley-Watkins-Hilsum theory. The Gunn effect, and its relation to the Watkins-Ridley-Hilsum effect entered the monograph literature in the early 1970s, e.g. in books on transferred electron devices[4] and, more recently on nonlinear wave methods for charge transport.[5] Several other books that provided the same coverage were published in the intervening years, and can be found by searching library and bookseller catalogues on Gunn effect.

Contents
[hide]

1 Microscopic view 2 Applications o 2.1 Sensors and measuring instruments

o o

2.2 Radio amateur use 2.3 Oscillators and injectors

3 References

[edit] Microscopic view

GaAs has another energy minimum in the conduction band above the direct-gap minimum at point. This minimum is indirect, so a phonon is needed or created to deliver the impulse for the transition. The energy stems from the kinetic energy of ballistic electrons. They either start out in a high-energy Fermi-Dirac region and are ensured a sufficiently long mean free path by applying a strong electric field, or they are injected by a cathode with the right energy. For the latter, the cathode material has to be chosen carefully; chemical reactions at the interface need to be controlled during fabrication and additional monoatomic layers of other materials inserted. In either case, with forward voltage applied, the Fermi level in the cathode is the same as the third band, and reflections of ballistic electrons starting around the Fermi level are minimized by matching the density of states and using the additional interface layers to let the reflected waves interfere destructively. In GaAs the drift velocity in the third band is lower than in the usual conduction band, so with a small increase in the forward voltage, more and more electrons can reach the third band and current decreases. This creates a region of negative incremental resistance in the voltage/current relationship. Multiple Gunn diodes in a series circuit are unstable, because if one diode has a slightly higher voltage drop across it, it will conduct less current, and the voltage drop will rise further. In fact, even a single diode is internally unstable, and will develop small slices of low conductivity and high field strength which move from the cathode to the anode. It is not possible to balance the population in both bands, so there will always be thin slices of high field strength in a general background of low field strength. So in practice, with a small increase in forward voltage, a slice is created at the cathode, resistance increases, the slice takes off, and when it reaches the anode a new slice is created at the cathode to keep the total voltage constant. If the voltage is lowered, any existing slice is quenched and resistance decreases again. The laboratory methods that are used to select materials for the manufacture of Gunn diodes include angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Other kinds of diode include junction diodes, tunnel diodes, which are also fast, avalanche diodes, which are slow, and Zener diodes.

[edit] Applications
A Gunn diode can be used to amplify signals because of the apparent "negative resistance". Gunn diodes are commonly used as a source of high frequency and high power signals. A bias tee is needed to isolate the bias current from the high frequency oscillations. Since this is a single-port device, there is no isolation between input and output.

[edit] Sensors and measuring instruments

These include[6]: airborne collision avoidance radar, anti-lock brakes, sensors for monitoring the flow of traffic, car radar detectors, pedestrian safety systems, "distance traveled" recorders, motion detectors, "slow-speed" sensors (to detect pedestrian and traffic movement up to 50 m.p.h), traffic signal controllers, automatic door openers, automatic traffic gates, process control equipment to monitor throughput, burglar alarms and equipment to detect trespassers, sensors to avoid derailment of trains, remote vibration detectors, rotational speed tachometers, moisture content monitors.

[edit] Radio amateur use

By virtue of their low voltage operation, Gunn diodes can serve as microwave frequency generators for very low powered (few-milliwatt) microwave transmitters. In the late 1970s they were being used by some radio amateurs in Britain. Designs for transmitters were published in journals. They typically consisted simply of an approximately 3 inch waveguide into which the diode was mounted. A low voltage (less than 12 volt) direct current power supply that could be modulated appropriately was used to drive the diode. The waveguide was blocked at one end to form a resonant cavity and the other end ideally fed a parabolic dish.

[edit] Oscillators and injectors

Web material includes accounts of a relaxation oscillator,[7] some negative resistance oscillators, [8] and some injectors.[9]

[edit] References

Laser diode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Top: a packaged laser diode shown with a penny for scale. Bottom: the laser diode chip is removed from the above package and placed on the eye of a needle for scale.

A visible light micrograph of a laser diode taken from a CD-ROM drive. Visible are the P and N layers distinguished by different colours, and scattered glass fragments from a broken collimator lens. The laser diode is a laser where the active medium is a semiconductor similar to that found in a light-emitting diode. The most common type of laser diode is formed from a p-n junction and powered by injected electric current. The former devices are sometimes referred to as injection laser diodes to distinguish them from optically pumped laser diodes.

Contents
[hide]

1 Theory of operation 2 Types o 2.1 Double heterostructure lasers o 2.2 Quantum well lasers o 2.3 Quantum cascade lasers o 2.4 Separate confinement heterostructure lasers o 2.5 Distributed feedback lasers o 2.6 VCSELs o 2.7 VECSELs o 2.8 External-cavity diode lasers

3 Failure modes 4 Uses 5 Common wavelengths 6 History 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Theory of operation

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011) A laser diode is formed by doping a very thin layer on the surface of a crystal wafer. The crystal is doped to produce an n-type region and a p-type region, one above the other, resulting in a p-n junction, or diode. Laser diodes form a subset of the larger classification of semiconductor p-n junction diodes. Forward electrical bias across the laser diode causes the two species of charge carrier holes and electrons to be "injected" from opposite sides of the p-n junction into the depletion region. Holes are injected from the p-doped, and electrons from the n-doped, semiconductor. (A depletion region, devoid of any charge carriers, forms as a result of the difference in electrical potential between n- and p-type semiconductors wherever they are in physical contact.) Due to the use of charge injection in powering most diode lasers, this class of lasers is sometimes termed "injection lasers," or "injection laser diode" (ILD). As diode lasers are semiconductor devices, they may also be classified as semiconductor lasers. Either designation distinguishes diode lasers from solid-state lasers. Another method of powering some diode lasers is the use of optical pumping. Optically Pumped Semiconductor Lasers (OPSL) use a III-V semiconductor chip as the gain media, and another laser (often another diode laser) as the pump source. OPSL offer several advantages over ILDs, particularly in wavelength selection and lack of interference from internal electrode structures.[1]
[2]

When an electron and a hole are present in the same region, they may recombine or "annihilate" with the result being spontaneous emission i.e., the electron may re-occupy the energy state of the hole, emitting a photon with energy equal to the difference between the electron and hole states involved. (In a conventional semiconductor junction diode, the energy released from the recombination of electrons and holes is carried away as phonons, i.e., lattice vibrations, rather than as photons.) Spontaneous emission gives the laser diode below lasing threshold similar properties to an LED. Spontaneous emission is necessary to initiate laser oscillation, but it is one among several sources of inefficiency once the laser is oscillating.

The difference between the photon-emitting semiconductor laser and conventional phononemitting (non-light-emitting) semiconductor junction diodes lies in the use of a different type of semiconductor, one whose physical and atomic structure confers the possibility for photon emission. These photon-emitting semiconductors are the so-called "direct bandgap" semiconductors. The properties of silicon and germanium, which are single-element semiconductors, have bandgaps that do not align in the way needed to allow photon emission and are not considered "direct." Other materials, the so-called compound semiconductors, have virtually identical crystalline structures as silicon or germanium but use alternating arrangements of two different atomic species in a checkerboard-like pattern to break the symmetry. The transition between the materials in the alternating pattern creates the critical "direct bandgap" property. Gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, gallium antimonide, and gallium nitride are all examples of compound semiconductor materials that can be used to create junction diodes that emit light.

Diagram of a simple laser diode, such as shown above; not to scale In the absence of stimulated emission (e.g., lasing) conditions, electrons and holes may coexist in proximity to one another, without recombining, for a certain time, termed the "upper-state lifetime" or "recombination time" (about a nanosecond for typical diode laser materials), before they recombine. Then a nearby photon with energy equal to the recombination energy can cause recombination by stimulated emission. This generates another photon of the same frequency, travelling in the same direction, with the same polarization and phase as the first photon. This means that stimulated emission causes gain in an optical wave (of the correct wavelength) in the injection region, and the gain increases as the number of electrons and holes injected across the junction increases. The spontaneous and stimulated emission processes are vastly more efficient in direct bandgap semiconductors than in indirect bandgap semiconductors; therefore silicon is not a common material for laser diodes. As in other lasers, the gain region is surrounded with an optical cavity to form a laser. In the simplest form of laser diode, an optical waveguide is made on that crystal surface, such that the light is confined to a relatively narrow line. The two ends of the crystal are cleaved to form perfectly smooth, parallel edges, forming a FabryProt resonator. Photons emitted into a mode of the waveguide will travel along the waveguide and be reflected several times from each end face before they are emitted. As a light wave passes through the cavity, it is amplified by stimulated emission, but light is also lost due to absorption and by incomplete reflection from the end facets. Finally, if there is more amplification than loss, the diode begins to "lase".

Some important properties of laser diodes are determined by the geometry of the optical cavity. Generally, in the vertical direction, the light is contained in a very thin layer, and the structure supports only a single optical mode in the direction perpendicular to the layers. In the transverse direction, if the waveguide is wide compared to the wavelength of light, then the waveguide can support multiple transverse optical modes, and the laser is known as "multi-mode". These transversely multi-mode lasers are adequate in cases where one needs a very large amount of power, but not a small diffraction-limited beam; for example in printing, activating chemicals, or pumping other types of lasers. In applications where a small focused beam is needed, the waveguide must be made narrow, on the order of the optical wavelength. This way, only a single transverse mode is supported and one ends up with a diffraction-limited beam. Such single spatial mode devices are used for optical storage, laser pointers, and fiber optics. Note that these lasers may still support multiple longitudinal modes, and thus can lase at multiple wavelengths simultaneously. The wavelength emitted is a function of the band-gap of the semiconductor and the modes of the optical cavity. In general, the maximum gain will occur for photons with energy slightly above the band-gap energy, and the modes nearest the gain peak will lase most strongly. If the diode is driven strongly enough, additional side modes may also lase. Some laser diodes, such as most visible lasers, operate at a single wavelength, but that wavelength is unstable and changes due to fluctuations in current or temperature. Due to diffraction, the beam diverges (expands) rapidly after leaving the chip, typically at 30 degrees vertically by 10 degrees laterally. A lens must be used in order to form a collimated beam like that produced by a laser pointer. If a circular beam is required, cylindrical lenses and other optics are used. For single spatial mode lasers, using symmetrical lenses, the collimated beam ends up being elliptical in shape, due to the difference in the vertical and lateral divergences. This is easily observable with a red laser pointer. The simple diode described above has been heavily modified in recent years to accommodate modern technology, resulting in a variety of types of laser diodes, as described below.

[edit] Types
The simple laser diode structure, described above, is extremely inefficient. Such devices require so much power that they can only achieve pulsed operation without damage. Although historically important and easy to explain, such devices are not practical.

[edit] Double heterostructure lasers

Diagram of front view of a double heterostructure laser diode; not to scale In these devices, a layer of low bandgap material is sandwiched between two high bandgap layers. One commonly-used pair of materials is gallium arsenide (GaAs) with aluminium gallium arsenide (AlxGa(1-x)As). Each of the junctions between different bandgap materials is called a heterostructure, hence the name "double heterostructure laser" or DH laser. The kind of laser diode described in the first part of the article may be referred to as a homojunction laser, for contrast with these more popular devices. The advantage of a DH laser is that the region where free electrons and holes exist simultaneouslythe active regionis confined to the thin middle layer. This means that many more of the electron-hole pairs can contribute to amplificationnot so many are left out in the poorly amplifying periphery. In addition, light is reflected from the heterojunction; hence, the light is confined to the region where the amplification takes place.

[edit] Quantum well lasers

Main article: Quantum well laser

Diagram of front view of a simple quantum well laser diode; not to scale If the middle layer is made thin enough, it acts as a quantum well. This means that the vertical variation of the electron's wavefunction, and thus a component of its energy, is quantized. The efficiency of a quantum well laser is greater than that of a bulk laser because the density of states

function of electrons in the quantum well system has an abrupt edge that concentrates electrons in energy states that contribute to laser action. Lasers containing more than one quantum well layer are known as multiple quantum well lasers. Multiple quantum wells improve the overlap of the gain region with the optical waveguide mode. Further improvements in the laser efficiency have also been demonstrated by reducing the quantum well layer to a quantum wire or to a "sea" of quantum dots.

[edit] Quantum cascade lasers

Main article: Quantum cascade laser In a quantum cascade laser, the difference between quantum well energy levels is used for the laser transition instead of the bandgap. This enables laser action at relatively long wavelengths, which can be tuned simply by altering the thickness of the layer. They are heterojunction lasers.

[edit] Separate confinement heterostructure lasers

Diagram of front view of a separate confinement heterostructure quantum well laser diode; not to scale The problem with the simple quantum well diode described above is that the thin layer is simply too small to effectively confine the light. To compensate, another two layers are added on, outside the first three. These layers have a lower refractive index than the centre layers, and hence confine the light effectively. Such a design is called a separate confinement heterostructure (SCH) laser diode. Almost all commercial laser diodes since the 1990s have been SCH quantum well diodes.

[edit] Distributed feedback lasers

Main article: Distributed feedback laser

Distributed feedback lasers (DFB) are the most common transmitter type in DWDM-systems. To stabilize the lasing wavelength, a diffraction grating is etched close to the p-n junction of the diode. This grating acts like an optical filter, causing a single wavelength to be fed back to the gain region and lase. Since the grating provides the feedback that is required for lasing, reflection from the facets is not required. Thus, at least one facet of a DFB is anti-reflection coated. The DFB laser has a stable wavelength that is set during manufacturing by the pitch of the grating, and can only be tuned slightly with temperature. DFB lasers are widely used in optical communication applications where a precise and stable wavelength is critical. The threshold current of this DFB laser, based on its static characteristic, is around 11 mA. The appropriate bias current in a linear regime could be taken in the middle of the static characteristic (50 mA).

[edit] VCSELs
Main article: Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Diagram of a simple VCSEL structure; not to scale Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have the optical cavity axis along the direction of current flow rather than perpendicular to the current flow as in conventional laser diodes. The active region length is very short compared with the lateral dimensions so that the radiation emerges from the surface of the cavity rather than from its edge as shown in the figure. The reflectors at the ends of the cavity are dielectric mirrors made from alternating high and low refractive index quarter-wave thick multilayer. Such dielectric mirrors provide a high degree of wavelength-selective reflectance at the required free surface wavelength if the thicknesses of alternating layers d1 and d2 with refractive indices n1 and n2 are such that n1d1 + n2d2 = /2 which then leads to the constructive interference of all partially reflected waves at the interfaces. But there is a disadvantage: because of the high mirror reflectivities, VCSELs have lower output powers when compared to edge-emitting lasers. There are several advantages to producing VCSELs when compared with the production process of edge-emitting lasers. Edge-emitters cannot be tested until the end of the production process. If the edge-emitter does not work, whether due to bad contacts or poor material growth quality, the

production time and the processing materials have been wasted. Additionally, because VCSELs emit the beam perpendicular to the active region of the laser as opposed to parallel as with an edge emitter, tens of thousands of VCSELs can be processed simultaneously on a three inch Gallium Arsenide wafer. Furthermore, even though the VCSEL production process is more labor and material intensive, the yield can be controlled to a more predictable outcome. However, they normally show a lower power output level.

[edit] VECSELs
Main article: Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting-laser Vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers, or VECSELs, are similar to VCSELs. In VCSELs, the mirrors are typically grown epitaxially as part of the diode structure, or grown separately and bonded directly to the semiconductor containing the active region. VECSELs are distinguished by a construction in which one of the two mirrors is external to the diode structure. As a result, the cavity includes a free-space region. A typical distance from the diode to the external mirror would be 1 cm. One of the most interesting features of any VECSEL is the small thickness of the semiconductor gain region in the direction of propagation, less than 100 nm. In contrast, a conventional in-plane semiconductor laser entails light propagation over distances of from 250 m upward to 2 mm or longer. The significance of the short propagation distance is that it causes the effect of "antiguiding" nonlinearities in the diode laser gain region to be minimized. The result is a largecross-section single-mode optical beam which is not attainable from in-plane ("edge-emitting") diode lasers. Several workers demonstrated optically pumped VECSELs, and they continue to be developed for many applications including high power sources for use in industrial machining (cutting, punching, etc.) because of their unusually high power and efficiency when pumped by multimode diode laser bars. Electrically pumped VECSELs have also been demonstrated. Applications for electrically pumped VECSELs include projection displays, served by frequency doubling of near-IR VECSEL emitters to produce blue and green light.

[edit] External-cavity diode lasers

External-cavity diode lasers are tunable lasers which use mainly double heterostructures diodes of the AlxGa(1-x)As type. The first external-cavity diode lasers used intracavity etalons[3] and simple tuning Littrow gratings.[4] Other designs include gratings in grazing-incidence configuration and multiple-prism grating configurations.[5]

[edit] Failure modes

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011) This section may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve this article to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details. The talk page may contain suggestions. (July 2011) Laser diodes have the same reliability and failure issues as light emitting diodes. In addition they are subject to catastrophic optical damage (COD) when operated at higher power. Many of the advances in reliability of diode lasers in the last 20 years remain proprietary to their developers. The reliability of a laser diode can make or break a product line. Moreover, reverse engineering is not always able to reveal the differences between more-reliable and less-reliable diode laser products. At the edge of a diode laser, where light is emitted, a mirror is traditionally formed by cleaving the semiconductor wafer to form a specularly reflecting plane. This approach is facilitated by the weakness of the [110] crystallographic plane in III-V semiconductor crystals (such as GaAs, InP, GaSb, etc.) compared to other planes. A scratch made at the edge of the wafer and a slight bending force causes a nearly atomically perfect mirror-like cleavage plane to form and propagate in a straight line across the wafer. But it so happens that the atomic states at the cleavage plane are altered (compared to their bulk properties within the crystal) by the termination of the perfectly periodic lattice at that plane. Surface states at the cleaved plane, have energy levels within the (otherwise forbidden) bandgap of the semiconductor. Essentially, as a result when light propagates through the cleavage plane and transits to free space from within the semiconductor crystal, a fraction of the light energy is absorbed by the surface states whence it is converted to heat by phonon-electron interactions. This heats the cleaved mirror. In addition the mirror may heat simply because the edge of the diode laser which is electrically pumpedis in less-than-perfect contact with the mount that provides a path for heat removal. The heating of the mirror causes the bandgap of the semiconductor to shrink in the warmer areas. The bandgap shrinkage brings more electronic band-to-band transitions into alignment with the photon energy causing yet more absorption. This is thermal runaway, a form of positive feedback, and the result can be melting of the facet, known as catastrophic optical damage, or COD. In the 1970s this problem, which is particularly nettlesome for GaAs-based lasers emitting between 1 m and 0.630 m wavelengths (less so for InP based lasers used for long-haul telecommunications which emit between 1.3 m and 2 m), was identified. Michael Ettenberg, a researcher and later Vice President at RCA Laboratories' David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey, devised a solution. A thin layer of aluminum oxide was deposited on the facet. If the aluminum oxide thickness is chosen correctly it functions as an anti-reflective coating, reducing reflection at the surface. This alleviated the heating and COD at the facet.

Since then, various other refinements have been employed. One approach is to create a so-called non-absorbing mirror (NAM) such that the final 10 m or so before the light emits from the cleaved facet are rendered non-absorbing at the wavelength of interest. In the very early 1990s, SDL, Inc. began supplying high power diode lasers with good reliability characteristics. CEO Donald Scifres and CTO David Welch presented new reliability performance data at, e.g., SPIE Photonics West conferences of the era. The methods used by SDL to defeat COD were considered to be highly proprietary and were still undisclosed publicly as of June 2006. In the mid-1990s IBM Research (Ruschlikon, Switzerland) announced that it had devised its socalled "E2 process" which conferred extraordinary resistance to COD in GaAs-based lasers. This process, too, was undisclosed as of June 2006. Reliability of high-power diode laser pump bars (used to pump solid-state lasers) remains a difficult problem in a variety of applications, in spite of these proprietary advances. Indeed, the physics of diode laser failure is still being worked out and research on this subject remains active, if proprietary. Extension of the lifetime of laser diodes is critical to their continued adaptation to a wide variety of applications.

[edit] Uses

Laser diodes can be arrayed to produce very high power outputs, continuous wave or pulsed. Such arrays may be used to efficiently pump solid-state lasers for high average power drilling, burning or for inertial confinement fusion. Laser diodes are numerically the most common laser type, with 2004 sales of approximately 733 million units,[6] as compared to 131,000 of other types of lasers.[7] Laser diodes find wide use in telecommunication as easily modulated and easily coupled light sources for fiber optics communication. They are used in various measuring instruments, such as rangefinders. Another common use is in barcode readers. Visible lasers, typically red but later

also green, are common as laser pointers. Both low and high-power diodes are used extensively in the printing industry both as light sources for scanning (input) of images and for very highspeed and high-resolution printing plate (output) manufacturing. Infrared and red laser diodes are common in CD players, CD-ROMs and DVD technology. Violet lasers are used in HD DVD and Blu-ray technology. Diode lasers have also found many applications in laser absorption spectrometry (LAS) for high-speed, low-cost assessment or monitoring of the concentration of various species in gas phase. High-power laser diodes are used in industrial applications such as heat treating, cladding, seam welding and for pumping other lasers, such as diode-pumped solidstate lasers. Uses of laser diodes can be categorized in various ways. Most applications could be served by larger solid-state lasers or optical parametric oscillators, but the low cost of mass-produced diode lasers makes them essential for mass-market applications. Diode lasers can be used in a great many fields; since light has many different properties (power, wavelength, spectral and beam quality, polarization, etc.) it is useful to classify applications by these basic properties. Many applications of diode lasers primarily make use of the "directed energy" property of an optical beam. In this category one might include the laser printers, barcode readers, image scanning, illuminators, designators, optical data recording, combustion ignition, laser surgery, industrial sorting, industrial machining, and directed energy weaponry. Some of these applications are well-established while others are emerging. Laser medicine: medicine and especially dentistry have found many new uses for diode lasers.[8] [9][10] The shrinking size of the units and their increasing user friendliness makes them very attractive to clinicians for minor soft tissue procedures. The 800 nm 980 nm units have a high absorption rate for hemoglobin and thus make them ideal for soft tissue applications, where good hemostasis is necessary. Uses which may make use of the coherence of diode-laser-generated light include interferometric distance measurement, holography, coherent communications, and coherent control of chemical reactions. Uses which may make use of "narrow spectral" properties of diode lasers include range-finding, telecommunications, infra-red countermeasures, spectroscopic sensing, generation of radiofrequency or terahertz waves, atomic clock state preparation, quantum key cryptography, frequency doubling and conversion, water purification (in the UV), and photodynamic therapy (where a particular wavelength of light would cause a substance such as porphyrin to become chemically active as an anti-cancer agent only where the tissue is illuminated by light). Uses where the desired quality of laser diodes is their ability to generate ultra-short pulses of light by the technique known as "mode-locking" include clock distribution for high-performance integrated circuits, high-peak-power sources for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy sensing, arbitrary waveform generation for radio-frequency waves, photonic sampling for analog-todigital conversion, and optical code-division-multiple-access systems for secure communication.

[edit] Common wavelengths

375 nm excitation of Hoechst stain, Calcium Blue, and other fluorescent dyes in fluorescence microscopy 405 nm InGaN blue-violet laser, in Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD drives 445 nm InGaN Deep blue laser multimode diode recently introduced (2010) for use in mercury free high brightness data projectors 473 nm Bright blue laser pointers, still very expensive, output of DPSS systems 485 nm excitation of GFP and other fluorescent dyes 510 nm - Green diodes recently (2010) developed by Nichia for laser projectors. 635 nm AlGaInP better red laser pointers, same power subjectively 5 times as bright as 670 nm one 640 nm High brightness red DPSS laser pointers 657 nm AlGaInP DVD drives, laser pointers 670 nm AlGaInP cheap red laser pointers 760 nm AlGaInP gas sensing: O2 785 nm GaAlAs Compact Disc drives 808 nm GaAlAs pumps in DPSS Nd:YAG lasers (e.g. in green laser pointers or as arrays in higher-powered lasers) 848 nm laser mice 980 nm InGaAs pump for optical amplifiers, for Yb:YAG DPSS lasers 1064 nm AlGaAs fiber-optic communication, DPSS laser pump frequency 1310 nm InGaAsP, InGaAsN fiber-optic communication 1480 nm InGaAsP pump for optical amplifiers 1512 nm InGaAsP gas sensing: NH3 1550 nm InGaAsP, InGaAsNSb fiber-optic communication 1625 nm InGaAsP fiber-optic communication, service channel 1654 nm InGaAsP gas sensing: CH4 1877 nm GaSbAs gas sensing: H2O 2004 nm GaSbAs gas sensing: CO2 2330 nm GaSbAs gas sensing: CO 2680 nm GaSbAs gas sensing: CO2

[edit] History
Coherent light emission from a semiconductor (gallium arsenide) diode (the first laser diode) was demonstrated in 1962 by two US groups led by Robert N. Hall at the General Electric research center[11] and by Marshall Nathan at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.[12] The priority is given to General Electric group who have obtained and submitted their results earlier; they also went further and made a resonant cavity for their diode.[13] The first visible wavelength laser diode was demonstrated by Nick Holonyak, Jr. later in 1962.[14] Other teams at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Texas Instruments, and RCA Laboratories were also involved in and received credit for their historic initial demonstrations of efficient light emission and lasing in semiconductor diodes in 1962 and thereafter. GaAs lasers were also produced in early 1963 in the Soviet Union by the team led by Nikolay Basov.[15]

In the early 1960s liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) was invented by Herbert Nelson of RCA Laboratories. By layering the highest quality crystals of varying compositions, it enabled the demonstration of the highest quality heterojunction semiconductor laser materials for many years. LPE was adopted by all the leading laboratories, worldwide and used for many years. It was finally supplanted in the 1970s by molecular beam epitaxy and organometallic chemical vapor deposition. Diode lasers of that era operated with threshold current densities of 1000 A/cm2 at 77 K temperatures. Such performance enabled continuous-lasing to be demonstrated in the earliest days. However, when operated at room temperature, about 300 K, threshold current densities were two orders of magnitude greater, or 100,000 A/cm2 in the best devices. The dominant challenge for the remainder of the 1960s was to obtain low threshold current density at 300 K and thereby to demonstrate continuous-wave lasing at room temperature from a diode laser. The first diode lasers were homojunction diodes. That is, the material (and thus the bandgap) of the waveguide core layer and that of the surrounding clad layers, were identical. It was recognized that there was an opportunity, particularly afforded by the use of liquid phase epitaxy using aluminum gallium arsenide, to introduce heterojunctions. Heterostructures consist of layers of semiconductor crystal having varying bandgap and refractive index. Heterojunctions (formed from heterostructures) had been recognized by Herbert Kroemer, while working at RCA Laboratories in the mid-1950s, as having unique advantages for several types of electronic and optoelectronic devices including diode lasers. LPE afforded the technology of making heterojunction diode lasers. The first heterojunction diode lasers were single-heterojunction lasers. These lasers utilized aluminum gallium arsenide p-type injectors situated over n-type gallium arsenide layers grown on the substrate by LPE. An admixture of aluminum replaced gallium in the semiconductor crystal and raised the bandgap of the p-type injector over that of the n-type layers beneath. It worked; the 300 K threshold currents went down by 10 to 10,000 amperes per square centimeter. Unfortunately, this was still not in the needed range and these single-heterostructure diode lasers did not function in continuous wave operation at room temperature. The innovation that met the room temperature challenge was the double heterostructure laser. The trick was to quickly move the wafer in the LPE apparatus between different "melts" of aluminum gallium arsenide (p- and n-type) and a third melt of gallium arsenide. It had to be done rapidly since the gallium arsenide core region needed to be significantly under 1 m in thickness. This may have been the earliest true example of "nanotechnology." The first laser diode to achieve continuous wave operation was a double heterostructure demonstrated in 1970 essentially simultaneously by Zhores Alferov and collaborators (including Dmitri Z. Garbuzov) of the Soviet Union, and Morton Panish and Izuo Hayashi working in the United States. However, it is widely accepted that Zhores I. Alferov and team reached the milestone first.[citation
needed]

For their accomplishment and that of their co-workers, Alferov and Kroemer shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Photodiode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Three Si and one Ge (bottom) photodiodes

Symbol for photodiode.

A photodiode is a type of photodetector capable of converting light into either current or voltage, depending upon the mode of operation.[1] The common, traditional solar cell used to generate electric solar power is a large area photodiode. Photodiodes are similar to regular semiconductor diodes except that they may be either exposed (to detect vacuum UV or X-rays) or packaged with a window or optical fiber connection to allow light to reach the sensitive part of the device. Many diodes designed for use specifically as a photodiode use a PIN junction rather than a p-n junction, to increase the speed of response. A photodiode is designed to operate in reverse bias. [2]

Contents
[hide]

1 Principle of operation o 1.1 Photovoltaic mode o 1.2 Photoconductive mode o 1.3 Other modes of operation 2 Materials o 2.1 Unwanted photodiodes 3 Features 4 Applications o 4.1 Comparison with photomultipliers 5 Photodiode array 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Principle of operation

A photodiode is a p-n junction or PIN structure. When a photon of sufficient energy strikes the diode, it excites an electron, thereby creating a free electron (and a positively charged electron hole). This mechanism is also known as the inner photoelectric effect. If the absorption occurs in the junction's depletion region, or one diffusion length away from it, these carriers are swept from the junction by the built-in field of the depletion region. Thus holes move toward the anode, and electrons toward the cathode, and a photocurrent is produced. This photocurrent is the sum of both the dark current (without light) and the light current, so the dark current must be minimised to enhance the sensitivity of the device.[3]

[edit] Photovoltaic mode

When used in zero bias (with the cathode positive) or photovoltaic mode, the flow of photocurrent out of the device is restricted and a voltage builds up. This mode exploits the

photovoltaic effect, which is the basis for solar cells a traditional solar cell is just a large area photodiode.

[edit] Photoconductive mode

In this mode the diode is often reverse biased (with the cathode positive), dramatically reducing the response time at the expense of increased noise. This increases the width of the depletion layer, which decreases the junction's capacitance resulting in faster response times. The reverse bias induces only a small amount of current (known as saturation or back current) along its direction while the photocurrent remains virtually the same. For a given spectral distribution, the photocurrent is linearly proportional to the illuminance (and to the irradiance).[4] Although this mode is faster, the photoconductive mode tends to exhibit more electronic noise. [citation needed] The leakage current of a good PIN diode is so low (<1 nA) that the JohnsonNyquist noise of the load resistance in a typical circuit often dominates.

[edit] Other modes of operation

Avalanche photodiodes have a similar structure to regular photodiodes, but they are operated with much higher reverse bias. This allows each photo-generated carrier to be multiplied by avalanche breakdown, resulting in internal gain within the photodiode, which increases the effective responsivity of the device. A phototransistor is in essence a bipolar transistor encased in a transparent case so that light can reach the base-collector junction. The electrons that are generated by photons in the basecollector junction are injected into the base, and this photodiode current is amplified by the transistor's current gain (or hfe). If the base is left unconnected, the phototransistor becomes a photodiode. While phototransistors have a higher responsivity for light they are not able to detect low levels of light any better than photodiodes.[citation needed] Phototransistors also have significantly longer response times.

[edit] Materials
The material used to make a photodiode is critical to defining its properties, because only photons with sufficient energy to excite electrons across the material's bandgap will produce significant photocurrents. Materials commonly used to produce photodiodes include[5]: Electromagnetic spectrum wavelength range (nm) Silicon 1901100 Germanium 4001700 Indium gallium arsenide 8002600 Lead(II) sulfide <10003500 Material

Because of their greater bandgap, silicon-based photodiodes generate less noise than germaniumbased photodiodes.

[edit] Unwanted photodiodes

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011) Any p-n junction, if illuminated, is potentially a photodiode. Semiconductor devices such as transistors and ICs contain p-n junctions, and will not function correctly if they are illuminated by unwanted electromagnetic radiation (light) of wavelength suitable to produce a photocurrent; this is avoided by encapsulating devices in opaque housings. If these housings are not completely opaque to high-energy radiation (ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays), transistors and ICs can malfunction due to induced photo-currents. Plastic cases are more vulnerable than metal ones.

[edit] Features

Response of a silicon photo diode vs wavelength of the incident light Critical performance parameters of a photodiode include: Responsivity The ratio of generated photocurrent to incident light power, typically expressed in A/W when used in photoconductive mode. The responsivity may also be expressed as a Quantum efficiency, or the ratio of the number of photogenerated carriers to incident photons and thus a unitless quantity. Dark current The current through the photodiode in the absence of light, when it is operated in photoconductive mode. The dark current includes photocurrent generated by background radiation and the saturation current of the semiconductor junction. Dark current must be accounted for by calibration if a photodiode is used to make an accurate optical power

measurement, and it is also a source of noise when a photodiode is used in an optical communication system. Noise-equivalent power (NEP) The minimum input optical power to generate photocurrent, equal to the rms noise current in a 1 hertz bandwidth. The related characteristic detectivity (D) is the inverse of NEP, 1/NEP; and the specific detectivity ( ) is the detectivity normalized to the area (A) of the photodetector, input power of a photodiode. . The NEP is roughly the minimum detectable

When a photodiode is used in an optical communication system, these parameters contribute to the sensitivity of the optical receiver, which is the minimum input power required for the receiver to achieve a specified bit error rate.

[edit] Applications
P-N photodiodes are used in similar applications to other photodetectors, such as photoconductors, charge-coupled devices, and photomultiplier tubes. They may be used to generate an output which is dependent upon the illumination (analog; for measurement and the like), or to change the state of circuitry (digital; either for control and switching, or digital signal processing). Photodiodes are used in consumer electronics devices such as compact disc players, smoke detectors, and the receivers for infrared remote control devices used to control equipment from televisions to air conditioners. For many applications either photodiodes or photoconductors may be used. Either type of photosensor may be used for light measurement, as in camera light meters, or to respond to light levels, as in switching on street lighting after dark. Photosensors of all types may be used to respond to incident light, or to a source of light which is part of the the same circuit or system. A photodiode is often combined into a single component with an emitter of light, usually a light-emitting diode (LED), either to detect the presence of a mechanical obstruction to the beam (slotted optical switch), or to couple two digital or analog circuits while maintaining extremely high electrical isolation between them, often for safety (optocoupler). Photodiodes are often used for accurate measurement of light intensity in science and industry. They generally have a more linear response than photoconductors. They are also widely used in various medical applications, such as detectors for computed tomography (coupled with scintillators), instruments to analyze samples (immunoassay), and pulse oximeters. PIN diodes are much faster and more sensitive than p-n junction diodes, and hence are often used for optical communications and in lighting regulation.

P-N photodiodes are not used to measure extremely low light intensities. Instead, if high sensitivity is needed, avalanche photodiodes, intensified charge-coupled devices or photomultiplier tubes are used for applications such as astronomy, spectroscopy, night vision equipment and laser rangefinding.

[edit] Comparison with photomultipliers

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) Advantages compared to photomultipliers: 1. Excellent linearity of output current as a function of incident light 2. Spectral response from 190 nm to 1100 nm (silicon), longer wavelengths with other semiconductor materials 3. Low noise 4. Ruggedized to mechanical stress 5. Low cost 6. Compact and light weight 7. Long lifetime 8. High quantum efficiency, typically 80% 9. No high voltage required Disadvantages compared to photomultipliers: 1. Small area 2. No internal gain (except avalanche photodiodes, but their gain is typically 102103 compared to up to 108 for the photomultiplier) 3. Much lower overall sensitivity 4. Photon counting only possible with specially designed, usually cooled photodiodes, with special electronic circuits 5. Response time for many designs is slower

[edit] Photodiode array

A one-dimensional array of hundreds or thousands of photodiodes can be used as a position sensor, for example as part of an angle sensor.[6] One advantage of photodiode arrays (PDAs) is that they allow for high speed parallel read out since the driving electronics may not be built in like a traditional CMOS or CCD sensor.

[edit] See also

Photodetector

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Photosensors or photodetectors are sensors of light or other electromagnetic energy. There are several varieties:[1]

Active pixel sensors are image sensors consisting of an integrated circuit that contains an array of pixel sensors, each pixel containing a both a light sensor and an active amplifier. There are many types of active pixel sensors including the CMOS APS commonly used in cell phone cameras, web cameras, and some DSLRs. An image sensor produced by a CMOS process is also known as a CMOS sensor, and has emerged as an alternative to Charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors. Charge-coupled devices (CCD), which are used to record images in astronomy, digital photography, and digital cinematography. Although before the 1990s photographic plates were the most common in astronomy. Glass-backed plates were used rather than film, because they do not shrink or deform in going between wet and dry condition, or under other disturbances. Unfortunately, Kodak discontinued producing several kinds of plates between 1980 and 2000, terminating the production of important sky surveys.[2] The next generation of astronomical instruments, such as the Astro-E2, include cryogenic detectors. In experimental particle physics, a particle detector is a device used to track and identify elementary particles. Chemical detectors, such as photographic plates, in which a silver halide molecule is split into an atom of metallic silver and a halogen atom. The photographic developer causes adjacent molecules to split similarly. Cryogenic detectors are sufficiently sensitive to measure the energy of single x-ray, visible and infrared photons.[3] LEDs reverse-biased to act as photodiodes. See LEDs as Photodiode Light Sensors. Optical detectors, which are mostly quantum devices in which an individual photon produces a discrete effect. Optical detectors that are effectively thermometers, responding purely to the heating effect of the incoming radiation, such as pyroelectric detectors, Golay cells, thermocouples and thermistors, but the latter two are much less sensitive. Photoresistors or Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) which change resistance according to light intensity Photovoltaic cells or solar cells which produce a voltage and supply an electric current when illuminated Photodiodes which can operate in photovoltaic mode or photoconductive mode Photomultiplier tubes containing a photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, the electrons are then amplified by a chain of dynodes. Phototubes containing a photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, such that the tube conducts a current proportional to the light intensity. Phototransistors, which act like amplifying photodiodes. Quantum dot photoconductors or photodiodes, which can handle wavelengths in the visible and infrared spectral regions.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals (LCs). LCs do not emit light directly. They are used in a wide range of applications, including computer monitors, television, instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, signage, etc. They are common in consumer devices such as video players, gaming devices, clocks, watches, calculators, and telephones. LCDs have displaced cathode ray tube (CRT) displays in most applications. They are usually more compact, lightweight, portable, less expensive, more reliable, and easier on the eyes.[citation needed] They are available in a wider range of screen sizes than CRT and plasma displays, and since they do not use phosphors, they cannot suffer image burn-in. LCDs are more energy efficient and offer safer disposal than CRTs. Its low electrical power consumption enables it to be used in battery-powered electronic equipment. It is an electronically modulated optical device made up of any number of segments filled with liquid crystals and arrayed in front of a light source (backlight) or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome. The most flexible ones use an array of small pixels. The earliest discovery leading to the development of LCD technology, the discovery of liquid crystals, dates from 1888.[1] By 2008, worldwide sales of televisions with LCD screens had surpassed the sale of CRT units.

Contents
[hide]

1 Overview 2 Brief history 3 Illumination 4 Passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs 5 Active matrix technologies o 5.1 Twisted nematic (TN) o 5.2 In-plane switching (IPS) o 5.3 Advanced fringe field switching (AFFS) o 5.4 Vertical alignment (VA) o 5.5 Blue Phase mode 6 Quality control 7 Zero-power (bistable) displays 8 Specifications 9 Military use of LCD monitors 10 Advantages and disadvantages of LCD o 10.1 LCD 11 See also 12 References 13 External links
o

13.1 General information

[edit] Overview
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

LCD alarm clock Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned between two transparent electrodes, and two polarizing filters, the axes of transmission of which are (in most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. With no actual liquid crystal between the polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter would be blocked by the second (crossed) polarizer. In most of the cases the liquid crystal has double refraction.[citation needed] The surface of the electrodes that are in contact with the liquid crystal material are treated so as to align the liquid crystal molecules in a particular direction. This treatment typically consists of a thin polymer layer that is unidirectionally rubbed using, for example, a cloth. The direction of the liquid crystal alignment is then defined by the direction of rubbing. Electrodes are made of a transparent conductor called Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). Before applying an electric field, the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules is determined by the alignment at the surfaces of electrodes. In a twisted nematic device (still the most common liquid crystal device), the surface alignment directions at the two electrodes are perpendicular to each other, and so the molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist. This reduces the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and the device appears grey. If the applied voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in the center of the layer are almost completely untwisted and the polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized perpendicular to the second filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel will appear black. By controlling the voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer in each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying amounts thus constituting different levels of gray. This electric field also controls (reduces) the double refraction properties of the liquid crystal.[citation needed]

LCD with top polarizer removed from device and placed on top, such that the top and bottom polarizers are parallel. The optical effect of a twisted nematic device in the voltage-on state is far less dependent on variations in the device thickness than that in the voltage-off state. Because of this, these devices are usually operated between crossed polarizers such that they appear bright with no voltage (the eye is much more sensitive to variations in the dark state than the bright state). These devices can also be operated between parallel polarizers, in which case the bright and dark states are reversed. The voltage-off dark state in this configuration appears blotchy, however, because of small variations of thickness across the device. Both the liquid crystal material and the alignment layer material contain ionic compounds. If an electric field of one particular polarity is applied for a long period of time, this ionic material is attracted to the surfaces and degrades the device performance. This is avoided either by applying an alternating current or by reversing the polarity of the electric field as the device is addressed (the response of the liquid crystal layer is identical, regardless of the polarity of the applied field). Displays for a small number of individual digits and/or fixed symbols (as in digital watches, pocket calculators etc.) can be implemented with independent electrodes for each segment. In contrast full alphanumeric and/or variable graphics displays are usually implemented with pixels arranged as a matrix consisting of electrically connected rows on one side of the LC layer and columns on the other side which makes it possible to address each pixel at the intersections. The general method of matrix addressing consists of sequentially addressing one side of the matrix, for example by selecting the rows one-by-one and applying the picture information on the other side at the columns row-by-row. For details on the various matrix addressing schemes see Passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs.

[edit] Brief history

1888: Friedrich Reinitzer (18581927) discovers the liquid crystalline nature of cholesterol extracted from carrots (that is, two melting points and generation of colors) and published his findings at a meeting of the Vienna Chemical Society on May 3, 1888 (F. Reinitzer: Beitrge zur Kenntniss des Cholesterins, Monatshefte fr Chemie (Wien) 9, 421-441 (1888)).[2]

1904: Otto Lehmann publishes his work "Flssige Kristalle" (Liquid Crystals). 1911: Charles Mauguin first experiments of liquids crystals confined between plates in thin layers. 1922: Georges Friedel describes the structure and properties of liquid crystals and classified them in 3 types (nematics, smectics and cholesterics). 1927: Vsevolod Frederiks devises the electrically switched light valve, called the Fredericksz transition, the essential effect of all LCD technology. 1936: The Marconi Wireless Telegraph company patents the first practical application of the technology, "The Liquid Crystal Light Valve". 1962: The first major English language publication on the subject "Molecular Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals", by Dr. George W. Gray.[3] 1962: Richard Williams of RCA found that liquid crystals had some interesting electrooptic characteristics and he realized an electro-optical effect by generating stripe-patterns in a thin layer of liquid crystal material by the application of a voltage. This effect is based on an electro-hydrodynamic instability forming what is now called Williams domains inside the liquid crystal.[4] 1964: George H. Heilmeier, then working in the RCA laboratories on the effect discovered by Williams achieved the switching of colors by field-induced realignment of dichroic dyes in a homeotropically oriented liquid crystal. Practical problems with this new electro-optical effect made Heilmeier continue to work on scattering effects in liquid crystals and finally the achievement of the first operational liquid crystal display based on what he called the dynamic scattering mode (DSM). Application of a voltage to a DSM display switches the initially clear transparent liquid crystal layer into a milky turbid state. DSM displays could be operated in transmissive and in reflective mode but they required a considerable current to flow for their operation.[5][6][7] George H. Heilmeier was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and credited with the invention of LCD. [8] Heilmeier's work is an IEEE Milestone.[9] 1960s: Pioneering work on liquid crystals was undertaken in the late 1960s by the UK's Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern, England. The team at RRE supported ongoing work by George Gray and his team at the University of Hull who ultimately discovered the cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals (which had correct stability and temperature properties for application in LCDs). 1970: On December 4, 1970, the twisted nematic field effect in liquid crystals was filed for patent by Hoffmann-LaRoche in Switzerland, (Swiss patent No. 532 261) with Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt (then working for the Central Research Laboratories) listed as inventors.[5] Hoffmann-La Roche then licensed the invention to the Swiss manufacturer Brown, Boveri & Cie who produced displays for wrist watches

during the 1970s and also to Japanese electronics industry which soon produced the first digital quartz wrist watches with TN-LCDs and numerous other products. James Fergason while working with Sardari Arora and Alfred Saupe at Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute filed an identical patent in the USA on April 22, 1971.[10] In 1971 the company of Fergason ILIXCO (now LXD Incorporated) produced the first LCDs based on the TN-effect, which soon superseded the poor-quality DSM types due to improvements of lower operating voltages and lower power consumption.

1972: The first active-matrix liquid crystal display panel was produced in the United States by Westinghouse, in Pittsburgh, PA.[11] 1983: Researchers at Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC), Switzerland, invent the super-twisted nematic (STN) structure for passive-matrix addressed LCDs. H. Amstutz et al. were listed as inventors in the corresponding patent applications filed in Switzerland on July 7, 1983, and October 28, 1983. Patents were granted in Switzerland CH 665491, Europe EP 0131216,[12] US 4634229 and many more countries. Scientific details are published in the referenced article.[13] 1990: Under different titles inventors conceived electrooptical effects as alternatives to twisted nematic field effect LCDs (TN- and STN- LCDs). One approach was to use interdigital electrodes on one glass substrate only to produce an electric field essentially parallel to the glass substrates (Abstract)[14]. To take full advantage of the properties of this In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology further work was needed. After thorough analysis, details of advantageous embodiments are filed in Germany by Guenter Baur et al. and patented in various countries (Abstract)[15]. The Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg, where the inventors worked, assigns these patents to Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, the world's leading supplier of LC substances. 1992: Shortly thereafter, engineers at Hitachi work out various practical details of the IPS technology to interconnect the thin-film transistor array as a matrix and to avoid undesirable stray fields in between pixels (Abstract)[16]. Hitachi also improves the viewing angle dependence further by optimizing the shape of the electrodes (Super IPS). NEC and Hitachi become early manufacturers of active-matrix addressed LCDs based on the IPS technology. This is a milestone for implementing large-screen LCDs having acceptable visual performance for flat-panel PC monitors and TVs. 1996 Samsung develops the optical patterning technique that enables multi-domain LCD. Multi-domain and In Plane Switching subsequently remain the dominant LCD designs through 2010.[17] 2007: In the 4Q of 2007 for the first time LCD televisions surpass CRT units in worldwide sales.[18] 2008: LCD TVs become the majority with a 50% market share of the 200 million TVs forecast to ship globally in 2008 according to Display Bank.[19]

A detailed description of the origins and the complex history of liquid crystal displays from the perspective of an insider during the early days has been published by Joseph A. Castellano in Liquid Gold: The Story of Liquid Crystal Displays and the Creation of an Industry.[20] Another report on the origins and history of LCD from a different perspective until 1991 has been published by Hiroshi Kawamoto, available at the IEEE History Center.[21]

[edit] Illumination
As LCD panels produce no light of their own, they require an external lighting mechanism to be easily visible. On most displays, this consists of a cold cathode fluorescent lamp that is situated behind the LCD panel. Passive-matrix displays are usually not backlit, but active-matrix displays almost always are, with a few exceptions such as the display in the original Gameboy Advance. Recently, two types of LED backlit displays have appeared in some televisions as an alternative to conventional backlit LCDs. In one scheme, the LEDs are used to backlight the entire LCD panel. In another scheme, a set of red, green and blue LEDs is used to illuminate a small cluster of pixels, which can improve contrast and black level in some situations. For example, the LEDs in one section of the screen can be dimmed to produce a dark section of the image while the LEDs in another section are kept bright. Both schemes also allows for a slimmer panel than on conventional displays.

[edit] Passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

A general purpose alphanumeric LCD, with two lines of 16 characters. Monochrome passive-matrix LCDs were standard in most early laptops (although a few used plasma displays) and the original Nintendo Game Boy[22] until the mid-1990s, when color activematrix became standard on all laptops. The commercially unsuccessful Macintosh Portable (released in 1989) was one of the first to use an active-matrix display (though still monochrome).

Passive-matrix LCDs are still used today for applications less demanding than laptops and TVs. In particular, portable devices with less information content to be displayed, where lowest power consumption (no backlight), low cost and/or readability in direct sunlight are needed, use this type of display. Displays having a passive-matrix structure are employing super-twisted nematic STN or doublelayer STN (DSTN) technology (the latter of which addresses a color-shifting problem with the former), and color-STN (CSTN) in which color is added by using an internal filter. STN LCDs have been optimized for passive-matrix addressing. They exhibit a sharper threshold of the contrast-vs-voltage characteristic than the original TN LCDs. This is important because pixels are subjected to partial voltages even while not selected. Crosstalk between activated and non-activated pixels has to be handled properly by keeping the RMS voltage of non-activated pixels below the threshold voltage,[23] while activated pixels are subjected to voltages above threshold.[24] STN LCDs have to be continuously refreshed by alternating pulsed voltages of one polarity during one frame and pulses of opposite polarity during the next frame. Individual pixels are addressed by the corresponding row and column circuits. This type of display is called passive-matrix addressed because the pixel must retain its state between refreshes without the benefit of a steady electrical charge. As the number of pixels (and, correspondingly, columns and rows) increases, this type of display becomes less feasible. Slow response times and poor contrast are typical of passive-matrix addressed LCDs with too many pixels. New zero-power (bistable) LCDs do not require continuous refreshing. Rewriting is only required for picture information changes. Potentially, passive-matrix addressing can be used with these new devices, if their write/erase characteristics are suitable. High-resolution color displays such as modern LCD computer monitors and televisions use an active matrix structure. A matrix of thin-film transistors (TFTs) is added to the electrodes in contact with the LC layer. Each pixel has its own dedicated transistor, allowing each column line to access one pixel. When a row line is selected, all of the column lines are connected to a row of pixels and voltages corresponding to the picture information are driven onto all of the column lines. The row line is then deactivated and the next row line is selected. All of the row lines are selected in sequence during a refresh operation. Active-matrix addressed displays look "brighter" and "sharper" than passive-matrix addressed displays of the same size, and generally have quicker response times, producing much better images.

[edit] Active matrix technologies

A Casio 1.8 in color TFT LCD which equips the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P93A digital compact cameras Main articles: Thin film transistor liquid crystal display and Active-matrix liquid crystal display

[edit] Twisted nematic (TN)

See also: twisted nematic field effect Twisted nematic displays contain liquid crystals which twist and untwist at varying degrees to allow light to pass through. When no voltage is applied to a TN liquid crystal cell, polarized light passes through the 90-degrees twisted LC layer. In proportion to the voltage applied, the liquid crystals untwist changing the polarization and blocking the light's path. By properly adjusting the level of the voltage almost any grey level or transmission can be achieved.

[edit] In-plane switching (IPS)

In-plane switching is an LCD technology which aligns the liquid crystals in a plane parallel to the glass substrates. In this method, the electrical field is applied through opposite electrodes on the same glass substrate, so that the liquid crystals can be reoriented (switched) in the same plane. This requires two transistors for each pixel instead of the single transistor needed for a standard thin-film transistor (TFT) display. Before LG Enhanced IPS was introduced in 2009, the additional transistors resulted in blocking more transmission area, thus requiring a brighter backlight, which consumed more power, and made this type of display less desirable for notebook computers. This newer, lower power technology can be found in the Apple iMac, iPad, and iPhone 4, the Hewlett-Packard EliteBook mobile workstations and the Nokia 701. Currently Panasonic is using an enhanced version eIPS for their large size LCD-TV products as well as Hewlett-Packard in its WebOS based TouchPad tablet. IPS LCD vs Amoled LG claimed the smartphone LG Optimus Black with an IPS LCD (LCD NOVA) has the brightness up to 700 nits, while the competitor has only IPS LCD with 518 nits and tumble an Amoled display with 305 nits. LG also claimed about the NOVA display which 50 percent more efficient than regular LCD and consumes only 50 percent of Amoled consumes when producing

white on screen.[25] But, when it comes to contrast ratio, Amoled display still performs best due to its underlying technology where the black levels are displayed as pitch black and not as dark grey. On the 24th of August 2011, Nokia announced the Nokia 701 and also made the claim of the world's brightest display at 1000 nits. The screen also had Nokia's Clearblack layer which improved the contrast ratio, bringing it closer to that of the AMOLED screens.

[edit] Advanced fringe field switching (AFFS)

Known as fringe field switching (FFS) until 2003,[26] advanced fringe field switching is similar to IPS or S-IPS offering superior performance and color gamut with high luminosity. AFFS was developed by Hydis Technologies Co., Ltd, Korea (formally Hyundai Electronics, LCD Task Force).[27] AFFS-applied notebook applications minimize color distortion while maintaining a wider viewing angle for a professional display. Color shift and deviation caused by light leakage is corrected by optimizing the white gamut which also enhances white/grey reproduction. In 2004, Hydis Technologies Co.,Ltd licensed AFFS to Japan's Hitachi Displays. Hitachi is using AFFS to manufacture high-end panels. In 2006, HYDIS licensed AFFS to Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation. Hydis introduced AFFS+ with improved outdoor readability in 2007. AFFS panels are mostly utilized in the cockpits of latest commercial aircraft displays.

[edit] Vertical alignment (VA)

Vertical alignment displays are a form of LCDs in which the liquid crystals naturally align vertically to the glass substrates. When no voltage is applied, the liquid crystals remain perpendicular to the substrate creating a black display between crossed polarizers. When voltage is applied, the liquid crystals shift to a tilted position allowing light to pass through and create a gray-scale display depending on the amount of tilt generated by the electric field.

[edit] Blue Phase mode

Main article: Blue Phase Mode LCD Blue phase mode LCDs have been shown as engineering samples early in 2008, but they are not in mass-production yet. The physics of blue phase mode LCDs suggest that very short switching times (~1 ms) can be achieved, so time sequential color control can possibly be realized and expensive color filters would be obsolete. For details refer to Blue Phase Mode LCD.

[edit] Quality control

Some LCD panels have defective transistors, causing permanently lit or unlit pixels which are commonly referred to as stuck pixels or dead pixels respectively. Unlike integrated circuits (ICs),

LCD panels with a few defective transistors are usually still usable. It is claimed that it is economically prohibitive to discard a panel with just a few defective pixels because LCD panels are much larger than ICs, but this has never been proven.[citation needed] Manufacturers' policies for the acceptable number of defective pixels vary greatly. At one point, Samsung held a zerotolerance policy for LCD monitors sold in Korea.[28] As of 2005, though, Samsung adheres to the less restrictive ISO 13406-2 standard.[29] Other companies have been known to tolerate as many as 11 dead pixels in their policies.[30] Dead pixel policies are often hotly debated between manufacturers and customers. To regulate the acceptability of defects and to protect the end user, ISO released the ISO 13406-2 standard.[31] However, not every LCD manufacturer conforms to the ISO standard and the ISO standard is quite often interpreted in different ways. LCD panels are more likely to have defects than most ICs due to their larger size. For example, a 300 mm SVGA LCD has 8 defects and a 150 mm wafer has only 3 defects. However, 134 of the 137 dies on the wafer will be acceptable, whereas rejection of the LCD panel would be a 0% yield. In recent years, quality control has been improved. An SVGA LCD panel with 4 defective pixels is usually considered defective and customers can request an exchange for a new one. [according to whom?] Some manufacturers, notably in South Korea where some of the largest LCD panel manufacturers, such as LG, are located, now have "zero defective pixel guarantee", which is an extra screening process which can then determine "A" and "B" grade panels.[original research?] Many manufacturers would replace a product even with one defective pixel. Even where such guarantees do not exist, the location of defective pixels is important. A display with only a few defective pixels may be unacceptable if the defective pixels are near each other. LCD panels also have defects known as clouding (or less commonly mura), which describes the uneven patches of changes in luminance. It is most visible in dark or black areas of displayed scenes.[32]

[edit] Zero-power (bistable) displays

See also: Ferro Liquid Display The zenithal bistable device (ZBD), developed by QinetiQ (formerly DERA), can retain an image without power. The crystals may exist in one of two stable orientations ("Black" and "White") and power is only required to change the image. ZBD Displays is a spin-off company from QinetiQ who manufacture both grayscale and color ZBD devices. Kent Displays has also developed a "no power" display that uses Polymer Stabilized Cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLCD). A major drawback of ChLCD screens are their slow refresh rate, especially at low temperatures[citation needed]. Kent has recently demonstrated the use of a ChLCD to cover the entire surface of a mobile phone, allowing it to change colors, and keep that color even when power is cut off.[33] In 2004 researchers at the University of Oxford demonstrated two new types of zero-power bistable LCDs based on Zenithal bistable techniques.[34]

Several bistable technologies, like the 360 BTN and the bistable cholesteric, depend mainly on the bulk properties of the liquid crystal (LC) and use standard strong anchoring, with alignment films and LC mixtures similar to the traditional monostable materials. Other bistable technologies (i.e. Binem Technology) are based mainly on the surface properties and need specific weak anchoring materials.

[edit] Specifications
Important factors to consider when evaluating a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD):

Resolution versus Range: Fundamentally resolution is the granularity (or number of levels) with which a performance feature of the display is divided. Resolution is often confused with range or the total end-to-end output of the display. Each of the major features of a display has both a resolution and a range that are tied to each other but very different. Frequently the range is an inherent limitation of the display while the resolution is a function of the electronics that make the display work. Spatial Performance LCDs come in only one size for a variety of applications and a variety of resolutions within each of those applications. LCD spatial performance is also sometimes described in terms of a dot pitch. The size (or spatial range) of an LCD is always described in terms of the diagonal distance from one corner to its opposite. This is a historical aspect from the early days of CRT TV when CRT screens were manufactured on the bottoms of a glass bottle. The diameter of the bottle determined the size of the screen. Later, when TVs went to a more square format, the square screens were measured diagonally to compare with the older round screens.[35]

The spatial resolution of an LCD is expressed in terms of the number of columns and rows of pixels (e.g., 1024768). This had been one of the few features of LCD performance that was easily understood and not subject to interpretation. Each pixel is usually composed of a red, green, and blue sub pixel. However there are newer schemes to share sub-pixels among pixels and to add additional colors of sub-pixels. So going forward, spatial resolution may be more subject to interpretation. One external factor to consider in evaluating display resolution is the resolution of your own eyes. For a normal person with 20/20 vision, the resolution of your eyes is about one minute of arc. In practical terms that means for an older standard definition TV set the ideal viewing distance was about 8 times the height (not diagonal) of the screen away. At that distance the individual rows of pixels merge into a solid. If you were closer to the screen than that, you would be able to see the individual rows of pixels. If you are further away, the image of the rows of pixels still merge, but the total image becomes smaller as you get further away. For an HDTV set with slightly more than twice the number of rows of pixels, the ideal viewing distance is about half what it is for a standard definition set. The higher the resolution, the closer you can sit to the set or the larger the set can usefully be sitting at the same distance as an older standard definition display.

For a computer monitor or some other LCD that is being viewed from a very close distance, resolution is often expressed in terms of dot pitch or pixels per inch. This is consistent with the printing industry (another form of a display). Magazines, and other premium printed media are often at 300 dots per inch. As with the distance discussion above, this provides a very solid looking and detailed image. LCDs, particularly on mobile devices, are frequently much less than this as the higher the dot pitch, the more optically inefficient the display and the more power it burns. Running the LCD is frequently half, or more, of the power consumed by a mobile device. An additional consideration in spatial performance are viewing cone and aspect ratio. The Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width to the height (for example, 4:3, 5:4, 16:9 or 16:10). Older, standard definition TVs were 4:3. Newer, HDTVs are 16:9 as are most new notebook computers. Movies are often filmed in much different (wider) aspect ratios which is why there will frequently still be black bars at the top and bottom of a HDTV screen. The Viewing Angle of an LCD may be important depending on its use or location. The viewing angle is usually measured as the angle where the contrast of the LCD falls below 10:1. At this point, the colors usually start to change and can even invert, red becoming green and so forth. Viewing angles for LCDs used to be very restrictive however, improved optical films have been developed that give almost 180 degree viewing angles from left to right. Top to bottom viewing angles may still be restrictive, by design, as looking at an LCD from an extreme up or down angle is not a common usage model and these photons are wasted. Manufacturers commonly focus the light in a left to right plane to obtain a brighter image here.

Temporal/Timing Performance: Contrary to spatial performance, temporal performance is a feature where smaller is better. Specifically, the range is the pixel response time of an LCD, or how quickly you can change a sub-pixels brightness from one level to another. For LCD monitors, this is measured in btb (black to black) or gtg (gray to gray). These different types of measurements make comparison difficult.[36] Further, this number is almost never published in sales advertising.

Refresh rate or the temporal resolution of an LCD is the number of times per second in which the display draws the data it is being given. Since activated LCD pixels do not flash on/off between frames, LCD monitors exhibit no refresh-induced flicker, no matter how low the refresh. rate.[37] High-end LCD televisions now feature up to 240 Hz refresh rate, which requires advanced digital processing to insert additional interpolated frames between the real images to smooth the image motion. However, such high refresh rates may not be actually supported by pixel response times and the result can be visual artifacts that distort the image in unpleasant ways. Temporal performance can be further taxed if it is a 3D display. 3D displays work by showing a different series of images to each eye, alternating from eye to eye. For a 3D display it must display twice as many images in the same period of time as a conventional display and consequently the response time of the LCD becomes more important. 3D LCDs with marginal response times, will exhibit image smearing. The temporal resolution of human perception is about 1/100th of a second[citation needed]. It is actually greater in your black and white vision (rod cells) than in color vision (cone cells). You

are more able to see flicker or any sort of temporal distortion in a display image by not looking directly at it as your rods are mostly grouped at the periphery of your vision.

Color Performance There are many terms to describe color performance of an LCD. They include color gamut which is the range of colors that can be displayed and color depth which is the color resolution or the resolution or fineness with which the color range is divided. Although color gamut can be expressed as three pairs of numbers, the XY coordinates within color space of the reddest red, greenest green, and bluest blue, it is usually expressed as a ratio of the total area within color space that a display can show relative to some standard such as saying that a display was 120% of NTSC. NTSC is the National Television Standards Committee, the old standard definition TV specification. Color gamut is a relatively straight forward feature. However with clever optical techniques that are based on the way humans see color, termed color stretch,[38] colors can be shown that are outside of the nominal range of the display. In any case, color range is rarely discussed as a feature of the display as LCDs are designed to match the color ranges of the content that they are intended to show. Having a color range that exceeds the content is a useless feature.

Color Depth or color support is sometimes expressed in bits, either as the number of bits per subpixel or the number of bits per pixel. This can be ambiguous as an 8-bit color LCD can be 8 total bits spread between red, green, and blue or 8 bits each for each color in a different display. Further, LCDs sometimes use a technique called dithering which is time averaging colors to get intermediate colors such as alternating between two different colors to get a color in between. This doubles the number of colors that can be displayed; however this is done at the expense of the temporal performance of the display. Dithering is commonly used on computer displays where the images are mostly static and the temporal performance is unimportant. When color depth is reported as color support, it is usually stated in terms of number of colors the LCD can show. The number of colors is the translation from the base 2-bit numbers into common base-10. For example, s 8-bit, in common terms means 2 to the 8th power or 256 colors. 8-bits per color or 24-bits would be 256 x 256 x 256 or over 16 Million colors. The color resolution of the human eye depends on both the range of colors being sliced and the number of slices; but for most common displays the limit is about 28-bit color. LCD TVs commonly display more than that as the digital processing can introduce color distortions and the additional levels of color are needed to ensure true colors. There are additional aspects to LCD color and color management such as white point and gamma correction which basically describe what color white is and how the other colors are displayed relative to white. LCD televisions also frequently have facial recognition software which recognizes that an image on the screen is a face and both adjust the color and the focus differently from the rest of the image. These adjustments can have important impact to the consumer but are not easily quantifiable; people like what they like and everyone does not like the same thing. There is no substitute for looking at the LCD you are going to buy before buying it. Portrait film, another form of display, has similar adjustments built in to it. Many years ago, Kodak had to overcome initial rejection of its portrait film in Japan because of these adjustments. In the US, people generally prefer a more color facial image than is reality (higher color

saturation). In Japan, consumers generally prefer a less saturated image. The film that Kodak initially sent to Japan was biased in exactly the wrong direction for Japanese consumers. TV sets have their built in biases as well.

Brightness and Contrast ratio: Contrast ratio is the ratio of the brightness of a full-on pixel to a full-off pixel and, as such, would be directly tied to brightness if not for the invention of the blinking backlight (or burst dimming). The LCD itself is only a light valve, it does not generate light; the light comes from a backlight that is either a florescent tube or a set of LEDs. The blinking backlight was developed to improve the motion performance of LCDs by turning the backlight off while the liquid crystals were in transition from one image to another. However, a side benefit of the blinking backlight was infinite contrast. The contrast reported on most LCDs is what the LCD is qualified at, not its actual performance. In any case, there are two large caveats to contrast ratio as a measure of LCD performance.

The first caveat is that contrast ratios are measured in a completely dark room. In actual use, the room is never completely dark as you will always have the light from the LCD itself. Beyond that, there may be sunlight coming in through a window or other room lights that reflect off of the surface of the LCD and degrade the contrast. As a practical matter, the contrast of an LCD, or any display, is governed by the amount of surface reflections not by the performance of the display. The second caveat is that the human eye can only image a contrast ratio of a maximum of about 200:1. Black print on a white paper is about 15-20:1. That is why viewing angles are specified to the point where the fall below 10:1. A 10:1 image is not great, but is discernable. Brightness is usually stated as the maximum output of the LCD. In the CRT era, Trinitron CRTs had a brightness advantage over the competition so brightness was commonly discussed in TV advertising. With current LCD technology, brightness, though important, is usually the same from maker to maker and is consequently not discussed much except for notebook LCDs and other displays that will be viewed in bright sunlight. In general, brighter is better but there is always a trade-off between brightness and battery life in a mobile device.

[edit] Military use of LCD monitors

LCD monitors have been adopted by the United States of America military instead of CRT displays because they are smaller, lighter and more efficient, although monochrome plasma displays are also used, notably for their M1 Abrams tanks. For use with night vision imaging systems a US military LCD monitor must be compliant with MIL-STD-3009 (formerly MIL-L85762A). These LCD monitors go through extensive certification so that they pass the standards for the military. These include MIL-STD-901D - High Shock (Sea Vessels), MIL-STD-167B Vibration (Sea Vessels), MIL-STD-810F Field Environmental Conditions (Ground Vehicles and Systems), MIL-STD-461E/F EMI/RFI (Electromagnetic Interference/Radio Frequency Interference), MIL-STD-740B Airborne/Structureborne Noise, and TEMPEST Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions.[39]

[edit] Advantages and disadvantages of LCD

[edit] LCD
Further information: Comparison CRT, LCD, Plasma In spite of LCD's being a well proven and still viable technology, as display devices LCDs are not perfect for all applications. Pros:

Very compact and light. Low power consumption. No geometric distortion. Little or no flicker depending on backlight technology. Not affected by screen burn-in. No high voltage or other hazards present during repair/service.[citation needed] Can be made in almost any size or shape. No theoretical resolution limit.

Cons:

Limited viewing angle, causing color, saturation, contrast and brightness to vary, even within the intended viewing angle, by variations in posture. Bleeding and uneven backlighting in some monitors, causing brightness distortion, especially toward the edges. Smearing and ghosting artifacts caused by slow response times (>8 ms) and "sample and hold" operation. Only one native resolution. Displaying resolutions either requires a video scaler, lowering perceptual quality, or display at 1:1 pixel mapping, in which images will be physically too large or won't fill the whole screen. Fixed bit depth, many cheaper LCDs are only able to display 262,000 colors. 8-bit S-IPS panels can display 16 million colors and have significantly better black level, but are expensive and have slower response time. Input lag Dead or stuck pixels may occur either during manufacturing or through use. In a constant on situation, thermalization may occur, which is when only part of the screen has overheated and therefore looks discolored compared to the rest of the screen. Not all LCDs are designed to allow easy replacement of the backlight. Cannot be used with light guns/pens.

Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a

digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time. CCDs move charge between capacitive bins in the device, with the shift allowing for the transfer of charge between bins. The CCD is a major technology for digital imaging. In a CCD image sensor, reverse-biased pn junctions (essentially photodiodes) are used to absorb photons and produce charges representing sensed pixels; the CCD is used to read out these charges. Although CCDs are not the only technology to allow for light detection, CCD image sensors are widely used in professional, medical, and scientific applications where high-quality image data is required.

Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Basics of operation 3 Detailed physics of operation 4 Architecture 5 Use in astronomy 6 Color cameras o 6.1 Sensor sizes 7 Electron-multiplying CCD 8 Frame transfer CCD 9 Intensified charge-coupled device 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

[edit] History
The charge-coupled device was invented in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs by Willard Boyle and George E. Smith. The lab was working on semiconductor bubble memory when Boyle and Smith conceived of the design of what they termed, in their notebook, "Charge 'Bubble' Devices".[1] A description of how the device could be used as a shift register and as a linear and area imaging devices was described in this first entry. The essence of the design was the ability to transfer charge along the surface of a semiconductor from one storage capacitor to the next. The concept was similar in principle to the bucket-brigade device (BBD), which was developed at Philips Research Labs during the late 1960s. The initial paper describing the concept[2] listed possible uses as a memory, a delay line, and an imaging device. The first experimental device[3] demonstrating the principle was a row of closely spaced metal squares on an oxidized silicon surface electrically accessed by wire bonds.

The first working CCD made with integrated circuit technology was a simple 8-bit shift register. [4] This device had input and output circuits and was used to demonstrate its use as a shift register and as a crude eight pixel linear imaging device. Development of the device progressed at a rapid rate. By 1971, Bell researchers Michael F. Tompsett et al. were able to capture images with simple linear devices.[5] Several companies, including Fairchild Semiconductor, RCA and Texas Instruments, picked up on the invention and began development programs. Fairchild's effort, led by ex-Bell researcher Gil Amelio, was the first with commercial devices, and by 1974 had a linear 500-element device and a 2-D 100 x 100 pixel device. The first KH-11 KENNAN reconnaissance satellite equipped with charge-coupled device array technology for imaging was launched in December 1976.[6] Under the leadership of Kazuo Iwama, Sony also started a big development effort on CCDs involving a significant investment. Eventually, Sony managed to mass produce CCDs for their camcorders. Before this happened, Iwama died in August 1982; subsequently, a CCD chip was placed on his tombstone to acknowledge his contribution.[7] In January 2006, Boyle and Smith were awarded the National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize,[8] and in 2009 they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics,[9] for their work on the CCD.

[edit] Basics of operation

The charge packets (electrons, blue) are collected in potential wells (yellow) created by applying positive voltage at the gate electrodes (G). Applying positive voltage to the gate electrode in the correct sequence transfers the charge packets. In a CCD for capturing images, there is a photoactive region (an epitaxial layer of silicon), and a transmission region made out of a shift register (the CCD, properly speaking). An image is projected through a lens onto the capacitor array (the photoactive region), causing each capacitor to accumulate an electric charge proportional to the light intensity at that location. A one-dimensional array, used in line-scan cameras, captures a single slice of the image, while a two-dimensional array, used in video and still cameras, captures a two-dimensional picture corresponding to the scene projected onto the focal plane of the sensor. Once the array has been exposed to the image, a control circuit causes each capacitor to transfer its contents to its neighbor (operating as a shift register). The last capacitor in the array dumps its charge into a charge amplifier, which converts the charge into a voltage. By repeating this process, the controlling circuit converts the entire contents of the array in the semiconductor to a sequence of

voltages. In a digital device, these voltages are then sampled, digitized, and usually stored in memory; in an analog device (such as an analog video camera), they are processed into a continuous analog signal (e.g. by feeding the output of the charge amplifier into a low-pass filter) which is then processed and fed out to other circuits for transmission, recording, or other processing.

"One-dimensional" CCD image sensor from a fax machine.

[edit] Detailed physics of operation

The photoactive region of the CCD is, generally, an epitaxial layer of silicon. It has a doping of p+ (Boron) and is grown upon a substrate material, often p++. In buried channel devices, the type of design utilized in most modern CCDs, certain areas of the surface of the silicon are ion implanted with phosphorus, giving them an n-doped designation. This region defines the channel in which the photogenerated charge packets will travel. The gate oxide, i.e. the capacitor dielectric, is grown on top of the epitaxial layer and substrate. Later on in the process polysilicon gates are deposited by chemical vapor deposition, patterned with photolithography, and etched in such a way that the separately phased gates lie perpendicular to the channels. The channels are further defined by utilization of the LOCOS process to produce the channel stop region. Channel stops are thermally grown oxides that serve to isolate the charge packets in one column from those in another. These channel stops are produced before the polysilicon gates are, as the LOCOS process utilizes a high temperature step that would destroy the gate material. The channels stops are parallel to, and exclusive of, the channel, or "charge carrying", regions. Channel stops often have a p+ doped region underlying them, providing a further barrier to the electrons in the charge packets (this discussion of the physics of CCD devices assumes an electron transfer device, though hole transfer is possible). The clocking of the gates, alternately high and low, will forward and reverse bias to the diode that is provided by the buried channel (n-doped) and the epitaxial layer (p-doped). This will cause the CCD to deplete, near the p-n junction and will collect and move the charge packets beneath the gatesand within the channelsof the device. CCD manufacturing and operation can be optimized for different uses. The above process describes a frame transfer CCD. While CCDs may be manufactured on a heavily doped p++ wafer it is also possible to manufacture a device inside p-wells that have been placed on an nwafer. This second method, reportedly, reduces smear, dark current, and infrared and red response. This method of manufacture is used in the construction of interline transfer devices.

Another version of CCD is called a peristaltic CCD. In a peristaltic charge-coupled device, the charge packet transfer operation is analogous to the peristaltic contraction and dilation of the digestive system. The peristaltic CCD has an additional implant that keeps the charge away from the silicon/silicon dioxide interface and generates a large lateral electric field from one gate to the next. This provides an additional driving force to aid in transfer of the charge packets.

[edit] Architecture
The CCD image sensors can be implemented in several different architectures. The most common are full-frame, frame-transfer, and interline. The distinguishing characteristic of each of these architectures is their approach to the problem of shuttering. In a full-frame device, all of the image area is active, and there is no electronic shutter. A mechanical shutter must be added to this type of sensor or the image smears as the device is clocked or read out. With a frame-transfer CCD, half of the silicon area is covered by an opaque mask (typically aluminum). The image can be quickly transferred from the image area to the opaque area or storage region with acceptable smear of a few percent. That image can then be read out slowly from the storage region while a new image is integrating or exposing in the active area. Frametransfer devices typically do not require a mechanical shutter and were a common architecture for early solid-state broadcast cameras. The downside to the frame-transfer architecture is that it requires twice the silicon real estate of an equivalent full-frame device; hence, it costs roughly twice as much. The interline architecture extends this concept one step further and masks every other column of the image sensor for storage. In this device, only one pixel shift has to occur to transfer from image area to storage area; thus, shutter times can be less than a microsecond and smear is essentially eliminated. The advantage is not free, however, as the imaging area is now covered by opaque strips dropping the fill factor to approximately 50 percent and the effective quantum efficiency by an equivalent amount. Modern designs have addressed this deleterious characteristic by adding microlenses on the surface of the device to direct light away from the opaque regions and on the active area. Microlenses can bring the fill factor back up to 90 percent or more depending on pixel size and the overall system's optical design.

CCD from a 2.1 megapixel Argus digital camera.

The choice of architecture comes down to one of utility. If the application cannot tolerate an expensive, failure-prone, power-intensive mechanical shutter, an interline device is the right choice. Consumer snap-shot cameras have used interline devices. On the other hand, for those applications that require the best possible light collection and issues of money, power and time are less important, the full-frame device is the right choice. Astronomers tend to prefer full-frame devices. The frame-transfer falls in between and was a common choice before the fill-factor issue of interline devices was addressed. Today, frame-transfer is usually chosen when an interline architecture is not available, such as in a back-illuminated device. CCDs containing grids of pixels are used in digital cameras, optical scanners, and video cameras as light-sensing devices. They commonly respond to 70 percent of the incident light (meaning a quantum efficiency of about 70 percent) making them far more efficient than photographic film, which captures only about 2 percent of the incident light.

CCD from a 2.1 megapixel Hewlett-Packard digital camera. Most common types of CCDs are sensitive to near-infrared light, which allows infrared photography, night-vision devices, and zero lux (or near zero lux) video-recording/photography. For normal silicon-based detectors, the sensitivity is limited to 1.1 m. One other consequence of their sensitivity to infrared is that infrared from remote controls often appears on CCD-based digital cameras or camcorders if they do not have infrared blockers. Cooling reduces the array's dark current, improving the sensitivity of the CCD to low light intensities, even for ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. Professional observatories often cool their detectors with liquid nitrogen to reduce the dark current, and therefore the thermal noise, to negligible levels.

[edit] Use in astronomy

Due to the high quantum efficiencies of CCDs, linearity of their outputs (one count for one photon of light), ease of use compared to photographic plates, and a variety of other reasons, CCDs were very rapidly adopted by astronomers for nearly all UV-to-infrared applications.

Thermal noise and cosmic rays may alter the pixels in the CCD array. To counter such effects, astronomers take several exposures with the CCD shutter closed and opened. The average of images taken with the shutter closed is necessary to lower the random noise. Once developed, the dark frame average image is then subtracted from the open-shutter image to remove the dark current and other systematic defects (dead pixels, hot pixels, etc.) in the CCD. The Hubble Space Telescope, in particular, has a highly developed series of steps (data reduction pipeline) to convert the raw CCD data to useful images. See the references for a more in-depth description of the steps in astronomical CCD image-data correction and processing.[10] CCD cameras used in astrophotography often require sturdy mounts to cope with vibrations from wind and other sources, along with the tremendous weight of most imaging platforms. To take long exposures of galaxies and nebulae, many astronomers use a technique known as autoguiding. Most autoguiders use a second CCD chip to monitor deviations during imaging. This chip can rapidly detect errors in tracking and command the mount motors to correct for them.

Array of 30 CCDs used on Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope imaging camera, an example of "drift-scanning." An interesting unusual astronomical application of CCDs, called drift-scanning, uses a CCD to make a fixed telescope behave like a tracking telescope and follow the motion of the sky. The charges in the CCD are transferred and read in a direction parallel to the motion of the sky, and at the same speed. In this way, the telescope can image a larger region of the sky than its normal field of view. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the most famous example of this, using the technique to produce the largest uniform survey of the sky yet accomplished.

In addition to astronomy, CCDs are also used in laboratory analytical instrumentation such as monochromators, spectrometers, and N-slit laser interferometers.[11]

[edit] Color cameras

A Bayer filter on a CCD

CCD color sensor Digital color cameras generally use a Bayer mask over the CCD. Each square of four pixels has one filtered red, one blue, and two green (the human eye is more sensitive to green than either red or blue). The result of this is that luminance information is collected at every pixel, but the color resolution is lower than the luminance resolution. Better color separation can be reached by three-CCD devices (3CCD) and a dichroic beam splitter prism, that splits the image into red, green and blue components. Each of the three CCDs is arranged to respond to a particular color. Most professional video camcorders, and some semiprofessional camcorders, use this technique. Another advantage of 3CCD over a Bayer mask device is higher quantum efficiency (and therefore higher light sensitivity for a given aperture size). This is because in a 3CCD device most of the light entering the aperture is captured by a sensor, while a Bayer mask absorbs a high proportion (about 2/3) of the light falling on each CCD pixel.

For still scenes, for instance in microscopy, the resolution of a Bayer mask device can be enhanced by Microscanning technology. During the process of color co-site sampling, several frames of the scene are produced. Between acquisitions, the sensor is moved in pixel dimensions, so that each point in the visual field is acquired consecutively by elements of the mask that are sensitive to the red, green and blue components of its color. Eventually every pixel in the image has been scanned at least once in each color and the resolution of the three channels become equivalent (the resolutions of red and blue channels are quadrupled while the green channel is doubled).

[edit] Sensor sizes

Sensors (CCD / CMOS) are often referred to with an inch fraction designation such as 1/1.8" or 2/3" called the optical format. This measurement actually originates back in the 1950s and the time of Vidicon tubes. Compact digital cameras and Digicams typically have much smaller sensors than a digital SLR and are thus less sensitive to light and inherently more prone to noise. Some examples of the CCDs found in modern cameras can be found in this table in a Digital Photography Review article Type Aspect Ratio 1/6" 1/4" 1/3.6" 1/3.2" 1/3" 1/2.7" 1/2" 1/1.8" 2/3" 1" 4/3" 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 4:3 Width Height Diagonal mm mm mm 2.300 3.200 4.000 4.536 4.800 5.270 6.400 7.176 8.800 12.80 0 1.730 2.400 3.000 3.416 3.600 3.960 4.800 5.319 6.600 9.600 2.878 4.000 5.000 5.678 6.000 6.592 8.000 8.932 11.000 16.000 22.500 Area mm2 3.979 7.680 12.000 15.495 17.280 20.869 30.720 38.169 58.080 122.880 243.000 Relative Area 1.000 1.930 3.016 3.894 4.343 5.245 7.721 9.593 14.597 30.882 61.070

18.00 13.500 0

Other image sizes as a comparison APS-C 35mm 3:2 3:2 25.10 16.700 0 36.00 24.000 30.148 43.267 419.170 864.000 105.346 217.140

0 645 4:3 56.00 41.500 0 69.701 2324.00 0 584.066

[edit] Electron-multiplying CCD

Electrons are transferred serially through the gain stages making up the multiplication register of an EMCCD. The high voltages used in these serial transfers induce the creation of additional charge carriers through impact ionisation.

There is a dispersion (variation) in the number of electrons output by the multiplication register for a given (fixed) number of input electrons (shown in the legend on the right). The probability distribution for the number of output electrons is plotted logarithmically on the vertical axis for a simulation of a multiplication register. Also shown are results from the empirical fit equation shown on this page. An electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD, also known as an L3Vision CCD, L3CCD or Impactron CCD) is a charge-coupled device in which a gain register is placed between the shift register and the output amplifier. The gain register is split up into a large number of stages. In each stage the electrons are multiplied by impact ionization in a similar way to an avalanche diode. The gain probability at every stage of the register is small (P < 2%) but as the number of elements is large (N > 500), the overall gain can be very high (g = (1 + P)N), with single input electrons giving many thousands of output electrons. Reading a signal from a CCD gives a noise background, typically a few electrons. In an EMCCD this noise is superimposed on many thousands of electrons rather than a single electron; the devices thus have negligible readout noise. EMCCDs show a similar sensitivity to Intensified CCDs (ICCDs). However, as with ICCDs, the gain that is applied in the gain register is stochastic and the exact gain that has been applied to a pixel's charge is impossible to know. At high gains (> 30), this uncertainty has the same effect on

the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as halving the quantum efficiency with respect to operation with a gain of unity. However, at very low light levels (where the quantum efficiency is most important) it can be assumed that a pixel either contains an electron - or not. This removes the noise associated with the stochastic multiplication at the cost of counting multiple electrons in the same pixel as a single electron. The dispersion in the gain is shown in the graph on the right. For multiplication registers with many elements and large gains it is well modelled by the equation:

if where P is the probability of getting n output electrons given m input electrons and a total mean multiplication register gain of g. Because of the lower costs and the somewhat better resolution EMCCDs are capable of replacing ICCDs in many applications. ICCDs still have the advantage that they can be gated very fast and thus are useful in applications like range-gated imaging. EMCCD cameras indispensably need a cooling system to cool the chip down to temperatures around 170 K. This cooling system unfortunately adds additional costs to the EMCCD imaging system and often yields heavy condensation problems in the application. The low-light capabilities of L3CCDs are starting to find use in astronomy. In particular their low noise at high readout speeds makes them very useful for lucky imaging of faint stars, and high speed photon counting photometry. Commercial EMCCD cameras typically have clock-induced charge and dark current (dependent on the extent of cooling) that leads to an effective readout noise ranging from 0.01 to 1 electrons per pixel read. Custom-built deep-cooled non-inverting mode EMCCD cameras have provided effective readout noise lower than 0.1 electrons per pixel read [1] for lucky imaging observations.

[edit] Frame transfer CCD

A frame transfer CCD for startracker applications.

Vertical smear. A frame transfer CCD is a specialized CCD, often used in astronomy and some professional video cameras, designed for high exposure efficiency and correctness. The normal functioning of a CCD, astronomical or otherwise, can be divided into two phases: exposure and readout. During the first phase, the CCD passively collects incoming photons, storing electrons in its cells. After the exposure time is passed, the cells are read out one line at a time. During the readout phase, cells are shifted down the entire area of the CCD. While they are shifted, they continue to collect light. Thus, if the shifting is not fast enough, errors can result from light that falls on a cell holding charge during the transfer. These errors are referred to as "vertical smear" and cause a strong light source to create a vertical line above and below its exact location. In addition, the CCD cannot be used to collect light while it is being read out. Unfortunately, a faster shifting requires a faster readout, and a faster readout can introduce errors in the cell charge measurement, leading to a higher noise level. A frame transfer CCD solves both problems: it has a shielded, not light sensitive, area containing as many cells as the area exposed to light. Typically, this area is covered by a reflective material

such as aluminium. When the exposure time is up, the cells are transferred very rapidly to the hidden area. Here, safe from any incoming light, cells can be read out at any speed one deems necessary to correctly measure the cells' charge. At the same time, the exposed part of the CCD is collecting light again, so no delay occurs between successive exposures. The disadvantage of such a CCD is the higher cost: the cell area is basically doubled, and more complex control electronics are needed.

[edit] Intensified charge-coupled device

An intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) is a CCD that is optically connected to an image intensifier that is mounted in front of the CCD. An image intensifier includes three functional elements: a photocathode, a micro-channel plate (MCP) and a phosphor screen. These three elements are mounted one close behind the other in the mentioned sequence. The photons which are coming from the light source fall onto the photocathode, thereby generating photoelectrons. The photoelectrons are accelerated towards the MCP by an electrical control voltage, applied between photocathode and MCP. The electrons are multiplied inside of the MCP and thereafter accelerated towards the phosphor screen. The phosphor screen finally converts the multiplied electrons back to photons which are guided to the CCD by a fiber optic or a lens. An image intensifier inherently includes a shutter functionality: If the control voltage between the photocathode and the MCP is reversed, the emitted photoelectrons are not accelerated towards the MCP but return to the photocathode. Thus, no electrons are multiplied and emitted by the MCP, no electrons are going to the phosphor screen and no light is emitted from the image intensifier. In this case no light falls onto the CCD, which means that the shutter is closed. The process of reversing the control voltage at the photocathode is called gating and therefore ICCDs are also called gateable CCD cameras. Besides the extremely high sensitivity of ICCD cameras, which enable single photon detection, the gateability is one of the major advantages of the ICCD over the EMCCD cameras. The highest performing ICCD cameras enable shutter times as short as 200 picoseconds. ICCD cameras are in general somewhat higher in price than EMCCD cameras because they need the expensive image intensifier. On the other hand EMCCD cameras need a cooling system to cool the EMCCD chip down to temperatures around 170 K. This cooling system adds additional costs to the EMCCD camera and often yields heavy condensation problems in the application. ICCDs are used in night vision devices and in a large variety of scientific applications.

[edit] See also

Image sensor Photodiode

CMOS sensor Bucket-brigade device Bayer filter 3CCD Rotating line camera Superconducting camera Super CCD Wide dynamic range Foveon X3 sensor Hole Accumulation Diode (HAD) Camcorder Andor Technology Manufacturer of EMCCD cameras PI/Acton Manufacturer of EMCCD cameras

Silicon-controlled rectifier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

SCR schematic symbol

A high power SCR A silicon-controlled rectifier (or semiconductor-controlled rectifier) is a four-layer solid state device that controls current. The name "silicon controlled rectifier" or SCR is General Electric's trade name for a type of thyristor. The SCR was developed by a team of power engineers led by Gordon Hall and commercialized by Frank W. "Bill" Gutzwiller in 1957.

Contents
[hide]

1 Construction of SCR 2 Modes of operation 3 Reverse Bias 4 Application of SCRs 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

[edit] Construction of SCR

An SCR consists of four layers of alternating P and N type semiconductor materials. Silicon is used as the intrinsic semiconductor, to which the proper dopants are added. The junctions are either diffused or alloyed. The planar construction is used for low power SCRs (and all the junctions are diffused). The mesa type construction is used for high power SCRs. In this case, junction J2 is obtained by the diffusion method and then the outer two layers are alloyed to it, since the PNPN pellet is required to handle large currents. It is properly braced with tungsten or molybdenum plates to provide greater mechanical strength. One of these plates is hard soldered to a copper stud, which is threaded for attachment of heat sink. The doping of PNPN will depend on the application of SCR, since its characteristics are similar to those of the thyratron. Today, the term thyristor applies to the larger family of multilayer devices that exhibit bistable statechange behaviour, that is, switching either ON or OFF. The operation of a SCR and other thyristors can be understood in terms of a pair of tightly coupled bipolar junction transistors, arranged to cause the self-latching action:

[edit] Modes of operation

In the normal "off" state, the device restricts current to the leakage current. When the gate-tocathode voltage exceeds a certain threshold, the device turns "on" and conducts current. The device will remain in the "on" state even after gate current is removed so long as current through the device remains above the holding current. Once current falls below the holding current for an

appropriate period of time, the device will switch "off". If the gate is pulsed and the current through the device is below the holding current, the device will remain in the "off" state. If the applied voltage increases rapidly enough, capacitive coupling may induce enough charge into the gate to trigger the device into the "on" state; this is referred to as "dv/dt triggering." This is usually prevented by limiting the rate of voltage rise across the device, perhaps by using a snubber. "dv/dt triggering" may not switch the SCR into full conduction rapidly and the partially-triggered SCR may dissipate more power than is usual, possibly harming the device. SCRs can also be triggered by increasing the forward voltage beyond their rated breakdown voltage (also called as break over voltage), but again, this does not rapidly switch the entire device into conduction and so may be harmful so this mode of operation is also usually avoided. Also, the actual breakdown voltage may be substantially higher than the rated breakdown voltage, so the exact trigger point will vary from device to device. This device is generally used in switching applications.

[edit] Reverse Bias

SCR are available with or without reverse blocking capability. Reverse blocking capability adds to the forward voltage drop because of the need to have a long, low doped P1 region. Usually, the reverse blocking voltage rating and forward blocking voltage rating are the same. The typical application for reverse blocking SCR is in current source inverters. SCR incapable of blocking reverse voltage are known as asymmetrical SCR, abbreviated ASCR. They typically have a reverse breakdown rating in the 10's of volts. ASCR are used where either a reverse conducting diode is applied in parallel (for example, in voltage source inverters) or where reverse voltage would never occur (for example, in switching power supplies or DC traction choppers). Asymmetrical SCR can be fabricated with a reverse conducting diode in the same package. These are known as RCT, for reverse conducting thyristor.

[edit] Application of SCRs

SCRs are mainly used in devices where the control of high power, possibly coupled with high voltage, is demanded. Their operation makes them suitable for use in medium to high-voltage AC power control applications, such as lamp dimming, regulators and motor control. SCRs and similar devices are used for rectification of high power AC in high-voltage direct current power transmission.

[edit] See also

Dimmer high-voltage direct current

Gate turn-off thyristor Insulated-gate bipolar transistor Integrated gate-commutated thyristor Thyristor TRIAC Voltage regulator Snubber Crowbar (circuit) DIAC

[edit] External links

SCR at AllAboutCircuits

[edit] References

Industrial and Power Electronics by G.K Mithal Power Electronics by K B Khanchandani [hide]v d eElectronic components

Avalanche diode Barretter Darlington transistor DIAC Diode Field-effect transistor (FET) Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) JFET LightSemiconductors emitting diode (LED) Memristor MOSFET Photodetector PIN diode Silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) Thyristor Transistor TRIAC Unijunction transistor (UJT) Zener diode Vacuum tubes Cold cathode Compactron Nuvistor Pentode Pentagrid converter Tetrode Triode

Backward wave oscillator (BWO) Cavity magnetron Crossed-field Vacuum tubes amplifier Gyrotron Inductive output tube (IOT) Klystron Maser (RF) Traveling-wave tube Adjustable Passive Reactive Potentiometer Thermostat Variable capacitor Varicap Varistor Humidistat Connector (Electrical power, Baseband, RF) Ferrite Fuse Resettable fuse Resistor (Thermistor) Transformer Capacitor Ceramic resonator Crystal oscillator Inductor

DIAC

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "DIAC" redirects here. For other uses, see DIAC (disambiguation).

Typical DIAC voltage and current relationships. VBO - breakover voltage

DIAC

Three-layer DIAC The DIAC, or 'diode for alternating current', is a diode that conducts current only after its breakover voltage has been reached momentarily. When this occurs, diode enters the region of negative dynamic resistance, leading to a decrease in the voltage drop across the diode and, usually, a sharp increase in current through the diode. The diode remains "in conduction" until the current through it drops below a value characteristic for the device, called the holding current. Below this value, the diode switches back to its highresistance (non-conducting) state. This behavior is bidirectional, meaning typically the same for both directions of current. Most DIACs have a three-layer structure with breakover voltage around 30 V. In this way, their behavior is somewhat similar to (but much more precisely controlled and taking place at lower voltages than) a neon lamp. DIACs have no gate electrode, unlike some other thyristors that they are commonly used to trigger, such as TRIACs. Some TRIACs, like Quadrac, contain a built-in DIAC in series with the TRIAC's "gate" terminal for this purpose.

DIACs are also called symmetrical trigger diodes due to the symmetry of their characteristic curve. Because DIACs are bidirectional devices, their terminals are not labeled as anode and cathode but as A1 and A2 or MT1 ("Main Terminal") and MT2.

[edit] SIDAC

SIDAC

Idealized breakover diode voltage and current relationships. Once the voltage exceeds the turnon threshold, the device turns on and the voltage rapidly falls while the current increases. The SIDAC is a less common electrically similar device, the difference in naming being determined by the manufacturer. In general, SIDACs have higher breakover voltages and current handling. The SIDAC, or Silicon Diode for Alternating Current, is another member of the thyristor family. Also referred to as a SYDAC (Silicon thYristor for Alternating Current), bi-directional thyristor breakover diode, or more simply a bi-directional thyristor diode, it is technically specified as a bilateral voltage triggered switch. Its operation is similar to that of the DIAC, but SIDAC is always a five-layer device with low-voltage drop in latched conducting state, more like a voltage triggered TRIAC without a gate. In general, SIDACs have higher breakover voltages and current handling capacities than DIACs, so they can be directly used for switching and not just for triggering of another switching device. The operation of the SIDAC is functionally similar to that of a spark gap. The SIDAC remains nonconducting until the applied voltage meets or exceeds its rated breakover voltage. Once entering this conductive state going through the negative dynamic resistance region, the SIDAC continues to conduct, regardless of voltage, until the applied current falls below its rated holding current. At this point, the SIDAC returns to its initial nonconductive state to begin the cycle once again.

Somewhat uncommon in most electronics, the SIDAC is relegated to the status of a special purpose device. However, where part-counts are to be kept low, simple relaxation oscillators are needed, and when the voltages are too low for practical operation of a spark gap, the SIDAC is an indispensable component. Similar devices, though usually not functionally interchangeable with SIDACs, are the Thyristor Surge Protection Devices (TSPD), Trisil, SIDACtor, or the now-obsolete Surgector. These are designed to tolerate large surge currents for the suppression of overvoltage transients.

[edit] See also

Shockley diode Triode for Alternating Current (TRIAC) Silicon-controlled Rectifier (SCR) Trisil Quadrac

TRIAC
TRIAC, from Triode for Alternating Current, is a genericized tradename for an electronic component which can conduct current in either direction when it is triggered (turned on), and is formally called a bidirectional triode thyristor or bilateral triode thyristor. SCRs are unidirectional (one-way) current devices, making them useful for controlling DC only. If two SCRs are joined in back-to-back parallel fashion just like two Shockley diodes were joined together to form a DIAC, we have a new device known as the TRIAC. A TRIAC is approximately equivalent to two complementary unilateral thyristors (one is anode triggered and another is cathode triggered SCR) joined in antiparallel (paralleled but with the polarity reversed) and with their gates connected together. It can be triggered by either a positive or a negative voltage being applied to its gate electrode (with respect to A1, otherwise known as MT1). Once triggered, the device continues to conduct until the current through it drops below a certain threshold value, the holding current, such as at the end of a half-cycle of alternating current (AC) mains power. This makes the TRIAC a very convenient switch for AC circuits, allowing the control of very large power flows with milliampere-scale control currents. In addition, applying a trigger pulse at a controllable point in an AC cycle allows one to control the percentage of current that flows through the TRIAC to the load (phase control).

Contents
[hide]

1 Physics of the device o 1.1 Triggering in Quadrant I[2]

1.2 Triggering in Quadrant II[2] 1.3 Triggering in Quadrant III[2] 1.4 Triggering in Quadrant IV[2] 2 Application 3 Example data 4 Alternistor 5 See also 6 References
o o o

7 External links

[edit] Physics of the device

To explain the way TRIACs work, one has to individually analyze the triggering in each one of the four quadrants. The four quadrants are defined as in the Figure 1 below, according to the voltage of the gate and the A2 terminals with respect to the A1 terminal. The A1 and A2 terminals are sometimes called also MT1 and MT2, respectively.[1]

Figure 1: Triggering modes. The relative sensitivity depends on the physical structure of a particular triac, but as a rule, sensitivity is highest in quadrant I and quadrant IV is generally considerably less sensitive than the others. A triac is said to be "sensitive" if a low gate current is needed to turn it on.

Figure 2: TRIAC semiconductor construction.

[edit] Triggering in Quadrant I[2]

This triggering mode happens when the gate and MT2 (or A2) are positive with respect to MT1 (or A1).

Figure 3: Operation in the Q-I. The gate current makes an equivalent npn transistor switch on, which in turns drags current from the base of an equivalent pnp transitor, turning it on too. Part of the gate current (dotted line) is lost through the ohmic path across the p-silicon, flowing directly into the MT1 without passing through the npn transistor base. The precise mechanism is explained in Figure 3. In this case, the injection of holes in the psilicon makes the stacked n, p and n layers beneath MT1 behave like a npn transistor, which turns on due to the presence of a current in its base. This, in turn, causes the p, n and p layers over MT2 to behave like a pnp transistor, which turns on because its n-type base becomes forward-biased with the emitter (MT2). Thus, the triggering scheme is the same as a SCR and the equivalent circuit is outlined in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Equivalent electric circuit for a triac in Q-I operation mode. However, the structure is different from SCRs. In particular, in TRIACs there is always a small current flowing directly from the gate to the MT1 through the p-silicon without passing through the p-n junction between the base and the emitter of the equivalent npn transistor. This current is indicated in Figure 3 by a dotted red line and it is the reason why a TRIAC needs more gate current to turn on than a comparable-rating SCR. Generally, this quadrant is the most sensitive one of the four.

[edit] Triggering in Quadrant II[2]

According to Figure 1, Q-II is defined as the operation mode which has a negative gate and a positive MT2 with respect to MT1.

Figure 5: Triggering in Q-II. Figure 5 gives a graphical explanation of the triggering process. The turn-on of the device is three-fold and starts when the current from MT1 flows into the gate through the p-n junction under the gate. This switches on a structure composed by a npn transistor and a pnp transistor, which has the gate as cathode (the turn-on of this structure is indicated by a "1" in the figure). As current into the gate increases, the potential of the left side of the p-silicon under the gate rises towards MT1, since the difference in potential between the gate and MT2 tends to lower: this causes the establishment of a current between the left side and the right side of the p-silicon (indicated by a "2" in the figure), which in turn switches on the npn transistor under the MT1 terminal and as a consequence also the pnp transistor between MT2 and the right side of the upper p-silicon. So, in the end, the structure which is crossed by the major portion of the current is the same as in the case of Q-I and is indicated by a "3" in Figure 5.

[edit] Triggering in Quadrant III[2]

According to Figure 1, triggering is achieved in the Q-III when both the gate and the A2 (or MT2) are negative with respect to the A1 (or MT1) terminal.

Figure 6: Triggering in Q-III. The whole process is outlined in Figure 6. As one can see in the figure, the process happens in different steps here too. In the first phase, the pn junction between the MT1 terminal and the gate becomes forward-biased (step 1). As forward-biasing implies the injection of minority carriers in the two layers joining the junction, electrons are injected in the p-layer under the gate. Some of these electrons do not recombinate and escape to the underlaying n-region (step 2). This in turn lowers the potential of the n-region, which acts as the base of a pnp transistor which switches on (the fact of turning the transistor on without directly lowering the base potential is called remote gate control). The lower p-layer works as the collector of this pnp transistor and has its voltage heightened: actually, this p-layer also acts as the base of a npn transistor made up by the last three layers just over the MT2 terminal, which, in turn, gets activated. Therefore, the red arrow labeled with a "3" in Figure 6 shows the final conduction path of the current.

[edit] Triggering in Quadrant IV[2]

According to Figure 1, triggering is achieved in the Q-IV when the gate is positive and the A2 (or MT2) is negative with respect to A1 (or MT1).

Figure 7: Triggering in Q-IV. Triggering in this quadrant is similar to triggering in Q-III. The process uses a remote gate control also in this case and is explained in Figure 7. As current flows from the p-layer under the gate into the n-layer under the MT1 (or A1) terminal, minority carriers in the form of free electrons are injected into the p-region and some of them manage are collected by the underlaying np-junction and pass into the adjoining n-region without recombinating. As in the case of a triggering in the Q-III, this lowers the potential of such n-layer and turns on the pnp transistor formed by the n-layer and the two p-layers next to it. The lower p-layer works as the collector of this pnp transistor and has its voltage heightened: actually, this p-layer also acts as the base of a npn transistor made up by the last three layers just over the MT2 terminal, which, in turn, gets activated. Therefore, the red arrow labeled with a "3" in Figure 6 shows the final conduction path of the current. Generally, this quadrant is the less sensitive one of the four.

[edit] Application
Low power TRIACs are used in many applications such as light dimmers, speed controls for electric fans and other electric motors, and in the modern computerized control circuits of many household small and major appliances. However, when used with inductive loads such as electric fans, care must be taken to assure that the TRIAC will turn off correctly at the end of each half-cycle of the AC power. Indeed, TRIACs

can be very sensitive to high values of dv/dt between A1 and A2, so a phase shift between current and voltage (as in the case of an inductive load) leads to sudden voltage step which can make the device turn on in an unwanted manner.[2] Unwanted turn-ons can be avoided by using a snubber circuit (usually of the RC or RCL type) between A1 and A2. Snubber circuits are also used to prevent premature triggering, caused for example by voltage spikes in the mains supply. Because turn-ons are caused by internal capacitive currents flowing into the gate as a consequence of a high voltage dv/dt, a gate resistor or capacitor (or both in parallel) may be connected between gate and A1 to provide a low-impedance path to A1 and further prevent false triggering. This, however, increases the required trigger current or adds latency due to capacitor charging. On the other hand, a resistor between the gate and A1 helps dragging leakage currents out of the device, thus improving the performance of the TRIAC at high temperature, where the maximum allowed dv/dt is lower. Values of resistors less than 1k and capacitors of 100nF are generally suitable for this purpose, although the fine-tuning should be done on the particular device model.[3] For higher-powered, more-demanding loads, two SCRs in inverse parallel may be used instead of one TRIAC. Because each SCR will have an entire half-cycle of reverse polarity voltage applied to it, turn-off of the SCRs is assured, no matter what the character of the load. However, due to the separate gates, proper triggering of the SCRs is more complex than triggering a TRIAC. In addition to commutation, a TRIAC may also not turn on reliably with non-resistive loads if the phase shift of the current prevents achieving holding current at trigger time. To overcome that, pulse trains may be used to repeatedly try to trigger the TRIAC until it finally turns on. The advantage is that the gate current does not need to be maintained throughout the entire conduction angle, which can be beneficial when there is only limited drive capability available.

[edit] Example data

Variable name Parameter Typical value Unit Vgt Gate threshold Voltage 1.5 [4][5] V Igt Gate threshold Current 10 - 50 [5] mA Vdrm Repetitive peak off-state Voltages 600 - 800 [4] V It RMS on-state current Non-repetitive peak 4 - 40 [5] A Vt on-state forward voltage 1.5 [5] V

[edit] Alternistor
Alternistor is a trade name for a proprietary class of TRIAC with an improved turn-off (commutation) characteristic. The term "Alternistor" has been used for the first time by Thomson Semiconductors (now named ST Microelectronics).

These devices are made specifically for improved commutation when controlling a highlyinductive load, such as a motor, an application which causes problems for "normal" Triacs due to high voltage/current angles. Most Triacs' commutation with inductive loads can be improved by use of a "snubber network", but Alternistors are made specifically for this purpose and they dispose of the snubber requirement altogether. This improvement is achieved at the expense of the ability to trigger the device in the 4th quadrant (negative voltage and positive gate current). However, this is usually no problem, because this trigger mode is seldom used since even normal TRIACs are least sensitive there. ST Microelectronics has another version of improved commutation Triac, but they are not marketing them under the proprietary "Alternistor" moniker, but uses the trademark "SNUBBERLESS".

[edit] See also

Diode for alternating current (DIAC) Quadrac Silicon-controlled rectifier

Applications of SCR, DIAC, TRIAC

layers, the p-layer or n-layer of SCR1 and n-layer or player of SCR2 respectively and

the gate of TRIACconnected to the both gate of the SCRs (in modern TRIACs have an additional n-layer connected to onegate this serves as the

emitter of an NPN transistor that increases gate switching on one side, but negativegate current is required to triggered that side on)

shown in fig9. this makes the TRIAC bidirectionalelectro nic switch which can conduct current in either direction when appropriate

gate current is applied.

TRIAC operation mechanism:

The conduction path of TRIAC is P
1

P
2

and N
3

when terminal A
1

is positive with respect to terminal A

2

again when terminal A

2

is positive with respect toterminal A

1

the conduction path of TRIAC is P

2

N
2

P
1

and N
1

. 5 The operational mechanism of

TRIAC can bedescribed easily by four transistor analogy asTRIAC is an approximately equivalent of twoSCRs.Consider the following:When

anode A1 is positive with respect to anodeA2 with a gate pulse the induced current flowthrough the SCR1 (i.e. T1 & T2) and then the other SCR2 (i.e.

T3&T4) are in off state. Shown infig11. When anode A2 is positive with respect toanode A1 with a gate pulse the induced currentflow

through the SCR2 (i.e. T3 & T4) and then theother SCR1 (also T1&T2) are in off state shown in fig11. So on this way a triac can conduct AC. GA

A
1

T
3

T
4

T
2

T
1

Fig11: Four transistor connection of TRIAC.

TRIAC characteristics:
The V-I characteristics of TRIAC is shown in fig12. The first quadrant and the

third quadrant are identicalto those of the first quadrant of SCR but in normal operation the gate voltage is positive in first quadrantand the gate voltage is

negative in third quadrant.

V
BO0

I
H2

I
H1

I
H0

-V
BO2

-V
BO1

-V
BO0

-V
AK

-I
G0

-I
G1

-I
G2

I
G0

I
G1

I
G2

V
BO2

V
BO1

Fig12: Characteristics curve of TRIAC

V
AK

> >I
G1

I
G0

I
H0

I
H1

I
H2

I
G2

I
A

In the family of V-I characteristics

curve for a TRIAC, the magnitude of break over voltage and holdingcurrent become smaller as the values of gate current (I
G2

>I
G1

>I
G0

) increases like SCR. To turn the TRIACoff the anode current must be reduced below the holding current.

TRIAC Testing:
The TRIAC can be tested easily by Ohmmeter. The procedure is in the first arrangement connect thenegative and

positive lead to the anode A1 and anode A2 and in the second arrangement again connect withthe reverse direction, on both case for a good TRIAC the

ohmmeter shows near infinity (exceed onemega). Now if we momenterily touch the gate to the anode A1 (for first arrangement) then the

ohmmeter shows reduced resistance i.e. less than one mega and if we remove the touch then the ohmmeter remainssame (i.e. shows reduced resistance). Again

if we momenterily touch the gate to the anode A2 (for secondarrangement ) then the ohmmeter shows reduced resistance i.e. less than one mega and if we

remove thetouch then also the ohmmeter remains same (i.e. shows reduced resistance).

Use of TRIAC:
TRIAC can be used as follows:1) As a

high power lamp switch. 2) Electronic change over of transformer taps. 3) Light dimmer

4) speed controls for electric fans and other electric motors 5) modern computerized control circuits

6) For minimizing radio interference

DIAC (Diode for Alternating Current):

The other bidirectional

operated member of thyristor family is DIAC or diode for alternating current or bilateral diode switch. The DIAC is a five layers
3, 2

and contains two terminal, anode A1 (or main terminalMT1) and anode A2 (or main terminal MT2) like a TRIAC just without a gate terminal. The

DIACconstruction is such that in conduction state it uses its two different four layers for each polarity changes of the terminal. The symbol of

DIAC is shown in fig14.

A
1

P
1

N
2

P
2

N
1

N
3

A
1

A
2

Fig14: Symbol of DIAC

A
2

Fig13: Construction of DIAC The DIAC can be described as an approximately of two SCRs, like SCR1, SCR2 connected in parallel of opposite

polarity i.e. four transistor as each SCR consist of two transistor (PNPNPN). The terminal anodeA1 and anode A2 of DIAC are not connected only one

layer like SCR but similar to TRIAC, it connects theouter most two layers, the p-layer or nlayer of SCR1 and n-layer or p-layer of SCR2 respectively shown

infig13. this makes the DIAC bidirectional electronic switch which can conduct current in either direction.

DIAC operation mechanism:

When anode A1 is positive with respect to A2 the current path or the semiconductor layer of particular interest are P
1

N
2

P
2

and N
3

again when anode A2 is positive with respect to A1 then P

N
2

P
1

and N
1

shownin fig13. For both condition only one junction (N

2

P
2

and N
2

P
1

) is in reverse biased condition so breakingthis junction the current

conduction path of DIAC isestablished. A

1

T
3

T
4

T
2

T
1

According to the transistor analogy when currentconduct occur from A1 to A2 then the transistor T1and T2

are on state i.e. when A1 is positive sufficientlywith respect to A2 to induce break over in T1 and T2then conduction occur in that path where

T3 and T4remain off state.Again when current conduct occur from A2 to A1 thenthe transistor T3 and T4 are on state i.e. A2 is positivesufficiently

with respect to A1 to induce break over inT3 and T4 then conduction occur in that path where T1and T2 remain off state. The four transistor

connectionof DIAC is shown in fig15. A

2

Fig15: Four-transistor connection of DIAC.

DIAC characteristics:
The V-I characteristics of

DIAC resembles the letter Z as it is conducts in either direction shown in fig16.The positive polarity of the characteristics is the same as that of

SCR with zero gate current. I

H

Fi 16: V-I Characteristics of DIAC--V

AK

V
A

II
H

V
B

The negative portion shows that break over occurs when the reverse voltage reaches v
BO

with respect tothe anode terminal. Each DIAC has its own holding current I
H

when the external voltage reach this currentthen the

DIAC starts conducting.

DIAC Testing:
In DIAC testing by Ohmmeter the procedure is firstly connect the negative and positive lead to the

anodeA1 and anode A2 and in the second arrangement again connect with the reverse direction, on both case for a good DIAC the ohmmeter shows

near infinity (exceed one mega). A low resistance in either directionindicates that the device is not opened i.e. DIAC is defective. This does not

indicate a shorted device.Further testing of DIAC requires a special circuit setup to check the terminal voltage
2

Use of DIAC:
In general the DIAC is used to triggering the TRIAC because the triggering characteristic of TRIAC isnonsymmetrical.

The other applications are

3

1) Counters, register and timing circuits of computers,2) pulse generator,3) voltage sensors,4)

oscillators5) Proximity sensor circuit etc.6)

References:
1. Electronic Devices and circuits. Sixth edition, published by Pearson education---Theodore F. Bogart

Jr., Jeffery S. Beasley, Guillermo Rico2. Integrated Electronics Analog & Digital Circuit and System. Thirteenth reprint 1998, published by Tata McGraw-Hill ----Jacob Milliman, Christos C. Halkias3.

A textbook of Electrical Technology (Vol-4) Reprint 2001, published by S. Chand & Company Ltd ----B.L Theraja, A.K Theraja4. Introduction To Basic and Micro

Electronics, Professional Approach. Published by Southern University press by Mr. Sarwar Jahan ----Professor Dr. M. Washim Bari5.

Electronic devices and circuit theory, Eighth edition, published by Prentice Hall ----Robert L. Boylestad, Louis Nashelsky

6. Electronics made simple Published by S. Chand & Company Ltd ----V.K. Mehta

Use of DIAC:

In general the DIAC is used to triggering the TRIAC because the triggering characteristic of TRIAC isnonsymmetrical.

The other applications are

3

1) Counters, register and timing circuits of computers,2) pulse generator,3) voltage sensors,4)

oscillators5) Proximity sensor circuit e

Use of TRIAC:
TRIAC can be used as follows:1) As a

high power lamp switch. 2) Electronic change over of transformer taps. 3) Light dimmer

4) speed controls for electric fans and other electric motors 5) modern computerized control circuits

6) For minimizing radio interference SCR can be used as follows:1) SCR as static conductor.2) SCR for power control.3) SCRs for speed control dc

motor.4) SCR for over light detector.5) Series static switch6) Variable resistance phase control7) Battery charging regulator
8)

Emergency light system

.

9) Relay controls10) Motor control11) Inverters12) Heat contro

Characterist ics of Thyristors

Md. Mannaf HossainLecturer, Dept. of EEESouthern

University, Bangladesh

Abstract:
In power electronics the thyristor is the most common and popular family of switching devices.

According to constructions, the numbers of semiconductor layer of thyristor family member are nearly similar but their position arrangements are

different and also the terminals are connected in different positions. For this they have shown different characteristics. Some of the family members are

bidirectional that is theyconduct current in both terminals and have no polarity limitations and use to switch in the heavy ac load,otherwise

unidirectional member conduct current in only one direction and use mostly in rectification of acand also switch.

Introduction:

The word thyristor comes from the Greek and means door as in opening a door and let something passthrough it. A thyristor is a semiconductor

device that uses internal feedback to produce switching action.Usually four layers and also five layers
3, 2

semiconductor devices are called the thyristor. According to their construction they have at least two terminals to maximum four terminals.

Specifically the five layer members (TRIAC, DIAC) of thyristor family are used their four semiconductor layer in the state of conduction. The thyristor family

members include:a) SCR (Unidirectional)b) TRIAC (Bidirectional)c) DIAC (Bidirectional)d) SHOCKLY DIODE

(Unidirectional)e) SIDAC (Bidirectional

Unijunction transistor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Unijunction transistors

Circuit symbol A unijunction transistor (UJT) is an electronic semiconductor device that has only one junction. The UJT has three terminals: an emitter (E) and two bases (B1 and B2). The base is formed by lightly doped n-type bar of silicon. Two ohmic contacts B1 and B2 are attached at its ends. The emitter is of p-type and it is heavily doped. The resistance between B1 and B2, when the emitter is open-circuit is called interbase resistance. There are three types of unijunction transistors:

The original unijunction transistor, or UJT, is a simple device that is essentially a bar of N type semiconductor material into which P type material has been diffused somewhere along its length, defining the device parameter . The 2N2646 is the most commonly used version of the UJT. The complementary unijunction transistor, or CUJT, that is a bar of P type semiconductor material into which N type material has been diffused somewhere along its length, defining the device parameter . The 2N6114 is one version of the CUJT. The programmable unijunction transistor, or PUT, is a close cousin to the thyristor. Like the thyristor it consists of four P-N layers and has an anode and a cathode connected to the first and the last layer, and a gate connected to one of the inner layers. They are not directly interchangeable with conventional UJTs but perform a similar function. In a proper circuit configuration with two "programming" resistors for setting the parameter , they behave like a conventional UJT. The 2N6027 is an example of such a device.

The UJT is biased with a positive voltage between the two bases. This causes a potential drop along the length of the device. When the emitter voltage is driven approximately one diode voltage above the voltage at the point where the P diffusion (emitter) is, current will begin to flow from the emitter into the base region. Because the base region is very lightly doped, the additional current (actually charges in the base region) causes conductivity modulation which reduces the resistance of the portion of the base between the emitter junction and the B2 terminal. This reduction in resistance means that the emitter junction is more forward biased, and so even more current is injected. Overall, the effect is a negative resistance at the emitter terminal. This is what makes the UJT useful, especially in simple oscillator circuits. Unijunction transistor circuits were popular in hobbyist electronics circuits in the 1960s and 1970s because they allowed simple oscillators to be built using just one active device. For

example, they were used for relaxation oscillators in variable-rate strobe lights.[1] Later, as integrated circuits became more popular, oscillators such as the 555 timer IC became more commonly used. In addition to its use as the active device in relaxation oscillators, one of the most important applications of UJTs or PUTs is to trigger thyristors (SCR, TRIAC, etc.). In fact, a DC voltage can be used to control a UJT or PUT circuit such that the "on-period" increases with an increase in the DC control voltage. This application is important for large AC current control. UJTs can also be used to measure magnetic flux. The hall effect modulates the voltage at the PN junction. This affects the frequency of UJT relaxation oscillators. [2] This only works with UJTs. PUTs do not exhibit this phenomenon.

Amplifier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Amplifier (disambiguation). Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal. In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to make the human voice louder or play recorded music. Amplifiers may be classified according to the input (source) they are designed to amplify (such as a guitar amplifier, to perform with an electric guitar), the device they are intended to drive (such as a headphone amplifier), the frequency range of the signals (Audio, IF, RF, and VHF amplifiers, for example), whether they invert the signal (inverting amplifiers and non-inverting amplifiers), or the type of device used in the amplification (valve or tube amplifiers, FET amplifiers, etc.). A related device that emphasizes conversion of signals of one type to another (for example, a light signal in photons to a DC signal in amperes) is a transducer, a transformer, or a sensor. However, none of these amplify power.

Contents
[hide]

1 Figures of merit o 1.1 Gain

1.2 Bandwidth 1.3 Efficiency 1.4 Linearity 1.5 Noise 1.6 Output dynamic range 1.7 Slew rate 1.8 Rise time 1.9 Settling time and ringing 1.10 Overshoot 1.11 Stability 2 Electronic amplifiers 3 Other amplifier types o 3.1 Carbon microphone o 3.2 Magnetic amplifier o 3.3 Rotating electrical machinery amplifier o 3.4 Johnsen-Rahbek effect amplifier o 3.5 Mechanical amplifiers o 3.6 Optical amplifiers o 3.7 Miscellaneous types 4 See also 5 References
o o o o o o o o o o

6 External links

[edit] Figures of merit

The quality of an amplifier can be characterized by a number of specifications, listed below.

[edit] Gain
The gain of an amplifier is the ratio of output to input power or amplitude, and is usually measured in decibels. (When measured in decibels it is logarithmically related to the power ratio: G(dB)=10 log(Pout /(Pin)). RF amplifiers are often specified in terms of the maximum power gain obtainable, while the voltage gain of audio amplifiers and instrumentation amplifiers will be more often specified (since the amplifier's input impedance will often be much higher than the source impedance, and the load impedance higher than the amplifier's output impedance).

Example: an audio amplifier with a gain given as 20 dB will have a voltage gain of ten (but a power gain of 100 would only occur in the unlikely event the input and output impedances were identical).

If two equivalent amplifiers are being compared, the amplifier with higher gain settings would be more sensitive as it would take less input signal to produce a given amount of power.[1]

[edit] Bandwidth

The bandwidth of an amplifier is the range of frequencies for which the amplifier gives "satisfactory performance". The definition of "satisfactory performance" may be different for different applications. However, a common and well-accepted metric is the half power points (i.e. frequency where the power goes down by half its peak value) on the output vs. frequency curve. Therefore bandwidth can be defined as the difference between the lower and upper half power points. This is therefore also known as the 3 dB bandwidth. Bandwidths (otherwise called "frequency responses") for other response tolerances are sometimes quoted (1 dB, 6 dB etc.) or "plus or minus 1dB" (roughly the sound level difference people usually can detect). The gain of a good quality full-range audio amplifier will be essentially flat between 20 Hz to about 20 kHz (the range of normal human hearing). In ultra high fidelity amplifier design, the amp's frequency response should extend considerably beyond this (one or more octaves either side) and might have 3 dB points < 10 Hz and > 65 kHz. Professional touring amplifiers often have input and/or output filtering to sharply limit frequency response beyond 20 Hz-20 kHz; too much of the amplifier's potential output power would otherwise be wasted on infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies, and the danger of AM radio interference would increase. Modern switching amplifiers need steep low pass filtering at the output to get rid of high frequency switching noise and harmonics.

[edit] Efficiency
Efficiency is a measure of how much of the power source is usefully applied to the amplifier's output. Class A amplifiers are very inefficient, in the range of 1020% with a max efficiency of 25% for direct coupling of the output. Inductive coupling of the output can raise their efficiency to a maximum of 50%. Drain efficiency is the ratio of output RF power to input DC power when primary input DC power has been fed to the drain of an FET. Based on this definition, the drain efficiency cannot exceed 25% for a class A amplifier that is supplied drain bias current through resistors (because RF signal has its zero level at about 50% of the input DC). Manufacturers specify much higher drain efficiencies, and designers are able to obtain higher efficiencies by providing current to the drain of the transistor through an inductor or a transformer winding. In this case the RF zero level is near the DC rail and will swing both above and below the rail during operation. While the voltage level is above the DC rail current is supplied by the inductor. Class B amplifiers have a very high efficiency but are impractical for audio work because of high levels of distortion (See: Crossover distortion). In practical design, the result of a tradeoff is the class AB design. Modern Class AB amplifiers commonly have peak efficiencies between 30 55% in audio systems and 50-70% in radio frequency systems with a theoretical maximum of 78.5%. Commercially available Class D switching amplifiers have reported efficiencies as high as 90%. Amplifiers of Class C-F are usually known to be very high efficiency amplifiers. RCA manufactured an AM broadcast transmitter employing a single class-C low mu triode with an RF efficiency in the 90% range.

More efficient amplifiers run cooler, and often do not need any cooling fans even in multikilowatt designs. The reason for this is that the loss of efficiency produces heat as a by-product of the energy lost during the conversion of power. In more efficient amplifiers there is less loss of energy so in turn less heat. In RF linear Power Amplifiers, such as cellular base stations and broadcast transmitters, special design techniques can be used to improve efficiency. Doherty designs, which use a second output stage as a "peak" amplifier, can lift efficiency from the typical 15% up to 30-35% in a narrow bandwidth. Envelope Tracking designs are able to achieve efficiencies of up to 60%, by modulating the supply voltage to the amplifier in line with the envelope of the signal.

[edit] Linearity
An ideal amplifier would be a totally linear device, but real amplifiers are only linear within limits. When the signal drive to the amplifier is increased, the output also increases until a point is reached where some part of the amplifier becomes saturated and cannot produce any more output; this is called clipping, and results in distortion. In most amplifiers a reduction in gain takes place before hard clipping occurs; the result is a compression effect, which (if the amplifier is an audio amplifier) sounds much less unpleasant to the ear. For these amplifiers, the 1 dB compression point is defined as the input power (or output power) where the gain is 1 dB less than the small signal gain. Sometimes this nonlinearity is deliberately designed in to reduce the audible unpleasantness of hard clipping under overload. Ill effects of nonlinearity can be reduced with negative feedback. Linearization is an emergent field, and there are many techniques, such as feedforward, predistortion, postdistortion, in order to avoid the undesired effects of the non-linearities.

[edit] Noise
This is a measure of how much noise is introduced in the amplification process. Noise is an undesirable but inevitable product of the electronic devices and components; also, much noise results from intentional economies of manufacture and design time. The metric for noise performance of a circuit is noise figure or noise factor. Noise figure is a comparison between the output signal to noise ratio and the thermal noise of the input signal.

[edit] Output dynamic range

Output dynamic range is the range, usually given in dB, between the smallest and largest useful output levels. The lowest useful level is limited by output noise, while the largest is limited most often by distortion. The ratio of these two is quoted as the amplifier dynamic range. More precisely, if S = maximal allowed signal power and N = noise power, the dynamic range DR is DR = (S + N ) /N.[2]

In many switched mode amplifiers, dynamic range is limited by the minimum output step size.

[edit] Slew rate

Slew rate is the maximum rate of change of the output, usually quoted in volts per second (or microsecond). Many amplifiers are ultimately slew rate limited (typically by the impedance of a drive current having to overcome capacitive effects at some point in the circuit), which sometimes limits the full power bandwidth to frequencies well below the amplifier's small-signal frequency response.

[edit] Rise time

The rise time, tr, of an amplifier is the time taken for the output to change from 10% to 90% of its final level when driven by a step input. For a Gaussian response system (or a simple RC roll off), the rise time is approximated by: tr * BW = 0.35, where tr is rise time in seconds and BW is bandwidth in Hz.

[edit] Settling time and ringing

The time taken for the output to settle to within a certain percentage of the final value (for instance 0.1%) is called the settling time, and is usually specified for oscilloscope vertical amplifiers and high accuracy measurement systems. Ringing refers to an output variation that cycles above and below an amplifier's final value and leads to a delay in reaching a stable output. Ringing is the result of overshoot caused by an underdamped circuit.

[edit] Overshoot
In response to a step input, the overshoot is the amount the output exceeds its final, steady-state value.

[edit] Stability
Stability is an issue in all amplifiers with feedback, whether that feedback is added intentionally or results unintentionally. It is especially an issue when applied over multiple amplifying stages. Stability is a major concern in RF and microwave amplifiers. The degree of an amplifier's stability can be quantified by a so-called stability factor. There are several different stability factors, such as the Stern stability factor and the Linvil stability factor, which specify a condition that must be met for the absolute stability of an amplifier in terms of its two-port parameters.

[edit] Electronic amplifiers

Main article: Electronic amplifier

There are many types of electronic amplifiers, commonly used in radio and television transmitters and receivers, high-fidelity ("hi-fi") stereo equipment, microcomputers and other electronic digital equipment, and guitar and other instrument amplifiers. Critical components include active devices, such as vacuum tubes or transistors.

[edit] Other amplifier types

[edit] Carbon microphone
One of the first devices used to amplify signals was the carbon microphone (effectively a soundcontrolled variable resistor). By channeling a large electric current through the compressed carbon granules in the microphone, a small sound signal could produce a much larger electric signal. The carbon microphone was extremely important in early telecommunications; analog telephones in fact work without the use of any other amplifier. Before the invention of electronic amplifiers, mechanically coupled carbon microphones were also used as amplifiers in telephone repeaters for long distance service.

[edit] Magnetic amplifier

Main article: magnetic amplifier A magnetic amplifier is a transformer-like device that makes use of the saturation of magnetic materials to produce amplification. It is a non-electronic electrical amplifier with no moving parts. The bandwidth of magnetic amplifiers extends to the hundreds of kilohertz.

[edit] Rotating electrical machinery amplifier

A Ward Leonard control is a rotating machine like an electrical generator that provides amplification of electrical signals by the conversion of mechanical energy to electrical energy. Changes in generator field current result in larger changes in the output current of the generator, providing gain. This class of device was used for smooth control of large motors, primarily for elevators and naval guns. Field modulation of a very high speed AC generator was also used for some early AM radio transmissions.[3] See Alexanderson alternator.

[edit] Johnsen-Rahbek effect amplifier

The earliest form of audio power amplifier was Edison's "electromotograph" loud-speaking telephone, which used a wetted rotating chalk cylinder in contact with a stationary contact. The friction between cylinder and contact varied with the current, providing gain. Edison discovered this effect in 1874, but the theory behind the Johnsen-Rahbek effect was not understood until the semiconductor era.

[edit] Mechanical amplifiers

Mechanical amplifiers were used in the pre-electronic era in specialized applications. Early autopilot units designed by Elmer Ambrose Sperry incorporated a mechanical amplifier using belts wrapped around rotating drums; a slight increase in the tension of the belt caused the drum to move the belt. A paired, opposing set of such drives made up a single amplifier. This amplified small gyro errors into signals large enough to move aircraft control surfaces. A similar mechanism was used in the Vannevar Bush differential analyzer. The Electrostatic drum amplifier used a band wrapped partway around a rotating drum, and fixed at its anchored end to a spring. The other end connected to a speaker cone. The input signal was transformed up to high voltage, and added to a high voltage dc supply line. This voltage was connected between drum and belt. Thus the input signal varied the electric field between belt and drum, and thus the friction between them, and thus the amount of lateral movement of the belt and thus speaker cone. Other variations on the theme also existed at one time.

[edit] Optical amplifiers

Main article: Optical amplifier Optical amplifiers amplify light through the process of stimulated emission. See Laser and Maser.

[edit] Miscellaneous types

There are also mechanical amplifiers, such as the automotive servo used in braking. Relays can be included under the above definition of amplifiers, although their transfer function is not linear (that is, they are either open or closed). Also purely mechanical manifestations of such digital amplifiers can be built (for theoretical, instructional purposes, or for entertainment), see e.g. domino computer. Another type of amplifier is the fluidic amplifier, based on the fluidic triode.