GAZ UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING EM 212 INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONICS LABORATORY MANUAL EXPERIMENT

#1: CHARACTERISTICS OF DIODES, DIODE MODELLING

alayan YALIN 071110055 Cem KK 091110051

PURPOSE
In this experiment, the i-v characteristics of silicon, germanium, zener diodes and LEDs will be investigated and diode voltages and resistances will be calculated. Rather than plotting the i-v curve point by point, an AC signal will be used to display the i-v characteristics on CRO.

THEORY
There were some historic crude, but usable semiconductor rectifiers before high purity materials were available. Ferdinand Braun invented a lead sulfide, PbS, based point contact rectifier in 1874. Cuprous oxide rectifiers were used as power rectifiers in 1924. The forward voltage drop is 0.2 V. The linear characteristic curve perhaps is why Cu2O was used as a rectifier for the AC scale on D'Arsonval based multimeters. This diode is also photosensitive. Selenium oxide rectifiers were used before modern power diode rectifiers became available. These and the Cu2O rectifiers were polycrystalline devices. Photoelectric cells were once made from Selenium. Before the modern semiconductor era, an early diode application was as a radio frequency detector, which recovered audio from a radio signal. The semiconductor was a polycrystalline piece of the mineral galena, lead sulfide, PbS. A pointed metallic wire known as a cat whisker was brought in contact with a spot on a crystal within the polycrystalline mineral. (Figure below) The operator labored to find a sensitive spot on the galena by moving the cat whisker about. Presumably there were P and N-type spots randomly distributed throughout the crystal due to the variability of uncontrolled impurities. Less often the mineral iron pyrites, fools gold, was used, as was the mineral carborundum, silicon carbide, SiC, another detector, part of a foxhole radio, consisted of a sharpened pencil lead bound to a bent safety pin, touching a rusty blue-blade disposable razor blade. These all required searching for a sensitive spot, easily lost because of vibration.

Crystal detector

Replacing the mineral with an N-doped semiconductor (Figure below(a) ) makes the whole surface sensitive, so that searching for a sensitive spot was no longer required. This device was perfected by G.W.Pickard in 1906. The pointed metal contact produced a localized P-type region within the semiconductor. The metal point was fixed in place, and the whole point contact diode encapsulated in a cylindrical body for mechanical and electrical stability. (Figure below(d) ) Note that the cathode bar on the schematic corresponds to the bar on the physical package. Silicon point contact diodes made an important contribution to radar in World War II, detecting giga-hertz radio frequency echo signals in the radar receiver. The concept to be made clear is that the point contact diode preceded the junction diode and modern semiconductors by several decades. Even to this day, the point contact diode is a practical means of microwave frequency detection because of its low capacitance. Germanium point contact diodes were once more readily available than they are today, being preferred for the lower 0.2 V forward voltage in some applications like self-powered crystal radios. Point contact diodes, though sensitive to a wide bandwidth, have a low current capability compared with junction diodes.

Silicon diode cross-section: (a) point contact diode, (b) junction diode, (c) schematic symbol, (d) small signal diode package. Most diodes today are silicon junction diodes. The cross-section in Figure above(b) looks a bit more complex than a simple PN junction; though, it is still a PN junction. Starting at the cathode connection, the N+ indicates this region is heavily doped, having nothing to do with polarity. This reduces the series resistance of the diode. The N- region is lightly doped as indicated by the (-). Light doping produces a diode with a higher reverse breakdown voltage, important for high voltage power rectifier diodes. Lower voltage diodes, even low voltage power rectifiers, would have lower forward losses with heavier doping. The heaviest level of doping produce zener diodes designed for a low reverse breakdown voltage. However, heavy doping increases the reverse leakage current. The P+ region at the anode contact is heavily doped P-type semiconductor, a good contact strategy. Glass encapsulated small signal junction diodes are capable of 10's to 100's of mA of current. Plastic or ceramic encapsulated power rectifier diodes handle to 1000's of amperes of current.

EQUIPMENT LIST

 Oscilloscope Signal generator Power supply

PART LIST
1N4001 (Si) diode

Ge diode
4.7 V Zener diode

Red LED 150

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 1.Testing Diodes

An ohmmeter may be used to qualitatively check diode function. There should be low resistance measured one way and very high resistance measured the other way. Some multimeters provide a diode check function that displays the actual forward voltage of the diode when its conducting current. Such meters typically indicate a slightly lower forward voltage than what is nominal for a diode, due to the very small amount of current used during the check. We used diode check function to determine diodes anodes and found out the band on the diode indicates cathode terminal.

2.Determining Diode Voltages(V)

DIODES Silicon Zener Led

V
0.7V 0.83V 2V

Vs
3.6V 4.84V 3.3V

3. CHARACTERISTIC OF THE DIODE

We set up the circuit that is plotted on the laboratory manual and got I-V characteristics for four different diodes which were Si, Ge, Zener and LED. We had an input voltage that was Vi=4sin(t) and frequency was 200Hz. We calibrated oscilloscope then set the channels to AC and pressed the button X-Y. After that the I-V curve of diodes were plotted on the oscilloscope screen. Then we took a point that the diodes behaved linear and took a point right next to it. After that we called the vertical dimension a, and the horizontal dimension b. Finally we used the formula Rf=a/(b/150) for calculations. We repeated all these steps for Si, Ge, Zener and LED diodes. Here are the results of calculations:

Diode 1N4001 (Si) Ge Zener LED

Rf 13 89 10 41

V 0.68V 0.43V 1.9V 1.76V

rz

Vz

32

4.6V

RESULT AND CONCLUSION

A diode is an electronic component that, in general, will pass current in only one direction (there are a few exceptions like zener and current regulator diodes). They are used in virtually every piece of electronic equipment. Here are some purposes for using diodes: As rectifiers to convert AC to DC. Zener diodes are used as voltage regulators. In alarm systems, rectifier diodes are commonly used to isolate 2 trigger sources. Diodes can be used to separate the signal from radio frequencies. Diodes can be used as an on/off switch that controls current. For electrical purpose; diodes are used as redresor, modulator, limitor and switch. Diode simply blocks any current from leaving the battery if it is reserved, this protects the sensitive electronic devices. An electronic device that uses batteries often contains a diode that protects the device if you inset the batteries backward. A Zener diode behaves just like any other diode when forward biased - the voltage drop across it will be around 0.4 to 0.8V depending on the semiconducting materials used in the diode. The interesting difference is that a Zener diode has a well specified reverse breakdown voltage, i.e., the reverse voltage at which significant current begins to flow. The voltage of that reverse knee is the Zener voltage for the diode. This is in contrast to conventional diodes which simply spec a maximum reverse voltage up to which they are guaranteed not to break down at all.

When used in a circuit, the Zener diode must have the current entering it limited. If perfect voltage source was placed across it, then it would draw excessive current once the breakdown voltage had been reached. To overcome this the Zener diode must be driven by a current source. This will limit the current taken by the Zener diode and ensure that the operating position of the diode remain approximately constant. When used in a circuit, the Zener diode must have the current entering it limited. If perfect voltage source was placed across it, then it would draw excessive current once the breakdown voltage had been reached. To overcome this the Zener diode must be driven by a current source. This will limit the current taken by the Zener diode and ensure that the operating position of the diode remain approximately constant. When we used AC power voltage, we can easily obtain the i-v characteristics of diodes because we can read the value of with AC power voltage easier than the DC power voltage. We get a linear graph if we use the DC power supply, and if the value of the voltage which applied to the circuit is smaller than the , we can not read a value, if not; we can read. However; it is not easy. We have to decrease or increase the voltage that is applied the circuit continuously and try to read the real value of . As we see; using DC power voltage both more difficult way and is not a good way to measure well.