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I-V Characteristics of A Diode

A diode allows current to flow easily in one direction when forward biased, but blocks current in the reverse direction. There are two types of biasing: forward and reverse. The I-V characteristics curve shows a small reverse current and large forward current above the threshold voltage. It also shows that high reverse voltages can cause breakdown and damage the diode permanently unless it is a zener diode, which regulates the reverse voltage.

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Asif Zahidul Haq
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356 views2 pages

I-V Characteristics of A Diode

A diode allows current to flow easily in one direction when forward biased, but blocks current in the reverse direction. There are two types of biasing: forward and reverse. The I-V characteristics curve shows a small reverse current and large forward current above the threshold voltage. It also shows that high reverse voltages can cause breakdown and damage the diode permanently unless it is a zener diode, which regulates the reverse voltage.

Uploaded by

Asif Zahidul Haq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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IVCharacteristicsofdiode:

A diode is a bi-polar device that behaves as the short circuit when it is in forward bias and as an
open circuit when it is in reverse bias condition.

Figure 1: Schematic Diagram of Diode. Figure 2: P-N J unction Diode.
There are two types of biasing condition for a diode:
Whenthediodeisconnectedacrossavoltagesourcewithpositivepolarityofsourceconnectedtop
sideofdiodeandnegativepolaritytonside,thenthediodeisinforwardbiascondition.
1. When the diode is connected across a voltage source with positive polarity of source
connected to n side of diode and negative polarity to p side, then the diode is in reverse
bias condition.

Figure 3: Forward Bias connection. Figure 4: Reverse Bias connection.
If the input voltage is varied and the current through the diode corresponds to each voltage are
taken then the plot of diode current (I
d
) vs diode voltage (V
D
) will be follows:

Figure 5: I - V Characteristics of Diode.
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Figure 6: I - V Characteristics of Diode.

At the reverse bias condition the amount of current flows through the diode is very small (at
microampere range). But if the voltage continuously increases in reverse direction, at a certain
value the diode will break down and huge amount of current will flow in reverse direction. This
is called breakdown of diode. In laboratory the breakdown will not tested because it will
damages the diode permanently.
A Zener diode contains a heavily doped pn junction allowing electrons to tunnel from the
valence band of the p-type material to the conduction band of the n-type material, such that the
reverse voltage is "clamped" to a known value (called the Zener voltage), and avalanche does not
occur.
From the characteristics curve it can be seen that, a particular forward bias voltage (V
T
) is
required to reach the region of upward swing. This voltage, V
T
is called the cut-in voltage or
threshold voltage of diode. For Si diode the typical value of threshold voltage is 0.7 volt and for
Ge diode is 0.3 volt.




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