3.

Zener Diode
It is a passive element works under the principle of zener breakdown. First
produced by Clarence zener in 1934.It is similar to normal diode in forward
direction, it also allows current in reverse direction when the applied voltage
reaches the breakdown voltage. It is designed to prevent the other
semiconductor devices from momentary voltage pulses. It acts as voltage
regulator.

4. Light Emitting Diode (LED)

These diodes convert the electrical energy in to light energy. First production
started in 1968. It undergoes electroluminescence process in which holes and
electrons are recombined to produce energy in the form of light in forward bias
condition.

Earlier they used in inductor lamps but now in recent applications they are using
in environmental and task handling. Mostly used in applications like aviation
lighting, traffic signals, camera flashes.
5. Constant Current Diodes

Shockley Diode
It was the invention of first semiconductor devices it has four layers. It is also
called as PNPN diode. It is equal to a thyristor without a gate terminal which
means the gate terminal is disconnected. As there is no trigger inputs the only
way the diode can conduct is by providing forward voltage.

It stays on one’s it turned “ON” and stays off one’s it turned “OFF”. The diode has
two operating states conducting and non-conducting. In non-conducting state the
diode conducts with less voltage.
The symbol of the Shockley diode is as follows:

. Laser Diode
Similar to LED in which active region is formed by p-n junction. Electrically laser
diode is p-i-n diode in which the active region is in intrinsic region. Used in fiber
optic communications, barcodereaders, laser pointers, CD/DVD/Blu-ray reading
and recording, Laser printing.
The symbol of the Laser Diode is as shown:

 Vacuum Diodes
Vacuum diodes consist of two electrodes which will acts as an anode and the
cathode. Cathode is made up of tungsten which emits the electrons in the
direction of anode. Always electron flow will be from cathode to anode only. So, it
acts like a switch.

If the cathode is coated with oxide material then the electrons emission capability
is high. Anode is a bit long in size and in some cases their surface is rough to
reduce the temperatures developing in the diode. The diode will conduct in only
one case that is when the anode is positive regarding to cathode terminal. The
symbol is as shown in figure:
. Varactor Diode
These are also known as Varicap diodes. It acts like the variable capacitor.
Operations are performed mainly at reverse bias state only. These diodes are
very famous due to its capability of changing the capacitance ranges within the
circuit in the presence of constant voltage flow.

They can able to vary capacitance up to high values. In varactor diode by

changing the reverse bias voltage we can decrease or increase the depletion
layer. These diodes have many applications as voltage controlled oscillator for
cell phones, satellite pre-filters etc. The symbol of varactor diode is given below.

Tunnel Diode
It is used as high speed switch, of order nano-seconds. Due to tunneling effect it
has very fast operation in microwave frequency region. It is a two terminal device
in which concentration of dopants is too high.
The transient response is being limited by junction capacitance plus stray wiring
capacitance. Mostly used in microwave oscillators and amplifiers. It acts as most
negative conductance device. Tunnel diodes can be tuned in both mechanically
and electrically. The symbol of tunnel diode is as shown below.

Pin Diode:
A PIN diode is a diode with a broad, slightly doped close to inherent semi-conductor area amid an n-type semiconductor and p-type
semi-conductor area. The n-type & p-type areas are usually heavily doped for the reason that they are employed for ohmic contacts.
The broad inherent area formulates the PIN diode a low rectifier (the common purpose of a diode), but it formulates the PIN diode
appropriate for fast switches, photo-detectors, attenuators, and high voltage power electric devices.

Photo Diode:
Photo diodes are extensively used in various kinds of electronics such as detectors in compact disc players to optical
telecommunications systems. Photo diode technology is popular because its trouble-free, inexpensive yet strong
configuration. As photodiodes provide dissimilar properties, various photodiode technologies are utilized in a number of
areas. There are 4 types of photo diodes-
 PN photodiode

PIN photodiode

Schottky photodiode

Avalanche photodiode
Power Diode:
This is a two terminal diode with p-n junction appliance and a p-n junction usually created by permitting circulation &
epitaxial developed construction of a power diode. High power diodes are silicon rectifiers that can function at high
intersection temperature. Power diodes have superior Voltage, Current & Power managing abilities than usual signal diodes.
The power diodes’ applications includes battery charging, electric traction, electro plating, power supplies, electro metal
processing, welding ups etc.

Impatt Diode:
IMPatt ionization Avalanche Transit Time (Impaat) diode is RF semi-conductor appliance that is utilized for producing microwave radio
frequency signals. IMPATT diodes are perfect where small money-making microwave radio supplies are required. These Impatt diodes
make brilliant signal supplies for numerous RF microwave devices
Usually the appliance is utilized in numerous devices including:
 Alarms
 Detectors with RF technology
 Radar

Schottky Diode
Schottky Diode is also used in protection circuits like the Reverse Polarity Protection
circuit, because of its low forward voltage drop. Let us take a look at a common reverse
polarity protection circuit

When the Vcc and Ground is connected in the right polarity the diode conducts in
forward direction and the LOAD receives the power. The advantage here is that the
Forward voltage drop across the diode is very less say around 0.04V compared to the
0.7V of a rectifier diode. This way there will be not much power loss across the Diode,
also Schottky diode can allow more current to pass though it then a common diode and
it also has faster switching speed hence can be used in high frequency circuit

 Large Signal Diode

These diodes have large PN junction layer. Thus the transformation of AC to DC
voltages is unbounded. This also increases the current forward capacity and
reverse blocking voltage. These large signals will disrupt the functional point
also. Due to this it is not suitable for high frequency applications.
The main applications of these diodes are in battery charging devices like
inverters. In these diodes the range of forward resistance is in Ohms and the
reverse blocking resistance is in mega Ohms. Since it has high current and
voltage performance these can be used in electrical devices which are used to
suppress high peak voltages.

Definition
What is a Diode?
A diode is defined as a two-terminal electronic component that only
conducts current in one direction (so long as it is operated within a specified
voltage level). An ideal diode will have zero resistance in one direction, and
infinite resistance in the reverse direction.

Introduction
Diodes are electronic components functions as a one-way valve it means it allow
current to flow in one direction. These diodes are manufactured by the
semiconductor materials germanium, silicon and selenium. Operation of diode
can be classified in two ways, if it allows the current then it is forward biased
otherwise it is reverse biased.

Different types of diodes have different voltage requirements. For silicon diodes
the forward voltage is 0.7v and for germanium it is 0.3v. In silicon diode, the dark
band indicates the cathode terminal and the other terminal is anode. Generally
diodes are used as reverse polarity protector and transient protector. There are
many types of diodes and some of these are listed as follows.

Small Signal Diode

It is a type of P-N junction diode which operates on low voltage signals. Its junction area
is very small. Due to which, the junction has less capacitance & low charge storing
capacity. It enables the small signal diode to have high switching speed with very fast
recovery time. However, its limitations are low voltage and current parameters.
Due to its high switching speed, these types of diodes are used in circuits with high
frequencies
Gold Doped Diode
In such type of diode, Gold or platinum is used as the dopant (doping material). It
enables the diode to operate at fast switching speed but at the expense of increasing
the forward voltage drop. Also, its reverse leakage current is higher than a normal P-N
junction diode.
constant current diode constant current diode AKA the current-limiting
diode (CLD) is a two terminal diode made from JFET. It regulates the current flow
through it up to a fixed level.

CLD is made by making short contact between the gate and the source of JFET. It limits
the current just like Zener diode limits voltage
Diode Symbol
The symbol of a diode is shown below. The arrowhead points in the direction
of conventional current flow in the forward biased condition. That means the
anode is connected to the p side and the cathode is connected to the n side.

We can create a simple PN junction diode by doping pentavalent or donor

impurity in one portion and trivalent or acceptor impurity in the other portion
of silicon or germanium crystal block.
These dopings make a PN junction in the middle part of the block. We can
also form a PN junction by joining a p-type semiconductor and n-type
semiconductor together with a special fabrication technique. The terminal
connected to the p-type is the anode. The terminal connected to the n-type
side is the cathode.

Diode current equation

The diode current is given by the following relation:

: ID = diode current

IS = reverse saturation current
VD = voltage across the device
TK = temperature in Kelvin
K = 11600/ƞ

ƞ = ideality factor ranges between 1 and 2

Since,

 
We can also write,

Or

Thus, on substituting the above value in the basic equation. We get,

This is the simplified diode current equation.

In such type of diode, Gold or platinum is used as the dopant (doping material). It
enables the diode to operate at fast switching speed but at the expense of increasing
the forward voltage drop. Also, its reverse leakage current is higher than a normal P-N
junction diode.