Diode Circuits

Dr. Prasanta Kumar Guha

Autumn Semester(2020-2021)
[email protected]
 Simple Diode Model for Circuit Analysis
Ex 1
Vin<0 Vin>0

• When Vin is less than zero, the diode is off- i.e. it acts as open circuit, so Vout = Vin.
• When Vin is greater than zero, the diode is on, i.e. it acts as short circuit, so Vout = 0.

Ex 2
Vout

Vin

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 Constant Voltage Model for Circuit Analysis
Ex 3

VD,on

Here Diode is replaced by VD,on when it is on

• When Vin is less than VD,on, the diode is off- i.e. it acts as open circuit, so Vout = Vin.
• When Vin is greater than VD,on, the diode is on, i.e. it acts as short circuit, so Vout = VD,on.

Ex 4
Vout

Vin
Here breakpoint is changed from origin to VD,on
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 Constant Voltage Model for Circuit Analysis
Ex 5 Vout

VD,on

Vin

Diode off Diode on

Vout
Ex 6

Vin

Diode off Diode on

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 Graphical Technique for Circuit Analysis
• The analysis of a nonlinear circuit is not straightforward as that of linear circuits
• One of the approach can be adopted – Graphical Analysis Technique
From Kirchhoff’s voltage law ID

Vin/R1
ID
VD
A Load line

• This one equation is not sufficient to determine two unknowns VD and ID Vin
VD
 V  
I D = I S exp  D  − 1
   
  VT  
• Plotting two simultaneous equations (diode I-V and the above circuit equation) and locating their point
of intersection
• The load line passes through the points ID =0 (then VD=Vin) and VD =0 (then ID=Vin/R1)

The point of intersection (A) between the load IITline and the diode static curve gives the solution
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 Small-Signal Analysis

I D dI D
= |VD =VD1
VD dVD
Is I D1
= exp
VT VT
I D1
=
VT

• If two points on the IV curve of a diode are close enough, the trajectory
connecting the first to the second point is like a line, with the slope being the
proportionality factor between change in voltage and change in current.
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 Small-Signal Incremental Resistance

VT 1
rd = =
ID g
d

rd is known as small signal incremental resistance or diffusion resistance, and gd diffusion conductance

• Since there’s a linear relationship between the small signal current and voltage of a
diode, the diode can be viewed as a linear resistor when only small changes are of
interest.
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 Small Sinusoidal Analysis

V0 I 0
V (t ) = V0 + Vp cos t I D (t ) = I 0 + I p cos t = I s exp + V p cos t
VT VT

• If a sinusoidal voltage with small amplitude is applied, the resulting current

is also a small sinusoid around a DC value.
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 Diode Model for High Frequency AC Signal
• In the previous slide we have assumed that the frequency of the AC signal is small enough that
capacitance effects in the diode model can be neglected

• If the frequency of the AC input signal increases, then the diffusion capacitance associated with a
forward pn junction becomes important

• Due to increase in input signal voltage V during positive half cycle, the hole concentration (crossing
the junction) will increase compared to dc value (of voltage). In case of negative half cycle the hole
concentration will decrease. The similar change will happen in p region due to change in electron
concentration coming from n side.

• The diffusion capacitance is the change in stored minority carrier charge that is caused by a change
in the voltage Cd

rd

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 Diode Applications

• Rectifier – Half wave, Full wave, Bridge

• Limiter

• Clamper

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A typical DC Power Supply

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 Rectifier v

i
 RL
Rectifier vIn vo

The purpose of the rectifier circuit is to convert the incoming

ac from a transformer or other ac power source to some form
of dc
• During +ve half cycle - diode will acts as a short circuit
and entire voltage will be across load resistance - so vo
vIn
follows vin
• During –ve half cycle - diode will acts as an open circuit t
and entire voltage will be across the diode - so vo vo
is zero
t

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 Half wave Rectifier
• Using piecewise linear model, output (v0) remains equal to zero
until exceeds v, at this point v0= vI - v v

For vI < v - diode is off, hence v0 = 0

vI vo
• The input signal vi alternates polarity (average value 0), the output
signal is unidirectional and average has positive dc level. Thus
vI
input signal is rectified, but produces lower dc level (compared to
what it was doing during ideal diode model)
• the DC component of the output waveform is Vp/ = 0.3183Vp, t
where Vp is the peak voltage output from the transformer
vo
secondary winding
• The diode should be such that (i) able to handle pick current v
t
during forward direction and (ii) can sustain peak inverse voltage
(PIV) without breakdown during reverse bias
v

t

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 Half wave Rectifier
T
t T
Vout = Vp sin t = 0 for 2

1T 1 T /2
Vout , avg =  Vout (t )dt =  V p sin tdt
T0 T 0
1 Vp Vp T
= − cos t 0 =
T /2 for 0t 
2
T  

• The average of output of a half wave rectifier can be calculated as above,

where Vout,avg is proportional to Vp, the input signal’s amplitude.

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 Full wave Rectifier D1

• Half wave rectifier is simple, but not very efficient...it only uses half
of the incoming ac cycle and wastes all the energy in the other half
of the cycle.
• Two separate half-wave rectifiers on alternate half-cycles, to
provide full-wave rectification D2

- during +ve half D1 is in forward bias and conducting and D2 is in

reverse bias and in cut off, during –ve half D1 is in cut off and D2 is
conducting
• DC component of the output waveform is now 2Vp/ = 0.6366Vp,
where Vp is the peak voltage output from half the transformer
secondary winding

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 Bridge Rectifier
• It uses four diodes. D1
D3
• During +ve half D1 and D2 are forward biased and D3 and D4
reverse biased D2 D4
• During –ve half D3 and D4 are in forward bias and D1 and D2 are in
reverse bias
- the output voltage v0 is vI-2v
please note v is written as VD,on in the drawing and Rout=RL

Advantages of a bridge rectifier

(i) In the bridge circuit a transformer without a centre tap is used.
(ii) The bridge circuit requires a smaller transformer as compared
to a full-wave rectifier giving the identical rectified dc output
voltage.
(iii) For the same dc output voltage, the PIV rating of a diode in a
bridge rectifier is half of that for a full -wave circuit
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Improved Rectifier Circuit – Diode Capacitor Combination
• Both half wave and full wave rectifier do not produce useful output

• This is because the signal at the resistive load varies considerably with time, so
they cannot supply power to any electronic devices

• The rectifier performance can be improved by using a RC filter at the output

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Improved Rectifier Circuit – Diode Capacitor Combination
Ex 1

A fixed voltage output is obtained since the capacitor

(assumed ideal) has no path to discharge.

Ex 2

A real capacitor will have leakage path. Also we often use resistive
load. Therefore, Vout will not be constant and a ripple exists.
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Improved Rectifier Circuit – Diode Capacitor Combination
• During the positive half cycle, capacitor C will charge to the peak of the input waveform while the load RL is
being supplied current through D1.

• When the input starts to go below its peak value, the voltage across C will cause D1 to be reverse biased,
thus disconnecting the rectifier from the load.

• The capacitor will then provide the necessary current for the load. The rate of potential drop across C will be
based on the values of RL & C

Large Capacitor will give smaller ripple at the output

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 Ripple Voltage
The charging and discharging of the capacitor causes ripple voltage in the output. Larger capacitor
(and /or R) results in slower discharge and “flat” output giving rise to less ripple content.

VM
Vr
To a good approximation, the output voltage
across RC filter
VL

t’
(RC is the time constant)
T’
TP
The smallest output voltage

(T’ is the discharge time)

The rippleAutumn
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2020 20
 Ripple Voltage
Normally, T’<<RC so exponential term can be approximated as

So, ripple voltage can be written as If we consider ripple effect is small,

then T’ can be approximated to Tp
(Tp-time period of the output voltage)

For full wave rectifier, Tp is one-half of the signal period.

So, ripple voltage

f is input signal frequency

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 Ripple Factor
Ripple factor: Ripple factor is a measure of effectiveness of a rectifier circuit. It is defined
as the ratio of RMS value of the AC component (ripple component) Vrrms in the output
waveform to the DC component VDC in the output waveform.
where, Vrrms is the RMS value of the ac component of the rectifier output and VDC is the DC component (average value)
of the rectified output

where, Vrms is the RMS value of the rectified output

For full wave rectifier where, Vm is peak value of the input voltage

r = 0.483
This is a significant improvement in the ripple factor compared to that of a Half wave rectifier (r=1.21). However, this
pulsating DC is not useful to power electronic circuits as it still has a large AC component. The output can be made
smooth by using capacitor filter.

The ripple factor for full wave rectifier with capacitor filter is given by

where, f is the frequency of the input signal

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 Voltage Regulation
• The purpose of a voltage regulator is to maintain a constant voltage across a load regardless of variations in the
applied input voltage and variations in the load current.

• Zener diode is a voltage regulator device because it is able to fix the output voltage at a constant value (DC voltage).

• RS is to limit the zener current, IZ , so that it is less than the maximum current, IZM (avoid the zener diode from broken).

Zener diode will act as regulator only if it is operating

At reverse breakdown region

I-V characteristic of Zener diode

Zener current will change with change in Vs and RL. But the key is voltage across Zener remains constant even if there
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is change in current through it.
 Voltage Regulation
Analysis:
(1) Fixed VS and variable RL (2) Variable VS and fixed RL
(1) Fixed VS and variable RL
It is important to find out RL (min and max) so that the Zener diode
remains in reverse breakdown region.

if RL ≥ RLmin, zener diode ‘on’, so that VL=VZ

If the Zener is in reverse breakdown region, then I1 is constant. This is because

(RLmax corresponds to ILmin (or Izmax), i.e. the maximum current Zener can handle
at reverse breakdown region)

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 Voltage Regulation
(2) Variable VS and fixed RL
It is important to find out VS (min and max) so that the Zener diode
remains in reverse breakdown region.

if VS ≥ VSmin, zener diode will ‘on’, so that VL=VZ

For Vsmax one needs to consider I1max and IZmax

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 Voltage Regulation
Two figure of merit can be defined for a voltage regulator

(1) Source regulation: This is a measure of the change in output voltage with a change in source voltage.

(2) Load regulation: This is a measure of the change in output voltage with a change in load current.

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 Limiter/ Clipper
Clipper circuit (also known as Limiter circuit), is used to eliminate certain portion of a signal that
is above or below a specified level.
Ability to “clip off” a portion of the input signal without distorting the remaining part of the alternating waveform

Ex 1 Ex 3

Here output is always open, so Vout=Vin

Ex 2

• In the three examples diode is considered as ideal.

• Back home: you should replot the output considering
voltage drop across diode as VD,on
• Also, one should consider other variations of the circuit,
1 V battery forces the diode to turn on after Vin has e.g. (1) reverse diode polarity (2) reverse battery polarity
become greater than 1 V

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 Limiter/ Clipper
In this example VD,on is considered
Ex 4

Ex 5

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 Clamper
• Clamping circuit shifts the entire signal voltage by a dc level.

• In steady state, the output waveform is an exact replica of the input waveform,
but the output signal is shifted by a dc value.

• The network must have a capacitor and a diode. It might also contain a resistor
element and dc supply.

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 Clamper
Ex 1

• Consider, the sinusoidal input voltage signal, v I

• 1st 900, the capacitor is charged up to the peak value of

v which is V
I M

• Then, as v moves towards the –ve cycle,

I

• the diode is reverse biased.

• Ideally, capacitor cannot discharge, hence Vc = VM
• By KVL, we get

The input signal is shifted by a DC level; and that the peak-to-peak value is the same
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 Clamper
Ex 2

• Similarly, when the terminals of the diode (in Ex 1) are

switched, a voltage doubler with peak value at +2VM can be
conceived.

Ex 3
➢VC + VB – vS = 0 → VC = VM – VB

➢vO – vS + VC = 0 → vO = vS – VC.

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