Microelectronics

CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION TO MICROELECTRONICS

1.1 Evolution of Microelectronics:

Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics

relates to the study and manufacture (or micro fabrication) of very small electronic
designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometer-scale or
smaller. These devices are typically made from semiconductor materials. Many
components of normal electronic design are available in a microelectronic
equivalent. These include transistors, capacitors, inductors, resistors, diodes and
(naturally) insulators and conductors can all be found in microelectronic devices.
Unique wiring techniques such as wire bonding are also often used in
microelectronics because of the unusually small size of the components, leads and
pads. This technique requires specialized equipment and is expensive.

Digital integrated circuits (ICs) consist mostly of transistors. Analog circuits

commonly contain resistors and capacitors as well. Inductors are used in some high
frequency analog circuits, but tend to occupy large chip area if used at low
frequencies; gyrators can replace them in many applications.

As techniques improve, the scale of microelectronic components continues to

decrease. At smaller scales, the relative impact of intrinsic circuit properties such as
interconnections may become more significant. These are called parasitic effects,
and the goal of the microelectronics design engineer is to find ways to compensate
for or to minimize these effects, while always delivering smaller, faster, and cheaper
devices.

1.2. Semiconductor Devices and Basic applications:

Most electronic devices are fabricated by using semiconductor materials

along with conductors and insulators. To gain a better understanding of the behavior
of the electronic devices in circuits, we must first understand a few of the
characteristics of the semiconductor material. Silicon is by far the most common
semiconductor material used for semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. Other
semiconductor materials are used for specialized applications. For example, gallium
arsenide and related compounds are used for very high speed devices and optical
devices.

1.3. Intrinsic Semiconductors

An atom is composed of a nucleus, which contains positively charged protons

and neutral neutrons, and negatively charged electrons that, in the classical sense,
orbit the nucleus. The electrons are distributed in various “shells” at different
distances from the nucleus, and electron energy increases as shell radius increases.

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Electrons in the outermost shell are called valence electrons, and the chemical
activity of a material is determined primarily by the number of such electrons.
Elements in the periodic table can be grouped according to the number of valence
electrons. Table 1.2 shows a portion of the periodic table in which the more common
semiconductors are found. Silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge) are in group IV and are
elemental semiconductors. In contrast, gallium arsenide is group III–V compound
semiconductor. We will show that the elements in group III and group V are also
important in semiconductors. Figure 1.1(a) shows five noninteracting silicon atoms,
with the four valence electrons of each atom shown as dashed lines emanating from
the atom. As silicon

atoms come into close proximity to each other, the valence electrons interact to
forma crystal. The final crystal structure is a tetrahedral configuration in which each
silicon atom has four nearest neighbors, as shown in Figure 1.1(b). The valence
electrons are shared between atoms, forming what are called covalent bonds.
Germanium, gallium arsenide, and many other semiconductor materials have the
same tetrahedral configuration.

Figure 1.1(c) is a two-dimensional representation of the lattice formed by the five

silicon atoms in Figure 1.1(a). An important property of such a lattice is that valence
electrons are always available on the outer edge of the silicon crystal so that
additional atoms can be added to form very large single-crystal structures.

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1.5. Generation of Microelectronics technology:

The age of electronics began with the invention of the first amplifying device,
the triode vacuum tube, by Fleming in 1904. This invention was followed by the
development of the solid-state point-contact diode(silicon) by Pickard in 1906, the
first radio circuits from diodes and triodes between 1907 and 1927, the super
heterodyne receiver by Armstrong in1920,demonstration of television in 1925, the
field-effect device by Lilienfield in 1925, frequency modulation (FM) by Armstrong
in 1933, and radar in 1940.

The first electronics revolution began in 1947 with the invention of the silicon
transistor by Bardeen, Bratain, and Shockley at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Most
of today’s advanced electronic technologies are traceable to that one invention. This
revolution was followed by the first demonstration of color television in 1950 and
the invention of the unipolar field-effect transistor by Shockley in 1952.

The next breakthrough came in 1956, when Bell Laboratories developed the
pnpn triggering transistor,also known as a thyristor or a silicon-controlled rectifier
(SCR). The second electronics revolution began with the development of a
commercial thyristor by General Electric Company in 1958. That was the beginning
of a new era for applications of electronics in power processing or conditioning,
called power electronics. Since then, many different types of power semiconductor
devices and conversiontechniques have been developed.

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The first integrated circuit (IC) was developed in 1958 simultaneously by Kilby
at Texas Instruments and Noyce and Moore at Fairchild Semiconductor, marking the
beginning of a new phase in the microelectronics revolution. This invention was
followed by development of the first commercial IC operational amplifier, the
_A709, by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968; the 4004 microprocessor by Intel in
1971; the 8-bit microprocessor by Intel in 1972; and the gigabit memory chip by
Intel in 1995.

Microelectronic technology today includes thin film, thick film, hybrid, and
integrated circuits and combinations of these. Such circuits are applied in DIGITAL,
SWITCHING, and LINEAR (analog) circuits. Because of the current trend of
producing a number of circuits on a single chip, you may look for further increases in
the packaging density of electronic circuits. At the same time you may expect a
reduction in the size, weight, and number of connections in individual systems.
Improvements in reliability and system capability are also to be expected.

Thus, even as existing capabilities are being improved, new areas of microelectronic
use are being explored. To predict where all this use of technology will lead is
impossible. However, as the demand for increasingly effective electronic systems
continues, improvements will continue to be made in state-of the- art
microelectronics to meet the demands.

LARGE-SCALE INTEGRATION (lsi) and VERY LARGE-SCALE INTEGRATION (vlsi) are the results
of improvements in microelectronics production technology.

1.6. Electronics versus Microelectronics

The general area of electronics began about a century ago and proved instrumental in
the radioand radar communications used during the two world wars. Early systems
incorporated “vacuum tubes,” amplifying devices that operated with the flow of
electrons between plates in a vacuum chamber. However, the finite lifetime and the
large size of vacuum tubes motivated researchers to seek an electronic device with
better properties.

The first transistor was invented in the 1940s and rapidly displaced vacuum tubes. It
exhibited a very long (in principle, infinite) lifetime and occupied a much smaller
volume (e.g., less than 1cm3 in packaged form) than vacuum tubes did. But it was
not until 1960s that the field of microelectronics, i.e., the science of integrating many
transistors on one chip, began. Early “integrated circuits” (ICs) contained only a
handful of devices, but advances in the technology soon made it possible to
dramatically increase the complexity of “microchips.”

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CHAPTER-2

DIODE MODELS AND CIRCUITS

2.1. THE pn JUNCTION:

In the preceding sections, we looked at characteristics of semiconductor materials.

The real power of semiconductor electronics occurs when p- and n-regions are
directly adjacent to each other, forming a pn junction. One important concept to
remember is that in most integrated circuit applications, the entire semiconductor
material is a single crystal, with one region doped to be p-type and the adjacent
region doped to be n-type.

2.2. The Equilibrium pn Junction

Figure 1.10(a) is a simplified block diagram of a pn junction. Figure 1.10(b)
shows the respective p-type and n-type doping concentrations, assuming uniform
doping ineach region, as well as the minority carrier concentrations in each region,
assuming thermal equilibrium. Figure 1.10(c) is a three-dimensional diagram of the
pn junction showing the cross-sectional area of the device.The interface at x = 0 is
called the metallurgical junction. A large density gradient in both the hole and
electron concentrations occurs across this junction. Initially, then, there is a diffusion
of holes from the p-region into the n-region, and a diffusion of electrons from the n-
region into the p-region (Figure 1.11). The flow of holes from the p-region uncovers
negatively charged acceptor ions, and the flow of

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electrons from the n-region uncovers positively charged donor ions. This action creates a
charge separation (Figure 1.12(a)), which sets up an electric field oriented in the direction
from the positive charge to the negative charge.

If no voltage is applied to the pn junction, the diffusion of holes and electrons must
eventually cease. The direction of the induced electric field will cause the resulting force to
repel the diffusion of holes from the p-region and the diffusion of electrons from the n-
region. Thermal equilibrium occurs when the force produced by the electric field and the
“force” produced by the density gradient exactly balance.

The positively charged region and the negatively charged region comprise the space-
charge region, or depletion region, of the pn junction, in which there are essentially no
mobile electrons or holes. Because of the electric field in the space charge region, there is a
potential difference across that region (Figure 1.12(b)). This potential difference is called the
built-in potential barrier, or built-in voltage, and is given by

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Example1: Calculate the built-in potential barrier of a pn junction. Consider a silicon pn junction at T
= 300 K, doped at Na = 1016 cm−3 in the p-region and Nd = 1017cm−3 in the n-region.

The potential difference, or built-in potential barrier, across the space-charge region
cannot be measured by a voltmeter because new potential barriers form between the probes
of the voltmeter and the semiconductor, canceling the effects of Vbi . In essence, Vbi
maintains equilibrium, so no current is produced by this voltage. However, the magnitude of
Vbi becomes important when we apply a forward-bias voltage, as discussed later in this
chapter.

2.3) Reverse biased p-n junction:

Assume a positive voltage is applied to the n-region of a pn junction, as shown in

Figure 1.13. The applied voltage VR induces an applied electric field, EA, in the
semiconductor. The direction of this applied field is the same as that of the E-field in the
space-charge region. The magnitude of the electric field in the space-charge region increases
above the thermal equilibrium value. This increased electric field holds back the holes in the
p-region and the electrons in the n-region, so there is essentially no current across the pn
junction. By definition, this applied voltage polarity is called reverse bias.

When the electric field in the space-charge region increases, the number of positive
and negative charges must increase. If the doping concentrations are not changed, the
increase in the fixed charge can only occur if the width W of the spacecharge region
increases. Therefore, with an increasing reverse-bias voltage VR, space-charge width W also
increases. This effect is shown in Figure 1.14.

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Because of the additional positive and negative charges induced in the spacecharge
region with an increase in reverse-bias voltage, a capacitance is associated with the pn
junction when a reverse-bias voltage is applied. This junction capacitance, or depletion
layer capacitance, can be written in the form

Where Cjo is the junction capacitance at zero applied voltage.

The junction capacitance will affect the switching characteristics of the pn junction,
as we will see later in the chapter. The voltage across a capacitance cannot change
instantaneously, so changes in voltages in circuits containing pn junctions will not occur
instantaneously.

The capacitance–voltage characteristics can make the pn junction useful for

electrically tunable resonant circuits. Junctions fabricated specifically for this purpose are
called varactor diodes. Varactor diodes can be used in electrically tunable oscillators, such
as a Hartley oscillator.

As implied in the previous section, the magnitude of the electric field in the space-
charge region increases as the reverse-bias voltage increases, and the maximum electric field
occurs at the metallurgical junction. However, neither the electric field in the space-charge
region nor the applied reverse-bias voltage can increase indefinitely because at some point,
breakdown will occur and a large reverse bias current will be generated

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As implied in the previous section, the magnitude of the electric field in the space-
charge region increases as the reverse-bias voltage increases, and the maximum electric field
occurs at the metallurgical junction. However, neither the electric field in the space-charge
region nor the applied reverse-bias voltage can increase indefinitely because at some point,
breakdown will occur and a large reverse bias current will be generated.

2.4) Forward biased pn junction:

We have seen that the n-region contains many more free electrons than the p-region;
similarly, the p-region contains many more holes than the n-region.With zero applied
voltage, the built-in potential barrier prevents these majority carriers from diffusing across
the space-charge region; thus, the barrier maintains equilibrium between the carrier
distributions on either side of the pn junction.

If a positive voltage vD is applied to the p-region, the potential barrier decreases

(Figure 1.15). The electric fields in the space-charge region are very large compared to those
in the remainder of the p- and n-regions, so essentially all of the applied voltage exists
across the pn junction region. The applied electric field, EA, induced by the applied voltage
is in the opposite direction from that of the thermal equilibrium space-charge E-field.
However, the net electric field is always from the n- to the p-region. The net result is that the
electric field in the space-charge region is lower than the equilibrium value. This upsets the
delicate balance between diffusion and the E-field force. Majority carrier electrons from the
n-region diffuse into the p-region, and majority carrier holes from the p-region diffuse into
the n-region. The process continues as long as the voltage vD is applied, thus creating a
current in the pn junction. This process would be analogous to lowering a dam wall slightly.
A slight drop in the wall height can send a large amount of water (current) over the barrier.

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This applied voltage polarity (i.e., bias) is known as forward bias. The forward bias
voltage vD must always be less than the built-in potential barrier Vbi.

As the majority carriers cross into the opposite regions, they become minoritycarriers
in those regions, causing the minority carrier concentrations to increase. Figure 1.16 shows
the resulting excess minority carrier concentrations at the space charge region edges. These
excess minority carriers diffuse into the neutral n- and p-regions, where they recombine with
majority carriers, thus establishing a steady state condition, as shown in Figure 1.16.

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2.5) Ideal Current–Voltage Relationship:

As shown in Figure 1.16, an applied voltage results in a gradient in the minority

carrier concentrations, which in turn causes diffusion currents. The theoretical relationship
between the voltage and the current in the pn junction is given by

2.6) pn Junction Diode:

Figure 1.17 is a plot of the derived current–voltage characteristics of a pn junction.

For a forward-bias voltage, the current is an exponential function of voltage. Figure 1.18
depicts the forward-bias current plotted on a log scale. With only a small change in the
forward-bias voltage, the corresponding forward-bias current increases by orders of
magnitude. For a forward-bias voltage vD > +0.1 V, the (−1) term in Equation (1.18) can be
neglected. In the reverse-bias direction, the current is almost zero.

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Figure 1.19 shows the diode circuit symbol and the conventional current direction
and voltage polarity. The diode can be thought of and used as a voltage controlled
switch that is “off” for a reverse-bias voltage and “on” for a forward-bias voltage. In
the forward-bias or “on” state, a relatively large current is produced by a fairly small
applied voltage; in the reverse-bias, or “off” state, only a very small current is
created.

When a diode is reverse-biased by at least 0.1 V, the diode current is iD = −IS. The
current is in the reverse direction and is a constant, hence the name reverse-bias
saturation current. Real diodes, however, exhibit reverse-bias currents that are
considerably larger than IS. This additional current is called a generation current and
is due to electrons and holes being generated within the space-charge region.
Whereas a typical value of IS may be 10−14 A, a typical value of reverse-bias
current may be 10−9 A or 1 nA. Even though this current is much larger than IS, it is
still small and negligible in most cases.

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Temperature Effects

Since both IS and VT are functions of temperature, the diode characteristics also vary
with temperature. The temperature-related variations in forward-bias characteristics
are illustrated in Figure 1.20. For a given current, the required forward-bias voltage
decreases as temperature increases. For silicon diodes, the change is approximately 2
mV/°C. The parameter IS is a function of the intrinsic carrier concentration ni, which
in turn is strongly dependent on temperature. Consequently, the value of IS
approximately doubles for every 5 °C increase in temperature. The actual reverse-
bias diode current, as a general rule, doubles for every 10 °C rise in temperature. As
an example of the importance of this effect, the relative value of ni in germanium, is
large, resulting in a large reverse-saturation current in germanium-based diodes.
Increases in this reverse current with increases in the temperature make the
germanium diode highly impractical for most circuit applications

2.6.1) Breakdown Voltage

When a reverse-bias voltage is applied to a pn junction, the electric field in the space
charge region increases. The electric field may become large enough that covalent
bonds are broken and electron–hole pairs are created. Electrons are swept into the n-
region and holes are swept into the p-region by the electric field, generating a large
reverse bias current. This phenomenon is called breakdown. The reverse-bias
current created by the breakdown mechanism is limited only by the external circuit.
If the current is not sufficiently limited, a large power can be dissipated in the
junction that may damage the device and cause burnout. The current–voltage
characteristic of a diode in breakdown is shown in Figure 1.21.

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bonds are broken and electron–hole pairs are created. Electrons are swept into the n-
region and holes are swept into the p-region by the electric field, generating a large
reverse bias current. This phenomenon is called breakdown. The reverse-bias
current created by the breakdown mechanism is limited only by the external circuit.
If the current is not sufficiently limited, a large power can be dissipated in the
junction that may damage the device and cause burnout. The current–voltage
characteristic of a diode in breakdown is shown in Figure 1.21

The most common breakdown mechanism is called avalanche breakdown,which

occurs when carriers crossing the space charge region gain sufficient kinetic energy
from the high electric field to be able to break covalent bonds during a collision
process. The basic avalanche multiplication process is demonstrated in Figure 1.22.
The generated electron–hole pairs can themselves be involved in a collision process
generating additional electron–hole pairs, thus the avalanche process. The
breakdown voltage is a function of the doping concentrations in the n- and p-regions
of the junction. Larger doping concentrations result in smaller breakdown voltages.

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A second breakdown mechanism is called Zener breakdown and is a result

of tunneling of carriers across the junction. This effect is prominent at very high
doping concentrations and results in breakdown voltages less than 5 V.

The voltage at which breakdown occurs depends on fabrication parameters of

the pn junction, but is usually in the range of 50 to 200 V for discrete devices,
although breakdown voltages outside this range are possible—in excess of 1000 V,
for example.A pn junction is usually rated in terms of its peak inverse voltage or
PIV. The PIV of a diode must never be exceeded in circuit operation if reverse
breakdown is to be avoided.

Diodes can be fabricated with a specifically designed breakdown voltage and

are designed to operate in the breakdown region. These diodes are called Zener
diodes.

2.7) DIODE CIRCUITS: DC ANALYSIS AND MODELS:

In this section, we begin to study the diode in various circuit configurations.

As we have seen, the diode is a two-terminal device with nonlinear i–v
characteristics, as opposed to a two-terminal resistor, which has a linear relationship
between current and voltage. The analysis of nonlinear electronic circuits is not as
straightforward as the analysis of linear electric circuits. However, there are
electronic functions that can be implemented only by nonlinear circuits. Examples
include the generation of dc voltages from sinusoidal voltages and the
implementation of logic functions.

Mathematical relationships, or models, that describe the current–voltage

characteristics of electrical elements allow us to analyze and design circuits without
having to fabricate and test them in the laboratory. An example is Ohm’s law, which
describes the properties of a resistor. In this section, we will develop the dc analysis
and modeling techniques of diode circuits. This section considers the current–voltage
characteristics of the pn junction diode in order to construct various circuit models.
Large-signal models are initially developed that describe the behavior of the device
with relatively large changes in voltages and currents. These models simplify the
analysis of diode circuits and make the analysis of relatively complex circuits much
easier. In the next section, we will consider a small-signal model of the diode that
will describe the behavior of the pn junction with small changes in voltages and
currents. It is important to understand the difference between large-signal and small-
signal models and the conditions when they are used.

To begin to understand diode circuits, consider a simple diode application.

The current–voltage characteristics of the pn junction diode were given in Figure
1.17. An ideal diode (as opposed to a diode with ideal I–V characteristics) has the
characteristics shown in Figure 1.26(a). When a reverse-bias voltage is applied, the

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current through the diode is zero (Figure 1.26(b)); when current through the diode is
greater than zero, the voltage across the diode is zero (Figure 1.26(c)). An external
circuit connected to the diode must be designed to control the forward currentthrough
the diode.

One diode circuit is the rectifier circuit shown in Figure 1.27(a). Assume that
the input voltage vI is a sinusoidal signal, as shown in Figure 1.27(b), and the diode
is an ideal diode (see Figure 1.26(a)). During the positive half-cycle of the sinusoidal

input, a forward-bias current exists in the diode and the voltage across the diode is
zero. The equivalent circuit for this condition is shown in Figure 1.27(c). The output
voltage vO is then equal to the input voltage. During the negative half-cycle of the
sinusoidal input, the diode is reverse biased. The equivalent circuit for this condition
is shown in Figure 1.27(d). In this part of the cycle, the diode acts as an open
circuit,the current is zero, and the output voltage is zero. The output voltage of the
circuit is shown in Figure 1.27(e).

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Over the entire cycle, the input signal is sinusoidal and has a zero average
value; however, the output signal contains only positive values and therefore has a
positive average value. Consequently, this circuit is said to rectify the input signal,
which is the first step in generating a dc voltage from a sinusoidal (ac) voltage. A dc
voltage is required in virtually all electronic circuits. As mentioned, the analysis of
nonlinear circuits is not as straightforward as that of linear circuits. In this section,
we will look at four approaches to the dc analysis of diode circuits: (a) iteration; (b)
graphical techniques; (c) a piecewise linear modeling method; and (d) a computer
analysis. Methods (a) and (b) are closely related and are therefore presented together.

2.8) The Ideal Diode: Current–Voltage Characteristic

The ideal diode may be considered to be the most fundamental nonlinear circuit
element. It is a two-terminal device having the circuit symbol of Fig. 4.1(a) and the
i–v characteristic shown in Fig. 4.1(b). The terminal characteristic of the ideal diode
can be interpreted as fol-lows: If a negative voltage (relative to the reference
direction indicated in Fig. 4.1a) is applied to the diode, no current flows and the
diode behaves as an open circuit (Fig. 4.1c). Diodes operated in this mode are said to
be reverse biased, or operated in the reverse direc-tion. An ideal diode has zero
current when operated in the reverse direction and is said to be cut off, or simply off.

On the other hand, if a positive current (relative to the reference direction

indicated in Fig. 4.1a) is applied to the ideal diode, zero voltage drop appears across
the diode. In other words, the ideal diode behaves as a short circuit in the forward
direction (Fig. 4.1d); it passes any cur-rent with zero voltage drop. A forward-
biased diode is said to be turned on, or simply on.From the above description it
should be noted that the external circuit must be designed to limit the forward current
through a conducting diode, and the reverse voltage across a cutoff diode, to
predetermined values. Figure 4.2 shows two diode circuits that illustrate this point. In
the circuit of Fig. 4.2(a) the diode is obviously conducting. Thus its voltage drop will
be zero, and the current through it will be determined by the +10-V supply and the 1-
kΩ resistor as 10 mA. The diode in the circuit of Fig. 4.2(b) is obviously cut off, and
thus its current will be zero, which in turn means that the entire 10-V supply will
appear as reverse bias across the diode.

The positive terminal of the diode is called the anode and the negative
terminal the cathode, a carryover from the days of vacuum-tube diodes. The i–v
characteristic of the ideal diode (conducting in one direction and not in the other)
should explain the choice of its arrow like circuit symbol.

As should be evident from the preceding description, the i–v characteristic of

the ideal diode is highly nonlinear; although it consists of two straight-line segments,
they are at 90° to one another. A nonlinear curve that consists of straight-line
segments is said to be piecewise linear. If a device having a piecewise-linear
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characteristic is used in a particular application in such a way that the signal across
its terminals swings along only one of the linear segments, then the device can be
considered a linear circuit element as far as that particular circuit application is
concerned. On the other hand, if signals swing past one or more of the break points
in the characteristic, linear analysis is no longer possible.

2.9) A Simple Application: The Rectifier:

A fundamental application of the diode, one that makes use of its severely nonlinear
i–v curve, is the rectifier circuit shown in Fig. 4.3(a). The circuit consists of the
series connection of a diode D and a resistor R. Let the input voltage vI be the
sinusoid shown in Fig. 4.3(b), and assume the diode to be ideal. During the positive

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half-cycles of the input sinusoid, the positive vI will cause current to flow through the
diode in its forward direction. It follows that the diode voltage vD will be very
small—ideally zero. Thus the circuit will have the equivalent shown in Fig. 4.3(c),
and the output voltage vO will be equal to the input voltage vI. On the other hand,
during the negative half-cycles of vI , the diode will not conduct. Thus the circuit will
have the equivalent shown in Fig. 4.3(d), and vO will be zero. Thus the output
voltage will have the waveform shown in Fig. 4.3(e). Note that while vI alternates in
polarity and has a zero average value, vO is unidirectional and has a finite average
value or a dc component. Thus the circuit of Fig. 4.3(a) rectifies the signal and hence
is called a rectifier. It can be used to generate dc from ac.

Figure 4.3 (a) Rectifier circuit. (b) Input waveform. (c) Equivalent circuit when
vI ≥ 0. (d) Equivalent circuit when vI ≤ 0. (e) Output waveform.

Another Application: Diode Logic Gates

Diodes together with resistors can be used to implement digital logic functions.
Figure 4.5 shows two diode logic gates. To see how these circuits function, consider
a positive-logic system in which voltage values close to 0 V correspond to logic 0 (or
low) and voltage values close to +5 V correspond to logic 1 (or high). The circuit in
Fig. 4.5(a) has three inputs, vA, vB, and vC. It is easy to see that diodes connected to

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+5-V inputs will conduct, thus clamping the output vY to a value equal to +5 V. This
positive voltage at the output will keep the diodes whose inputs are low (around 0 V)
cut off. Thus the output will be high if one or more of the inputs are high. The circuit
therefore implements the logic OR function, which in Boolean notation is expressed
as
Y = A + B+ C
Similarly, the reader is encouraged to show that using the same logic system
mentioned above, the circuit of Fig. 4.5(b) implements the logic AND function,
Y = A. B. C

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CHAPTER-3

RECTIFIERS

3.1) Rectifiers Introduction:

One application of diodes is in the design of rectifier circuits. A diode rectifier forms the
first stage of a dc power supply. A dc voltage is required to power essentially every
electronic device, including personal computers, televisions, and stereo systems. An
electrical cord that is plugged into a wall socket and attached to a television, for example,
is connected to a rectifier circuit inside the TV. In addition, battery chargers for portable
electronic devices such as cell phones and laptop computers contain rectifier circuits.

Figure 2.1 is a diagram of a dc power supply. The output voltage v0 is usually in

the range of 3 to 24 V depending on the particular electronics application.

Rectification is the process of converting an alternating (ac) voltage into one that
is limited to one polarity. The diode is useful for this function because of its nonlinear
characteristics, that is, current exists for one voltage polarity, but is essentially zero for
the opposite polarity. Rectification is classified as half-wave or full-wave, with half-
wave being the simpler and full-wave is more efficient.

3.2) Rectifier Circuits:

One of the most important applications of diodes is in the design of rectifier circuits. A
diode rectifier forms an essential building block of the dc power supplies required to
power electronic equipment. A block diagram of such a power supply is shown in Fig.
4.20. As indicated, the power supply is fed from the 120-V (rms) 60-Hz ac line, and it
delivers a dc voltage VO (usually in the range of 5 V to 20 V) to an electronic circuit
represented by the

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load block. The dc voltage VO is required to be as constant as possible in spite of

variations in the ac line voltage and in the current drawn by the load.

The first block in a dc power supply is the power transformer. It consists of two
separate coils wound around an iron core that magnetically couples the two windings.
The primary winding, having N1 turns, is connected to the 120-V ac supply, and the
secondary winding, having N2 turns, is connected to the circuit of the dc power supply.
Thus an ac voltage vS of 120 ( N2 ⁄ N1) V (rms) develops between the two terminals of the
secondary winding. By selecting an appropriate turns ratio ( N 1 ⁄ N 2 ) for the
transformer, the designer can step the line voltage down to the value required to yield the
particular dc voltage output of the supply. For instance, a secondary voltage of 8-V rms
may be appropriate for a dc output of 5 V. This can be achieved with a 15:1 turns ratio.

In addition to providing the appropriate sinusoidal amplitude for the dc power supply,
the power transformer provides electrical isolation between the electronic equipment and
the power-line circuit. This isolation minimizes the risk of electric shock to the
equipment user.

The diode rectifier converts the input sinusoid vS to a unipolar output, which can have the
pulsating waveform indicated in Fig. 4.20. Although this waveform has a nonzero aver-
age or a dc component, its pulsating nature makes it unsuitable as a dc source for
electronic circuits, hence the need for a filter. The variations in the magnitude of the
rectifier output are considerably reduced by the filter block in Fig. 4.20. In the following
sections we shall study a number of rectifier circuits and a simple implementation of the
output filter.

The output of the rectifier filter, though much more constant than without the filter, still
contains a time-dependent component, known as ripple. To reduce the ripple and to
stabilize the magnitude of the dc output voltage of the supply against variations caused by
changes in load current, a voltage regulator is employed. Such a regulator can be imple-
mented using the zener shunt regulator configuration studied in Section 4.4.
Alternatively, and much more commonly at present, an integrated-circuit regulator can be
used.

3.3) The Half-Wave Rectifier:

The half-wave rectifier utilizes alternate half-cycles of the input sinusoid. Figure 4.21(a)
shows the circuit of a half-wave rectifier. This circuit was analyzed in Section 4.1 (see
Fig. 4.3) assuming an ideal diode. Using the more realistic constant-voltage-drop diode
model, we obtain

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The transfer characteristic represented by these equations is sketched in Fig. 4.21(b),

where VD = 0.7 V or 0.8 V. Figure 4.21(c) shows the output voltage obtained when the
input vS is a sinusoid.

In selecting diodes for rectifier design, two important parameters must be specified: the
current-handling capability required of the diode, determined by the largest current the
diode is expected to conduct, and the peak inverse voltage (PIV) that the diode must be
able to withstand without breakdown, determined by the largest reverse voltage that is
expected to appear across the diode. In the rectifier circuit of Fig. 4.21(a), we observe
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that when vS is negative the diode will be cut off and vO will be zero. It follows that the
PIV is equal to the peak of vS ,

PIV  Vs ( 2)

It is usually prudent, however, to select a diode that has a reverse breakdown voltage at
least 50% greater than the expected PIV.

Before leaving the half-wave rectifier, the reader should note two points. First, it is pos-
sible to use the diode exponential characteristic to determine the exact transfer
characteristic of the rectifier (see Problem 4.65). However, the amount of work involved
is usually too great to be justified in practice.

Second, whether we analyze the circuit accurately or not, it should be obvious that this
circuit does not function properly when the input signal is small. For instance, this circuit
cannot be used to rectify an input sinusoid of 100-mV amplitude. For such an application
one resorts to a so-called precision rectifier, a circuit utilizing diodes in conjunction with
op amps.

3.4) The Full-Wave Rectifier:

The full-wave rectifier utilizes both halves of the input sinusoid. To provide a unipolar
out-put, it inverts the negative halves of the sine wave. One possible implementation is
shown in Fig. 4.22(a). Here the transformer secondary winding is center-tapped to
provide two equal voltages vS across the two halves of the secondary winding with the
polarities indicated. Note that when the input line voltage (feeding the primary) is
positive, both of the signals labeled vS will be positive. In this case D1 will conduct and
D2 will be reverse biased. The current through D1 will flow through R and back to the
center tap of the secondary. The cir-cuit then behaves like a half-wave rectifier, and the
output during the positive half-cycles when D1 conducts will be identical to that
produced by the half-wave rectifier.

Now, during the negative half-cycle of the ac line voltage, both of the voltages
labeled vS will be negative. Thus D1 will be cut off while D 2 will conduct. The current
conducted by D2 will flow through R and back to the center tap. It follows that during
the negative half-cycles while D2 conducts, the circuit behaves again as a half-wave
rectifier. The important point, however, is that the current through R always flows in
the same direction, and thus vO will be unipolar, as indicated in Fig. 4.22(c). The output
waveform shown is obtained by assum-ing that a conducting diode has a constant
voltage drop VD. Thus the transfer characteristic of the full-wave rectifier takes the
shape shown in Fig. 4.22(b).

The full-wave rectifier obviously produces a more “energetic” waveform than that pro-
vided by the half-wave rectifier. In almost all rectifier applications, one opts for a full-
wave type of some kind.

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To find the PIV of the diodes in the full-wave rectifier circuit, consider the situation dur-
ing the positive half-cycles. Diode D1 is conducting, and D2 is cut off. The voltage at the
cath-ode of D2 is vO, and that at its anode is −vS. Thus the reverse voltage across D2 will
be (vO = vS), which will reach its maximum when vO is at its peak value of (Vs − VD), and
vS is at its peak value of Vs; thus,

PIV = 2Vs − VD

which is approximately twice that for the case of the half-wave rectifier.

3.5) The Bridge Rectifier:

An alternative implementation of the full-wave rectifier is shown in Fig. 4.23(a).
This cir-cuit, known as the bridge rectifier because of the similarity of its configuration to
that of the Wheatstone bridge, does not require a center-tapped transformer, a distinct
advantage over the full-wave rectifier circuit of Fig. 4.22. The bridge rectifier, however,
requires four diodes as compared to two in the previous circuit. This is not much of a
disadvantage, because diodes are inexpensive and one can buy a diode bridge in one
package.

The bridge rectifier circuit operates as follows: During the positive half-cycles of the

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input voltage, vS is positive, and thus current is conducted through diode D1, resistor R,
and diode D2. Meanwhile, diodes D3 and D4 will be reverse biased. Observe that there
are two diodes in series in the conduction path, and thus vO will be lower than vS by two
diode drops (compared to one drop in the circuit previously discussed). This is
somewhat of a disadvantage of the bridge rectifier.

Next, consider the situation during the negative half-cycles of the input voltage. The sec-
ondary voltage vS will be negative, and thus −vS will be positive, forcing current through
D3, R, and D4. Meanwhile, diodes D1 and D2 will be reverse biased. The important point
to note, though, is that during both half-cycles, current flows through R in the same
direction (from right to left), and thus vO will always be positive, as indicated in Fig.
4.23(b).

To determine the peak inverse voltage (PIV) of each diode, consider the circuit during
the positive half-cycles. The reverse voltage across D3 can be determined from the loop
formed by D3, R, and D2 as

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Thus the maximum value of vD3 occurs at the peak of vO and is given by

Observe that here the PIV is about half the value for the full-wave rectifier with a
center-tapped transformer. This is another advantage of the bridge rectifier.

Yet one more advantage of the bridge rectifier circuit over that utilizing a center-
tapped transformer is that only about half as many turns are required for the secondary
winding of the transformer. Another way of looking at this point can be obtained by
observing that each half of the secondary winding of the center-tapped transformer is
utilized for only half the time. These advantages have made the bridge rectifier the
most popular rectifier circuit configuration.

3.6) The Rectifier with a Filter Capacitor—The Peak Rectifier

The pulsating nature of the output voltage produced by the rectifier circuits discussed
above makes it unsuitable as a dc supply for electronic circuits. A simple way to
reduce the varia-tion of the output voltage is to place a capacitor across the load
resistor. It will be shown that this filter capacitor serves to reduce substantially the
variations in the rectifier output voltage.

To see how the rectifier circuit with a filter capacitor works, consider first the simple
cir-cuit shown in Fig. 4.24. Let the input vI be a sinusoid with a peak value Vp, and
assume the diode to be ideal. As vI goes positive, the diode conducts and the capacitor
is charged so that vO = vI. This situation continues until vI reaches its peak value Vp.
Beyond the peak, as vI decreases the diode becomes reverse biased and the output
voltage remains constant at the value Vp. In fact, theoretically speaking, the capacitor
will retain its charge and hence its volt-age indefinitely, because there is no way for
the capacitor to discharge. Thus the circuit pro-vides a dc voltage output equal to the
peak of the input sine wave. This is a very encouraging result in view of our desire to
produce a dc output

Next, we consider the more practical situation where a load resistance R is

connected across the capacitor C, as depicted in Fig. 4.25(a). However, we will
continue to assume the diode to be ideal. As before, for a sinusoidal input, the capacitor
charges to the peak of the input Vp. Then the diode cuts off, and the capacitor
discharges through the load resistance R. The capacitor discharge will

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continue for almost the entire cycle, until the time at which vI exceeds the capacitor
voltage. Then the diode turns on again and charges the capacitor up to the peak of vI ,
and the process repeats itself. Observe that to keep the output voltage from decreasing
too much during capacitor discharge, one selects a value for C so that the time constant
CR is much greater than the discharge interval.

We are now ready to analyze the circuit in detail. Figure 4.25(b) shows the steady-state
input and output voltage waveforms under the assumption that CR >> T, where T is the
period of the input sinusoid. The waveforms of the load current.

and of the diode current (when it is conducting)

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are shown in Fig. 4.25(c). The following observations are in order:

1. The diode conducts for a brief interval, t, near the peak of the input sinusoid and
supplies the capacitor with charge equal to that lost during the much longer dis-
charge interval. The latter is approximately equal to the period T.

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2. Assuming an ideal diode, the diode conduction begins at time t1, at

which the input vI equals the exponentially decaying output vO. Conduction stops
at t2 shortly after the peak of vI ; the exact value of t2 can be determined by
setting iD = 0 in Eq. (5).

3. During the diode-off interval, the capacitor C discharges through R, and thus vO
decays exponentially with a time constant CR. The discharge interval begins just
past the peak of vI. At the end of the discharge interval, which lasts for almost the
entire period T, vO = Vp − Vr , where Vr is the peak-to-peakripple voltage. When
CR >> T, the value of Vr is small.

4. When Vr is small, vO is almost constant and equal to the peak value of vI. Thus the
dc output voltage is approximately equal to Vp. Similarly, the current iL is almost
con-stant, and its dc component IL is given by

If desired, a more accurate expression for the output dc voltage can be obtained by
taking the average of the extreme values of vO,

With these observations in hand, we now derive expressions for Vr and for the average
and peak values of the diode current. During the diode-off interval, vO can be expressed as

At the end of the discharge interval we have

〜
Now, since CR >> T, we can use the approximation e–T ⁄ CR 1 – T ⁄ CR to obtain
_

We observe that to keep Vr small we must select a capacitance C so that CR >>T. The
ripple voltage Vr in Eq. 8) can be expressed in terms of the frequency f = 1 ⁄ T as

Using Eq. (6) we can express Vr by the alternate expression

Note that an alternative interpretation of the approximation made above is that the
capacitor discharges by means of a constant current IL = Vp ⁄ R. This approximation is
valid as long as Vr << Vp.
Assuming that diode conduction ceases almost at the peak of vI , we can
determine the conduction interval t from
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where ω = 2π f = 2π ⁄ T is the angular frequency of vI . Since (ω t) is a small angle,

we can employ the approximation

to obtain

We note that when Vr << Vp, the conduction angle will be small, as assumed

To determine the average diode current during conduction, iDav, we equate the charge
that the diode supplies to the capacitor

where from Eq. (4),

to the charge that the capacitor loses during the discharge interval,

to obtain, using Eqs. (10) and (9a),

Observe that when Vr << Vp, the average diode current during conduction is much
greater than the dc load current. This is not surprising, since the diode conducts for a very
short interval and must replenish the charge lost by the capacitor during the much longer
interval in which it is discharged by IL.
The peak value of the diode current, iDmax, can be determined by evaluating the
expression in Eq. (4.25) at the onset of diode conduction—that is, at t = t1 = −Δt (where t
= 0 is at the peak). Assuming that iL is almost constant at the value given by Eq. (4.26),
we obtain

From Eqs. (11) and (12), we see that for Vr << Vp, , which correlates with
the fact that the waveform of iD is almost a right-angle triangle (see Fig. 4.25c).

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EXAMPLE:

The circuit of Fig. 4.25(a) is known as a half-wave peak rectifier. The full-wave
recti-fier circuits of Figs. 4.22(a) and 4.23(a) can be converted to peak rectifiers by
including a capacitor across the load resistor. As in the half-wave case, the output dc
voltage will be almost equal to the peak value of the input sine wave (Fig. 4.26). The
ripple frequency, how-ever, will be twice that of the input. The peak-to-peak ripple
voltage, for this case, can be derived using a procedure identical to that above but with
the discharge period T replaced by T ⁄ 2 , resulting in

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While the diode conduction interval,△t, will still be given by Eq. (4.30), the average
and peak currents in each of the diodes will be given by

Comparing these expressions with the corresponding ones for the half-wave case, we
note that for the same values of Vp, f, R, and Vr (and thus the same IL), we need a
capacitor half the size of that required in the half-wave rectifier. Also, the current in
each diode in the full-wave rectifier is approximately half that which flows in the diode
of the half-wave circuit.

The analysis above assumed ideal diodes. The accuracy of the results can be
improved by taking the diode voltage drop into account. This can be easily done by
replacing the peak voltage Vp to which the capacitor charges with (Vp − VD) for the half-
wave circuit and the full-wave cir-cuit using a center-tapped transformer and with (Vp −
2VD) for the bridge-rectifier case.

We conclude this section by noting that peak-rectifier circuits find application in

signal-processing systems where it is required to detect the peak of an input signal. In
such a case, the circuit is referred to as a peak detector. A particularly popular
application of the peak detector is in the design of a demodulator for amplitude-
modulated (AM) signals. We shall not discuss this application further here.

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