PO – RALG

MVOMERO DISTRICT COUNCIL

MZUMBE SECONDARY SCHOOL

ELECTRONICS REVISION QUESTIONS.

FORM SIX 2022/2023

NOVEMBER 2022
1. (a) (i) Explain the changes in electrical conductivity of conductors and
semiconductors as temperature of solid material increases.
(ii) Explain how depletion layer differ from reverse leakage current as used
in pn – junction.
(iii) Describe the formation of n-type and p-type semiconductors.
(b) (i) Explain why addition of small quality of suitable impurities to an intrinsic
semiconductor decreases its resistivity.
(ii) Explain the difference between conductors, semiconductors and
insulators with the help of an energy band diagram by referring
forbidden gap.
(iii) Briefly describe the formation of potential barrier of a pn-junction
diode.
(c)(i) For a CE transistor amplifier, the audio signal voltage across the
collector resistance of 2 kΩ is 2 V. Suppose the current amplification
factor of the transistor is 100. What should be the value RB in series with
VBB supply of 2 V. If the d.c. base current has to be 10 times the base
signal current?
(ii) Describe the working principle of npn and pnp junction transistors.
(iii) Using a suitable diagram explain how a transistor operates as a switch.

2. (a) (i) Briefly explain two main types of bipolar transistors.

(ii) Which among the transistor mentioned in (i) above responds quickly to
electrical signal? Give reason.
(iii) With the help of a circuit diagram, describe the working principle of a
transistor as an amplifier.

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 (b) (i) How is a sample of an n-type semiconductor electrically neutral
though it has excess of negative charge carriers?
(ii) How is the band gap of a photon diode related to the maximum
wavelength that can be detected by it?
(iii) Draw a circuit diagram of npn transistor with its emitter base junction at
forward bias and base collector junction at reverse bias. Describe
briefly how it works.

3. (a) (i) What is the charge on a p-type semiconductor?

(ii) What is the effect of doping on the forbidden gap of the
semiconductor?
(iii)Briefly explain the formation of depletion layer.
(b) Zener diodes have higher dopant densities as compared to ordinary pn-
junction diode. How does it affect the
(i) Width of the depletion layer.
(ii) Junction field?
(c) An alarm system is controlled by three sensors A. B and C. The system
sounds its alarm when sensors A and B are on or when sensors B and C are
on. Draw the truth table for the system and hence design its logic circuit.

4. (a) (i) What are two disadvantage of positive feedback occurs in the
operational amplifier?

(ii) By means of diagram explain what happen to the output signal when
the inverting terminal is used in the operational amplifier.

(iii) Explain the concept of virtual earth. Derive an expression for the gain
of non-inverting amplifier

(b) Study the figure below careful and then answer the question that follow.

(i) Derive the expression for the output voltage V0.

(ii) Calculate the numerical value of the output voltage by using the
equation derived in part (i) above V1=0.45 V, V2=1.5 V and
R1=R2=R3=Rf= 95kΩ.

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 (c) (i) Differentiate the term’s transducer and electrical transducer.
(ii) If the maximum frequency contained in the modulating signal is 280 Hz.
Calculate the band frequency.
(iii) A sinusoidal carrier voltage of frequency 2 MHz and amplitude of 70 V
is amplitude modulated with sinusoidal voltage of frequency 4 kHz
producing modulation factor of 0.55. Determine the bandwidth of
reluctant modulated signal and amplitude of both upper and lower
side band.

5. (a)(i) Briefly explain how forward biased formed in a p-n junction?

(ii) Identify two factors on which electrical conductivity of a pure
semiconductor at a given temperature depend.
(iii) Briefly explain under what condition a transistor acts as a closed switch?
(iv) With two reasons, why the common emitter circuit is most efficient?

(b) A semiconductor has equal electron and hole concentration of

On doping with a certain impurity, electron concentration
increases to
(i) Identify the new semiconductor obtained after doping.
(ii) Calculate the new hole concentration.
(iii) How does the energy gap vary with doping?

(c) (i) An unknown input A and a given input B are fed to NAND gate.
If Y represents the output, by using the figure below prepare a truth
table and identify the unknown input A.

(ii) Use Boolean algebra to simplify the circuit below and implement the
result using a minimum number of logic gates.

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6. (a)(i) What are the three important properties of semiconductors?
(ii) If the resistivity of n-type germanium is 0.01 Ωm at room temperature,
find the donor concentration given that the mobility of electrons is
0.39 m2/volt sec.

(b)(i)Outline two factors on which electrical conductivity of a pure

semiconductor depends.
(ii)How does the forbidden energy gap of an intrinsic semiconductor vary
with increase in temperature?
(iii) Consider the circuit of operational amplifier below where ,
Find the output voltage when

 The input voltage signal and .

 The input voltage signal varies from 0 V to 9 V in 5 sec.

c) Draw the truth table for the logic circuit in figure below.

7. (a)(i) With the aid of illustrations, distinguish between inverting and non-
inverting Opamp.
(ii) An inverting opamp has a voltage amplification of 100 and supply of
. If an alternating current (a.c) input of voltage has a peak
value of find time t of saturation.
(b) (i) Define three operating regions of the output characteristics of CE
transistor circuit.
(ii) What are the three conditions for transistor to be used as a voltage
amplifier?

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 (c) In the figure below, the transistor is just saturated with the input d.c
voltage. If the current gain is . Calculate the input voltage
neglecting base-emitter resistance and p.d.

8. (a) (i) Show that the current gain ( ) in the common collector configuration is
greater than the current gain ( ) in the common emitter configuration
and why its greater?

(ii) A potential barrier of 0.50 V exists in a p-n junction. If the depletion

region is 5.0 x 10-7 m thick. If an electron approaches the p-n junction
from the n-side with a speed of 5 x 10-7 m/s, with what speed will it
enter the p-side?

(b)(i) Given the logic symbol for an OR gate, use the figure below.
Prepare the truth table and draw the output waveform for input
waveform.

(ii) By using truth table identify the basic logic gate represented by
output Q using the figure below.

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 (c) Below is the block diagram of a receiver

Identify letters X and Y, state their functions

9. (a) (i) Explain the term thermal run away in regard to a transistor amplifier
and state any two causes
(ii) With the help of a clear diagram explain how you would overcome
thermal run away in a voltage amplifier.

(b) The circuit in figure below is an automatic fire alarm detector. The circuit
uses a thermistor T. Study it carefully and answer the questions that follows:

(i) What happens to the bell if the temperature becomes too high?
(ii) What is the resistor R1 for?

(c) Given the following truth table below

A B C X
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 0
0 1 0 0
0 1 1 1
1 0 0 1
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1

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 A B and C are inputs and X is the output. Design a simplified digital
circuit logic that will function according to the truth table above.

10. (a) (i) Define any three advantages of employing the negative feedback in
an opamp?

(ii) For the given circuit in figure below: find the output voltage of the
operational amplifier.

(b) For a certain transistor circuit, and base current is 30 . Calculate;

(i)
(ii) IC
(iii) IE

(c) (i) Write down three drawbacks of Amplitude modulations (AM)

(ii) If the highest frequency contained in the modulating signal is
340Hz.Calculate the band frequency

11. (a) What do you understand by the terms.

(i) Carrier wave.

(ii) Attenuation.

(b) Calculate the length of a half-wave dipole antenna at 30 x 106Hz.

What is the relationship between the length of the dipole antenna and
frequency of carrier wave?

(c) Speech signals in the frequency range 339 kHz to 340 kHz are used to
amplify a modulated carrier wave of frequency 500 kHz. Determine
(i) the bandwidth of the resultant modulated signals.
(ii) the frequency range of lower sideband.
(iii) the frequency range of upper sideband.

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12. (a) Differentiate the following terms
(i) Donor and acceptor.
(ii) Extrinsic an intrinsic semiconductor.
(b)(i) Briefly explain about transfer characteristics of operational amplifiers.
(ii) Explain how the depletion layer is formed in the P-N junction.

(c)(i) Draw the symbols of the two types of bipolar transistor.

(ii) Compute potential difference between the collector and the emitter
VCE given that RB =150Ω,RL = 750Ω and a current gain of 80.

13. (a)(i) Briefly explain why negative feedback is used as a stabilizer?

(ii) By means of diagram, differentiate between negative feedback and
positive feedback.

(b) An ideal operational amplifier is used in the circuit as shown below, with
constant input of 0.50V and power supplies of +6.0V and -6.0V. Calculate
the
(i) Gain of the amplifier.
(ii) Output voltage.

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 (c) Given the circuit below.

(i) Determine the truth table for the circuit above.

(ii) Which single gate would provide exactly the same function?
(iii) Draw the symbol represented by a single gate in (c) (ii) above.

14. (a) (i) Why is the conductivity of an intrinsic semiconductor very low?
(ii) Briefly explain how the energy gap varies with doping.
(iii) The forbidden energy gap of silicon is 2.25eV. What is the maximum
wavelength at which silicon absorbs energy?

(b)(i) Briefly explain under what condition a transistor acts as an open switch?
(ii) What causes damage to transistors?

(c) When the input voltage at the base of the circuit shown below is 5V, VBE is
zero and VCE is zero also. Find the values of IC and

15. (a)(i)Differentiate the two types of Opamp feedback.

(ii)Determine the output voltage for the summing amplifier of input
resistance of R1=R2=R3=12Ω with input voltages of +6V, +5V and
+10V respectively. The feedback resistance is given by 20Ω.
(b)(i)Briefly explain why are NAND and NOR gates are known as the digital
building blocks?
(ii)Construct a logic circuit to implement the following Boolean expression.
( )( )
(c) A water tank feeds three separate processes A, B and C, when any two of
the processes are in the operation at the same time, a signal is required to
start a pump to maintain the head of the water in the tank. Draw the truth
table for the system.

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16. (a) (i) How does negative feedback occurs in the operational amplifier?
(ii) In almost all cases where an operational amplifier is used as a linear
amplifier, negative feedback is employed. State four advantages of
using negative feedback.

(b) In the operational amplifier circuit bellow

(i) Why point x is called a virtual earthed?

(ii) Calculate the output voltage
(iii) Calculate the value of the gain in the circuit.

(c)(i) Briefly explain why is FM radio broadcasting is currently preferred than

AM radio broadcasting?
(ii) An audio signal of 2 kHz is used to modulate a carrier of 500 kHz.
Determine sideband frequencies and bandwidth required.

17. (a)(i) Why are germanium and silicon preferred than other semiconductors?
(ii) In NPN transistor, the collector current is 10 . If 90% of electrons
emitted from emitter reach the collector. What is the base current?

(b) A silicon diode at a temperature of 300 K has a reverse saturation current

of 10−13 , if the diode is forward biased with a resulting current of 1 .
Determine;
(i) Voltage across the diode.
(ii) Resistance of the diode.
(c) Determine the output expression for circuit shown below and simplify it
using De- Morgan’s theorem

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18. (a)(i) List two properties of operational amplifiers
(ii) Give four advantages of negative feedback in an op-amp or any type
of voltage amplifier
(iii) Briefly explain why the common collector circuit has voltage gain (Av)
less than a unit.

(b) (i) Give two advantages of frequency modulation (FM) as compared to

amplitude modulation (AM).
(ii) Calculate the value of output potential V0 in figure below, if input
potential Vi is +2.0 V

(c) (i) List two advantages of digital signal over analogue signal.
(ii) A carrier frequency 800 kHz is amplitude modulated by frequencies
ranging from1 kHz to 10 kHz. What frequency range does each side
band cover?
(iii) Two car garages have a common gate which needs to open
automatically when a car is detected to enter either of the garages.
Draw a truth table and its equivalent logic gate circuit.

19. (a)(i) Why is the area of collector-base junction made larger than the area of
emitter-base junction in a transistor?.
(ii) Refering the figure below of the forward characteristics of a junction
diode. Determine the d.c and a.c resistance of the diode when it
operates at 0.3V. How the two resistances relates?

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 (b) (i) Briefly explain why are NAND and NOR gates are known as the digital
building blocks?
(ii) The following truth table gives the output of a two input logic gate.
Identify the logic gate, its Boolean expression and draw its logic
symbol.

A 0 0 1 1
B 0 1 0 1
Q 1 1 1 0

(c) Below you have given the output expression for the certain logical
circuit.

Simplify it by using De Morgan’s theorem and draw the logical circuit

for the simplified expression.

20. (a) (i) Briefly explain the three regions of the transistor how are differently
doped.
(ii) Under what condition a transistor acts as an oscillator?

(iii) A warning in a car is designed to be on if either of its two doors are

open or hand brake is off. Design the logic gates circuit to operate the
red light where by the logic state for the open door is 1 and if the hand
brake is off is 1.

(b) An n-p-n transistor is connected in CE configuration in which collector

supply is 8V and the voltage drop across the load resistance of 800 Ω
connected in the collector circuit is 0.8V. If the current amplification
factor is 25 and its input resistance of the transistor is 200 Ω. Calculate
(i) the collector-emitter voltage.
(ii) the power gain of a transistor.

(c) Speech signals in the frequency range (300Hz – 3400Hz) are used to
amplitude modulate a carrier wave of frequency 200kHZ. Determine
(i) the upper and lower side band frequencies.
(ii) the band width of the resultant modulated signals.

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21. (a) (i) Briefly explain why silicon (Si) is mostly used compared to Germanium.
(ii) Why most good insulators are compound rather than single element
materials.

(b) (i) Why does diamond behave like an insulator?

(ii) Given the figure below made of silicon and the value of . Find
the transistor power dissipation.

(iii) What value of series resistor is required to limit the current through a
LED to 20mA with a forward voltage drop of 1.6V when connected
to a 10V supply?

(c) (i) What will be the value of inputs A and B for the Boolean expression

(ii) For the given combination of gates, find the value of outputs Y1 and
Y2 in the table below. Identify the gates G1 and G2.

(iii) What is the name of this operational amplifier circuit given below?
Find its closed loop voltage gain. Why it is called so?

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22. (a) (i) In figure below draw the d.c load line. What will be the Q point if zero
signal base current is and ?

(ii) Write the Boolean expression for the logic circuit below.

(b) The diagram below shows an operational amplifier circuit with

feedback gain and a gain of 100

(i) What will Vout be when Vin = 0.5?

(ii) If R1 = 2 kΩ find the magnitude of R2
(iii) State what the given amplifier circuit represents.
(iv) Give the reason for employing negative feedback in the circuit

(c) A sinusoidal carrier voltage of frequency 2 MHz and amplitude 70 V is

amplitude modulated with sinusoidal voltage factor of 55%. Determine
(i) The frequency of the lower side band
(ii) The frequency of the upper side band
(iii) The bandwidth of resultant modulated signal
(iv) The amplitude of upper and lower sideband

23. (a) (i) Describe the components of a communication system.

(ii) The maximum peak-to-peak voltage of an AM wave is 16 mV while
the minimum peak-to-peak is 8 mV. Find the modulation index.
(iii) Why is a semiconductor virtually an insulator at room temperature?

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 (b)(i) Discuss the factors that contribute to the decrease in efficiency of the
transistor. Explain how to overcome those factors.
(ii) Why does the electrical conductivity of an intrinsic semiconductor
increases as the temperature rises?
(iii) Briefly explain the function of a zener diode in a circuit.

(c) (i) Briefly explain why transistor is mostly used in common emitter
arrangement?
(ii) The load current in the transmitting antenna of an unmodulated AM
transmitter is 10 A. What will be the antenna current when modulation is
50% ?
(iii) The r.m.s. value of carrier voltage is 100 V. After amplitude modulation
by a sinusoidal audio frequency voltage, the r.m.s. value becomes
110 V. Calculate the modulation index.

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