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EDC Lecture Notes 20 22

mdk

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21 views

EDC Lecture Notes 20 22

mdk

Uploaded by

kisnamohan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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It is not uncommon for a germanium diode with an Io in the order of 1 or 2 A at 25°C to have a leakage

current of 100 A - 0.1 mA at a temperature of 100°C. Typical values of Io for silicon are much lower than
that of germanium for similar power and current levels. The result is that even at high temperatures
the levels of Io for silicon diodes do not reach the same high levels obtained. For germanium—a very
important reason that silicon devices enjoy a significantly higher level of development and utilization in
design. Fundamentally, the open-circuit equivalent in the reverse bias region is better realized at any
temperature with silicon than with germanium. The increasing levels of Io with temperature account
for the lower levels of threshold voltage, as shown in Fig. 1.11. Simply increase the level of Io in and not
rise in diode current. Of course, the level of TK also will be increase, but the increasing level of Io will
overpower the smaller percent change in TK. As the temperature increases the forward characteristics
are actually becoming more “ideal,”

1.3 IDEAL VERSUS PRACTICAL RESISTANCE LEVELS


DC or Static Resistance
The application of a dc voltage to a circuit containing a semiconductor diode will result in an
operating point on the characteristic curve that will not change with time. The resistance of the diode
at the operating point can be found simply by finding the corresponding levels of VD and ID as shown
in Fig. 1.12 and applying the following Equation:

The dc resistance levels at the knee and below will be greater than the resistance levels obtained for
the vertical rise section of the characteristics. The resistance levels in the reverse-bias region will
naturally be quite high. Since ohmmeters typically employ a relatively constant-current source, the
resistance determined will be at a preset current level (typically, a few mill amperes).
Fig 1.12 Determining the dc resistance of a diode at a particular operating point.

AC or Dynamic Resistance
It is obvious from Eq. 1.3 that the dc resistance of a diode is independent of the shape of the
characteristic in the region surrounding the point of interest. If a sinusoidal rather than dc input is
applied, the situation will change completely. The varying input will move the instantaneous operating
point up and down a region of the characteristics and thus defines a specific change in current and
voltage as shown in Fig. 1.13. With no applied varying signal, the point of operation would be the Q-
point appearing on Fig. 1.13 determined by the applied dc levels. The designation Q-point is derived
from the word quiescent, which means “still or unvarying.” A straight-line drawn tangent to the curve
through the Q-point as shown in Fig. 1.13 will define a particular change in voltage and current that can
be used to determine the ac or dynamic resistance for this region of the diode characteristics. In
equation form,

Where Δ Signifies a finite change in the quantity

Fig 1.13: Determining the ac resistance of a diode at a particular operating point.


1.4 DIODE EQUIVALENT CIRCUITS
An equivalent circuit is a combination of elements properly chosen to best represent the actual
terminal characteristics of a device, system, or such in a particular operating region. In other words,
once the equivalent circuit is defined, the device symbol can be removed from a schematic and the
equivalent circuit inserted in its place without severely affecting the actual behavior of the system. The
result is often a network that can be solved using traditional circuit analysis techniques.

Piecewise-Linear Equivalent Circuit


One technique for obtaining an equivalent circuit for a diode is to approximate the
characteristics of the device by straight-line segments, as shown in Fig. 1.31. The resulting equivalent
circuit is naturally called the piecewise-linear equivalent circuit. It should be obvious from Fig. 1.31 that
the straight-line segments do not result in an exact duplication of the actual characteristics, especially
in the knee region. However, the resulting segments are sufficiently close to the actual curve to
establish an equivalent circuit that will provide an excellent first approximation to the actual behaviour
of the device. The ideal diode is included to establish that there is only one direction of conduction
through the device, and a reverse-bias condition will result in the open- circuit state for the device.
Since a silicon semiconductor, diode does not reach the conduction state until VD reaches 0.7 V with a
forward bias (as shown in Fig. 1.14a), a battery VT opposing the conduction direction must appear in
the equivalent circuit as shown in Fig. 1.14b. The battery simply specifies that the voltage across the
device must be greater than the threshold battery voltage before conduction through the device in the
direction dictated by the ideal diode can be established. When conduction is established, the
resistance of the diode will be the specified value of rav.

Fig: 1.14aDiode piecewise-linear model characteristics

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