UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

ANALOG ELECTRONICS (EEB2013/EDB2033)
MAY 2021

Lab #1: DIODES

1. Background Material

An ideal diode allows current to flow in only one direction. Every diode has a characteristic
“threshold voltage” – VDON. An ideal diode has an infinite resistance when the voltage across
it, VD, is less than VDON and zero resistance when the VD is greater than VDON.

The threshold voltage concept comes from the fact that a diode is just a pn junction; the
threshold voltage is defined by the concentration of donors and acceptors in the junction.

The I-V graph for an ideal diode is shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1. Ideal diode I-V characteristic and its circuit symbol

A real diode does not exhibit this ideal behaviour. It can be modelled as a piecewise-linear
device or in terms of an exponential function as shown below:

 
i  I s ev / nVT  1 (1)

where i is the diode current, v is the diode voltage, n is the constant between 1-2, and VT is
the thermal voltage.

This lab will cover the diode logics as well as the diode used as a voltage regulator.

The Zener diode (FIGURE 2) can also be modelled as a piecewise-linear device with a cut-in
voltage VZ0, a dynamic resistance rz, and typical values provided by the manufacturer for
VD and ID.

The Zener diode is widely used as a voltage regulator notably in power supply design.
A typical implementation is as shown in FIGURE 3.

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 (a) (b)

FIGURE 2. (a) Zener diode’s I-V characteristic,and (b) the circuit symbol and model

FIGURE 3. Power supply typical implementation using Zener diode as voltage regulator

2. Materials for Lab

Components Quantity
10 kΩ , 5 kΩ , 3 kΩ , 0.5 kΩ Various
Diodes 4001 2
Zener Diode 4148 1

There are TWO sections in this lab. The first section studies diode behaviour under forward
bias condition, while the second section looks at zener diode operation.

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You are required to complete all Pre-lab exercises before coming for lab. Prepare a hand-
written Pre-lab report and show your Pre-lab report to your GA before you begin your
actual laboratory, at the beginning of your lab session.

Please use maximum of 3 pages for your Pre-lab report and be concise in your answer.
Incomplete Pre-lab reports will be rewarded with very poor marks.

Submit your lab report, Pre-Lab report and accompanying LTSpice simulation results, one
week from your respective lab session.

SECTION 1

FIGURE 4 shows a circuit containing 2 diodes. The objective of this section is to evaluate
the behaviour of 2 competing diodes.
+10V

+
V5kW 5kW

VVA

VB
I I
10kW

-10V

FIGURE 4. Competing Diodes

Note that the two diodes will contribute to the current I of the bottom path.

PRE-LAB EXERCISES
1. Study the operation of the two competing diodes D1 and D2.

(a) Determine the operation of the circuit by first making the assumption that both
diodes are conducting. By calculating the current in each branch, check if the
assumption is true and determine the actual circuit operation.

Explain your assumption and calculations.

[4 marks]

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 (b) Calculate the value of current I , and the following 3 voltages: V5kW , VA and VB .

[8 marks]

2. Using LTSpice simulation software, simulate the circuit in FIGURE 4 and from your
results, complete Table I below.

Print out the waveforms from your LTSpice simulation program.

Table I

V5kW VA VB I

V V V mA

[8 marks]

3. In your LTSpice simulation, change the +10V supply to a pulsed signal with
0-10 Volt amplitude, 2-second delay, 2-second ON time, 2-second RISE time and
2-second FALL time.

Observe the current through both diodes and print out the waveforms from your
simulation program.

[5 marks]
4. Explain the behaviour of the circuit and the competing diodes.

[5 marks]

LAB EXPERIMENTATION

Prove what you have simulated in your Pre-Lab, by building the circuit on your breadboard
for the circuit of FIGURE 4.

Record your results from your lab experiment, create a corresponding table similar to Table I
and compare your measured data to your LTSpice data.

[20 marks]

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 SECTION 2

From the behaviour of the Zener diode, we want to investigate the Zener under no load
condition, the effect of change of power supply to the regulated voltage, and the impact of
load towards regulation voltage.

The Zener regulator circuit is as shown in FIGURE 5.

I1

I2 I3

FIGURE 5. Zener Diode as Voltage Regulator

PRE-LAB EXERCISES

1. For the Zener diode, determine the open load voltage if 10 V nominal is used as the
power supply.

[4 marks]

2. Find the voltage, V0 when 1 V peak sinusoidal is applied to the power supply node.

[4 marks]

3. What happens when a 3 kW load is applied across the output?

[4 marks]
4. What happens when a 0.5 kW load is applied across the output?

[4 marks]

5. Find the minimum load that will still allow proper regulation to your circuit.

[4 marks]

6. Simulate the circuit in LTSpice. From your results, complete Table II. Print out the
corresponding waveforms.

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 Table II

I1 (mA) I2 (mA) I3 (mA) Vo (V)

No Load

R = 3 kW

R = 0.5 kW

[10 marks]

LAB EXPERIMENTATION

Carry out an experiment in the lab for the Zener voltage regulator as shown in FIGURE 5.

Record your results from your lab experiment, create a corresponding table similar to
Table II and compare your measured data to your LTSpice data.

[20 marks]

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