Lab 2

Diode Applications
Purpose
In this lab, several applications of the diode will be studied. These include clipping, clamping,
demodulating, and full-wave rectifying applications.

Material and Equipment

Prelab
a) Review clipper and clamper circuits.

b) Design a clipper circuit which limits input signals to +3 V and -2 V (cf. Floyd, Example 2-11). This
means that the output signal should not rise above 3 V and should not fall below -2 V. Simulate your clipper
in Multisim. The input signal should be a sine wave with an amplitude of 5 V and frequency of 1 kHz. Use
a 100 kΩ resistor and a pair of 1N4001 diodes. Run a transient simulation up to 5 ms. This will show you
5 periods. Obtain the I/O waveforms. Now change the resistance to 100 Ω and re-simulate. Report the
changes that you observed along with explanations for these changes (look up the datasheet of the diode
and see the plot of forward voltage vs forward current).

c) Design a clamper circuit to clamp the upper limit of the input signal to 0V (cf. Floyd, Example 2.13).
Use a 5.1 kΩ resistor and a 1N914 diode. Calculate the value of capacitance required (see Background
below). Show your calculation. Then test your design in Multsim. Use a square wave input signal of 1.5 V
amplitude and a frequency of 1 kHz. Run a transient simulation to show 10 periods of the output signal.
Reduce the capacitor by a factor of 5 and repeat the simulation.
Background
The diode has many applications. In this lab, a few of them will be investigated. The first is the clipper
circuit. This circuit limits an input voltage to certain maximum or minimum values. In the circuit in Figure
2-1, it is seen that as long as Vi is less than 2.5 V, then the diode will be reverse biased (an open circuit). In
this case, the output voltage will track the input voltage. If Vi exceeds 2.5 V plus (using the ideal model)
then the diode turns on and then Vo will be 2.5 V. Thus, this circuit limits the output voltage to less than
2.5 V. By rearranging the components, variations on this circuit can be realized.

+
R

Vi Vo
+2.5 V
−
Figure 2-1: Schematic of a clipper circuit.

The next circuit is the clamping current. This circuit works by allowing a capacitor to charge and function
as a battery. Thus the voltage across the capacitor subtracts from the input signal causing a DC shift or
offset in the output signal. Because the voltage across the capacitor depends on the input waveform, the
output maximum (or minimum depending on orientation of the diode) will be clamped to a fixed reference
point (in this case, ground potential.) The only design constraint is that the time constant 2pRC must be
five times larger than the period of the input waveform.

Vi R Vo

−
Figure 2-2: Schematic of a clamper circuit.
Finally, the diode bridge can be used to create a full wave rectifier. As opposed to the half-wave rectifier
shown in Figure 1-5, the full-wave rectifier allows both the positive and negative voltage part of a time
varying waveform to be transmitted to the output. While the positive part of the waveform remains largely
unchanged from the input to the output (except for the voltage drop through the diodes), the negative voltage
portion is inverted about the time axis, such that the output Vo is always positive. A complete discussion of
the full wave rectifier can be found in chapter 2 of the Electronic Devices by Floyd. One drawback of using
a full wave rectifier is that the input and the output voltages have two different references. This is a potential
source of grounding problems. One way to rectify this problem is to isolate the input source through a
transformer.

R Vo
Vi
−
Figure 2-3: Full wave rectification.
Procedure
1) Diode Clipper Circuits
Diode clipper circuits can be used to limit a voltage to some maximum (or minimum value). This is
useful for designing protection circuits (i.e., to protect the input of a sensitive amplifier).
a) Connect the circuit in Figure 2-1. Use R = 100 kΩ and a 1N4001 diode. For the input signal, use
a 10 Vp-p, 1 kHz sine wave and use your power supply to provide the battery voltage. Capture the
I/O waveforms
b) Construct the clipper designed in the prelab. Use a 100 kΩ resistor to limit the current. Make sure
that you take into account the use of real diodes. Drive the circuit with a 10Vp-p sine wave. Capture
the I/O waveforms.
2) Clamper Circuits
a) Design a clamper to clamp the upper limit of the input voltage to 0V. Assume that the input signal
is 1 kHz and that the load is 5.1 kΩ. Construct the design circuit and use a 1 kHz, 3Vp-p square
wave input signal. Use a 1N914 diode. Capture the input and output waveforms.
b) Increase the frequency to 10 kHz and capture the output.
b) Set the frequency back to 1 kHz. Lower the load resistance to 100 Ω and capture the output
waveform.
3) Half-wave Rectifier Properties
Using the circuit from Lab 1 (Figure 1-5), the half-wave rectifying properties of the diode can be
displayed. Here we will look at the input and output voltages versus time.
a) Change the resistor in the previous circuit to a 5.1 kΩ resistor. This will limit the current to very
small values. Also use a 1N4001 diode.
b) Set the input voltage source to the circuit to an 8 Vp-p 1 kHz sine wave.
c) Capture the I/O waveforms, the diode voltage, and sketch the resistor current for at least one full
period of the input voltage.
4) Full Wave Bridge Rectifier
a) Build the circuit in Figure 2-3 using 1N4001 diodes. Use a 1 kΩ resistor to limit the current.
Capture the I/O waveforms.
Questions and Requirements for Lab Report
1) As the resistor decreases in value, the performance of the clipper degrades. Explain why.
2) Explain how the clamper performance varies with the following parameters
a) Frequency
b) Load resistance
c) Capacitance
Also explain why it varies the way it does.

3) In both the clipper and the clamper, the diode drop affects the result. Can you suggest a method to
reduce the problem associated with the diode drop even if it is not completely eliminated?

4) Mention at least two ways in which the real full wave rectifier you designed in the lab differs from
the ideal? What is the reason for these differences.