MODULE IV

Working and Applications of Diodes, Transistors

and Logic Gates
• A PN junction diode is two-terminal or two-electrode semiconductor device.
• By joining a P type semiconductor to an N type semiconductor, a PN junction is formed
• The anode is the positive terminal of a diode and cathode is the negative terminal.
• PN junction diode conducts current only in one direction and offers high resistance in
the other direction
• The p-n junction diode is made from the semiconductor materials such as silicon,
germanium, and gallium arsenide
 P - Region N - Region
Majority charge carriers - Holes Majority charge carriers -Electrons

Minority charge carriers - Electrons Minority charge carriers - Holes

Depletion Region
• Under normal conditions, holes from the P side diffuse into the N side where they recombine
with free electrons.
• Free electrons diffuse from N side to P side and combine with holes.
• Each recombination depletes holes and electrons near the junction and contains only
immobile ions.
• This region is called the depletion region.
• The electric field formed in the depletion region creates a potential difference across the
junction called barrier potential (0.7 V for Silicon and 0.3 V for germanium).
• The potential difference across the junction by the electric field is formed due to the
depletion region is called potential barrier.
 Biasing a PN Junction Diode
 When no external energy source is applied, natural Potential Barrier is developed across the
junction.
 To overcome the barrier potential developed across the junction and to make the diode function
for the purpose it is designed for, external energy has to be applied. This process is kown as
biasing.
 Two types of biasing – Forward and reverse biasing

FORWARD REVERSE
BIASING BIASING
 FORWARD BIASING
 Positive terminal of the battery is connected to the P – side and negative
terminal to the N – side of the battery. Thus the PN – junction is said to
be forward biased.
 FORWARD BIASING
 The Negative voltage repels the electrons from the N region and they move towards the junction. The
positive voltage repels holes from the P region and they move towards the junction.
 This movement of electrons and holes constitute a large current flow through the semiconductor.
 At junction some electrons crosses the junction and combines with holes
 Since the potential barrier voltage is very small (0.3 to 0.7 V), a small forward voltage is sufficient to
completely eliminate the barrier.
 Once the potential barrier is eliminated, junction resistance becomes almost zero and a low resistance
path is established for the entire circuit.
 Thereby forward current flows in the circuit.
 Forward Biased Diode Characteristics

Forward current rises

exponentially with the
applied voltage.

At ordinary room temperature, a potential difference of 0.3V is required for a

reasonable amount of forward current in Ge semiconductor.(0. 7 V for Silicon). This
voltage is known as Threshold voltage or cut - in voltage or knee voltage.
 REVERSE BIASING
 Negative terminal of the battery is connected to the P-type material and positive terminal is
connected to the N-type material

 The Positive voltage applied to the N-type material attracts electrons from the N region and they move
away from the junction.
 The Negative voltage applied to the P-type material attracts the holes from the P region and they away
from the junction.
 The net result is that the depletion layer becomes wider and offers a high resistance path.
 REVERSE BIASING
 The increased potential barrier prevents the flow of charge carriers across the junction.
 Hence, a high resistance path is established for the entire circuit and therefore no current flows.
 In reverse biased p-n junction diode minority charge carriers carry the carry the electric current. This
current is called reverse saturation current.
 If the applied reverse voltage is increased to a large value, large current will flow through the diode
and the junction breakdown. This voltage is called reverse breakdown voltage
Diode
characteristics
 APPLICATIONS OF DIODE

 Rectifiers in DC power supplies.

 Clipping circuits as wave shaping circuits in computers, radios, radars etc.

 Switches in digital logic designs.

 Detector and Demodulator circuits.

 Clamping circuits in TV receivers as well as voltage multipliers.

RECTIFIERS
 An electronic device that converts an AC into a DC
 The process of converting AC to DC is known as rectification.
 Rectifiers are classified into two.
 Half Wave Rectifiers
 It rectify only one half-cycle of the input alternating waveform
 It requires only one diode
Circuit Diagram

OR
 Working

 During Positive Half Cycle of the input AC voltage, the diode D is forward biased
(ON) and hence it conducts,
 Current flows through the load resistor.
 The output voltage is the same as the input voltage
 During Negative Half Cycle, Diode D is reverse biased.
No current flows through the load resistor.
Output voltage is ZERO.
 Full Wave Rectifiers

 Used for producing an output voltage or output current which is purely DC.
 The main advantage of a full-wave rectifier over half-wave rectifier is that such as the average output
voltage is higher in full-wave rectifier, there is less ripple produced in full-wave rectifier when compared to
the half-wave rectifier.
 Rectify both half-cycles of an Alternating waveform
 Requires Two/four diodes.
 Two types
 Centre tapped Full wave Rectifier
 Full Wave Bridge Rectifier
 Centre Tapped Full Wave Rectifiers
• In a centre tapped full wave rectifier the secondary of the transformer is tapped at the midpoint.
• The circuit uses two diodes to rectify the full cycle of alternating input waveforms.

• During the positive half cycle of the input signal A is positive and hence Diode D1 is forward biased and
D2 is reverse biased.
• Hence the current flows through load in the direction ABCDA.
• During the negative half cycle of the input signal E is positive and hence Diode D2 is forward biased
while D1 is reverse biased.
 Centre Tapped Full Wave Rectifiers
• Hence the current flows through in the direction EFCDE.
• In both half cycles current flows through the load in the same direction.
• Hence the output across the load is DC.
 Full Wave Bridge Rectifiers

• In a full wave bridge rectifier four diodes are connected in the form of a bridge to
rectify the input signal.
• The bridge rectifier avoids the need of a centre tap transformer.
 Full Wave Bridge Rectifiers

• During positive half cycle of the input signal A is positive .

• Hence diodes D1 and D2 are forward biased while D3 and D4 are reverse biased.
• Hence the path of current is ACEDFB
 Full Wave Bridge Rectifiers

• During negative half cycle of the input signal B is positive.

• Hence diodes D4 and D3 are forward biased while D1 and D2 are reverse biased. Hence the
path of current is BFEDCA

The input output waveforms are

 ZENER DIODE

 A Zener Diode, also known as a breakdown diode, is a heavily doped semiconductor device that is
designed to operate in the reverse break down region.
 A Zener diode operates like a normal diode when it is forward-biased.
Symbol of Zener Diode

 The voltage drop across the diode remains constant over a wide range of voltages, hence it is suitable
for voltage regulation applications
 Working of a Zener diode

 Since zener diode is heavily doped, so the depletion region is narrow.

 When a reverse voltage is applied to a zener diode, current due to minority carriers
increases.
 When reverse voltage reaches the Zener Voltage (knee voltage), the junction breaks down
and the reverse current increases drastically.
 This voltage is called breakdown voltage or Zener voltage (Vz)
 This effect is known as the Zener Effect.
 The current increases to a maximum, after which it stabilizes and remains constant over a
wide range of applied voltage.
 The standard voltage values of zener diode is 2.7 V, 3 V, 3.3 V, 3.9 V, 5.1 V, 5.6 V, 6.2 V etc
V - I Characteristics of Zener diode
 Applications of Zener diode

 As a voltage regulator. It provides a constant voltage to the load.

 Protects from over voltage
 In clipping circuits
 Voltage level shifting
 TRANSISTORS

•Transistors are used in almost all electronic circuits.

•The word Transistor is a combination of two words, TRANSfer and resISTOR
•A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals
and power.
•Signal amplification is achieved by transferring signal from a region of low resistance
to high resistance region.
•Two types
•Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
• NPN Transistor
• PNP Transistor
•Field Effect Transistor (FET)
 Bipolar Junction Transistor
 Bipolar junction transistor has three layers of semiconductor material.
 These layers are arranged either in an n-p-n sequence or p-n-p sequence.
 A Transistor has two PN junctions.
 One junction is between the emitter and base called emitter base junction and the other
junction is between the collector and base called collector base junction.
 Thus a transistor is like two p-n junctions connected back to back
 Transistor Biasing
 There are four possible ways of biasing a transistor.
 These biasing methods make the transistor circuit work in four kinds of regions such as
Active region, Saturation region, Cutoff region and Inverse active region (seldom used).
 N – P – N Transistor
 An NPN transistor is formed by sandwiching a p-type semiconductor material between
two n-type semiconductor material.
 Two PN junctions connected back to back.
 The two n type semiconductors act as Emitter and Collector respectively,
 The p type semiconductor acts as a base.
 Base region is very lightly doped and very thin.
 Emitter region is heavily doped.
 The doping of the collector region is in between emitter and base.
 Block representation and symbol as:
 Working of NPN Transistor
The two junctions must be properly biased for functioning a transistor.
Emitter-Base junction must be forward biased and Collector-Base junction must be reverse
biased for the active region of operation.
The majority carriers are electrons.
The EB junction is forward biased, electrons would flows from emitter to base region. This
causes emitter current IE.
Small percentage of electrons (2%) will recombine with holes in base region.
 Working of NPN Transistor
The reverse biasing of the CB junction causes the expansion of the depletion layer.
The electrons from the emitter region will reach the CB depletion region.
Due to large bias voltage VCB, electrons will be pulled across the CB junction.
The collector region collects 98% of the electrons emitted by the emitter. region.
Thus IE = IB + IC
 P – N – P Transistor
N - type semiconductor material is sandwiched between two P - type semiconductor
material.
The two p type semiconductors act as Emitter and Collector respectively, and the n type
semiconductor acts as a base.
Base region is very lightly doped and very thin.
Emitter region is heavily doped and the doping of the collector region is in between emitter
and base.
 Working of PNP Transistor
The transistor to be operated in the active region, Emitter-Base junction is forward biased and
Collector-Base junction is reverse biased.

Majority charge carriers are holes.

When the Emitter-Base junction is forward biased, holes would flow from emitter to base region.
A small percentage of holes (2%) will recombine with electrons in the base region.
The remaining holes (98%) are attracted by the negative terminal of the voltage source VCB and
these will cross the base-collector barrier potential.
 Transistor as an Amplifier

 An amplifier is an electronic circuit to amplifying signals.

 The weak signal is applied between the Emitter-Base junction and the output is taken
across the load resistor Rc.
 Input circuit should always be forward biased by applying a voltage VEB.
 As the input has low resistance, a small change in signal voltage causes an appreciable
change in emitter current.
 This causes almost the same change in collector current due to transistor action.
 The collector current flowing through Rc produces large voltage across it.
 Thus, a weak signal is applied in the amplified form in the collector circuit. .
Applications of Transistors
As Amplifier Circuit
As a switch
Oscillator circuits
Switching device in analog or digital circuits.
Building blocks of Integrated Circuits.
Buffer or impedance matching purpose between mismatched circuits
 Systems
Analogue vs Digital
• Analog information is made up of a continuous of values within a given range or changing
continuously
•digital information can assume only one of two possible values: one/zero, on/off, high/low,
true/false, etc.
 Digital Systems

 Examples:
 Analogue systems : Old radios, megaphones and the volume control on
old telephone and sets.

 Digital signals: Modern electronic products such as computers and

mobile phones depend on digital signals.
 Digital circuits are also called Logic Circuits.
 Each type of digital circuit obeys a certain set of logic rules.
 The manner in which a logic circuit responds to input is known as
Circuit’s Logic.
Digital systems are used in
Computation and Data processing
Control Systems
Communications
Data processing
Logic gates
Logic Gates are fundamental building blocks of Digital Systems.
They are electronic circuits made up of a number of electronic devices and
components.
Logic: Ability of a device to make decisions.
Logic levels
Uses the binary number system (1 & 0)
Two states are used to represent the two binary digits ‘1’ and ‘0’
HIGH voltage level (5V) is used to represent ‘1’ (Closed Switch)
LOW voltage level (0V) is used to represent ‘0’ (Open Switch)
OR gate: Symbol & truth table
Two or more input.
Only one output.
Defined as a device whose output is 1,
even if, one of its input is 1.
X = A + B
 AND gate: SYMBOL & TRUTH TABLE
Two or more input.
One output.
Defined as a device whose output is logic 1 if and only if all
its inputs are logic 1.
X = A . B
NOT gate
Also called an Inverter
A device, its output is complement of its input
Output is logic ‘1’, when its input is in logic ‘0’ state.
Output is logic ‘0’, when its input is in logic ‘1’ state.

𝑋 = 𝐴̅
Universal Gates
The gate that can be used to realize all logic combinations.
The gates NAND and NOR are called universal Gates
NAND Gate
The output is logic 0 only when each
of the input assumes a 1
 NOR Gate
The NOR gates are essentially the opposite of the OR
gate

74LS02
Quad 2-input NOR

74LS02
Quad 2-input NOR
 XOR Gate
XOR, or exclusive OR, gate
An XOR gate produces 0 if its two inputs are the same, and a 1 otherwise
X-NOR gate
It is a combination of X-OR gate with a NOT gate