PHY 251 - ELECTRONICS I

Diodes and Nonlinear Circuits

In this lecture, the use of the pn junction as a diode will be discussed. The
diode is one of the simplest semiconductor device, and finds applications in many
modern electronic gadgets. The marked feature of a diode is that its I-V
relationship is nonlinear, making its analysis challenging. However, we will
exploit as much of our knowledge in linear circuit analysis to analyze circuits with
nonlinear diodes in them. It has been shown that as the voltage increases, the
current cannot be linearly related to the applied voltage. This is unlike a resistor
where one has V = IR where V is linearly related to I. For a diode made from a pn
junction, this relation, as shown previously, is
 V 
I = IS e V T − 1 (0.1)

where V is the applied of biasing voltage and I is the diode current. This
physical model is derived from semiconductor physics. It has the property that
when V  VT , I tends to infinity. But when V  −VT , I ≈ −IS which is
very small. Here, IS is varyingly called the saturation current, the generation
current, the leakage current, or the scale current; the last name follows from
that this current scales as the cross-sectional area of the diode.

1 An Ideal Diode
The i-v relation1 of an ideal diode is such that the current becomes infinitely
large when it is on, or in forward bias. Conversely, the current is zero when
the diode is off, or in reverse bias. This idealization can be used to simplify
the analysis of some simple nonlinear circuits. As shown in Figure 1, the use of
such idealization turns a nonlinear circuit into set of linear circuits that can be
analyze easily.

1Following the text book, the lower cases will be used for total current and total voltage

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Figure 1: (a) The symbol of the diode. (b) The i-v characteristic of a pn junction
as an ideal diode. (c) When the diode is reverse biased, it is an open circuit or
off. (b) When the diode is forward biased, it is a short circuit or on (Courtesy
of Sedra and Smith).

Figure 2 shows the use of an ideal diode, where the on-off states are replaced
with open and short circuits respectively. Then the circuit can be analyzed
simply as such according to the state of the diode using linear circuit analysis.
The behavior of the circuit can also be easily understood.

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Figure 2: (a) The model of diode circuit. (b) The input voltage signal which
is an AC signal. (c) The circuit model when the diode is on. (d) The circuit
model when the diode is off. (e) The output voltage (Courtesy of Sedra and
Smith).

The turning on of an ideal diode can be delayed by biasing it with the DC

voltage source as shown in Figure 3. This also resembles the charging of a 12 V
battery by an AC source whose peak voltage is 24 V.

Example
For an ideal diode, it only has two states, the on or the off state. One
will analyze the circuit by assuming that the diodes are either on or off, and
analyze the voltage and current across the diodes accordingly using linear circuit
analysis. In the on state, the voltage drop across the diode is zero, while in the
off state, the current flow through the diode is zero. If the answer contradicts the
assumption, it implies that the assumption is wrong, and it has to be revised.
For example in Figure 4(a), one assumes that both diodes are on. Then the
2 Example 4.1 of textbook.

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Figure 3: A DC voltage source can be used to delay the turning on of the ideal
diode (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

voltage at node B is zero and

10 − 0
ID2 = = 1 mA (1.1)
10
Writing KCL (Kirchhoff Current Law) at node B, then

0 − (−10)
I +1= (1.2)
5
giving I = 1 mA. Hence, both diodes are on, and not contradicting the assump-
tion.

Figure 4: The circuit diagram for analyzing nonlinear circuits with ideal diodes
for Example 1 (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

For the case in Figure 4(b), one first assumes that both diodes are on. Then

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VB = 0 and V = 0, and
10 − 0
ID2 = = 2 mA (1.3)
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Applying KCL at node B,
0 − (−10)
I +2= (1.4)
10
giving I = −1 mA. This contradicts our assumption that the diode D1 is on.
To revise the wrong assumption, one assumes that D1 is off while D2 is on.
Then the current through D2 is
10 − (−10)
ID2 = = 1.33 mA (1.5)
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The voltage at node B is obtained by applying KVL (Kichhoff voltage law) then

VB = −10 + 10 × 1.33 = +3.3 V (1.6)

Hence, VB > 0 implying that D1 is off or reverse biased giving rise to I = 0 and
V = 3.3 V.

2 More on I-V Characteristic of Junction Diodes

The i-v relation of a diode, as shown by using device physics, is given by
 v 
i = IS e VT − 1 (2.1)

where VT = kB T /q is about 25 mV at room temperature. When the voltage v is

about 0.1 V, it is about 4 times VT . And ev/VT is about e4 ≈ 54.6 which is quite
large. When v = 0.6 V, a biasing voltage 6 times larger, then e4×6 = e24 =
2.65×1010 which is a very large number. A small increase in v can overcome the
smallness of IS which can be of the order of 10−15 . Hence, the turn-on voltage
of a diode is roughly 0.6-0.8 V. The above equation (2.1) can be inverted to give
 
i
v = VT ln +1 (2.2)
IS
When the bias voltage v is large, the i-v relation (2.1) can be simplified and
approximated with the exponential model as
v
i ≈ IS e VT (2.3)

Since IS is proportional to n2i , and that ni ∼ T 3/2 e−Eg /(2kB T ) , one deduces that

i ≈ T 3 e−Eg /(kB T ) ev/VT ∼ T 3 e−(Eg /q)/VT ev/VT (2.4)

For silicon, Eg /q ≈ 1.1 V. Defining Vg = Eg /q, the above becomes

i ≈ CT 3 e−(Vg −v)/VT (2.5)

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Taking the natural log of the above, one arrives at

v = vg + VT ln i − VT ln(CT 3 ) (2.6)

Since v ≈ 0.7 V, then v < vg , the above implies that ln(CT 3 ) > ln i, or that v
becomes smaller as T increases.
Revision of previous knowledge–The formula for the saturation current is
 
Dp Dn
IS = Aqn2i + (2.7)
Lp ND Ln NA

which is of the order of 10−15 A. As have been learned earlier, the formula for
ni is

ni = BT 3/2 e−Eg /(2kB T ) (2.8)

where

B = 7.3 × 1015 K−3/2 cm−3 (2.9)

Hence, when the temperature T increases, there are more thermalized carriers
ni giving rise to larger IS . It is generally assume that IS doubles for every 5◦
C rise in temperature.

2.1 Temperature Dependence of the I-V Characteristic

Figure 5: The temperature dependence of the i-v characteristic of a diode (Cour-

tesy of Sedra and Smith).

As shown in (Figure 5), for a fixed i, the voltage v is linearly proportional to VT

which is again linearly proportional to T . Hence v increases as T increases, giving

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rise to the temperature dependence as shown in Figure 5. In the above, IS is
temperature dependent as well, but its temperature dependence is mitigated by
the ln function.

3 More on Diode Modeling

Figure 6: The case of a diode connected to a battery source via a load resistor
(Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

Assuming that the diode is connected to a resistor as shown in Figure 6, and

one needs to find the diode current ID and voltage VD . Since the i-v relation of
a diode is nonlinear, there is no simple way to solve this problem. The solution
has to be sought graphically or numerically.

3.1 The Exponential Model

Let us assume that the bias voltage is large so that the I-V relationship for a pn
junction diode can be approximated with high accuracy with the exponential
model to be
ID = IS eVD /VT (3.1)
The other equation for I-V is governed by KVL for the voltage drop across
the resistor R, or that
VR VDD − VD
ID = = (3.2)
R R
The two unknowns to be sought are ID and VD , assuming the rest to be known
constants. Here, ID and VD are common to both equations. The above consti-
tute two simultaneous equations for two unknowns.
Albeit simple, these equations have no closed form. For instance, one can
eliminate VD by inverting the first equation, and substituting into the second
equation, one gets
VDD − VT ln(ID /IS )
ID = (3.3)
R
The above equation has one unknown ID , but it is a transcendental or nonlinear
equation that cannot be solved in closed form.

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3.1.1 Graphical Analysis
One way to solve nonlinear equation is via graphical method, as shown in Figure
7. One plot in the graph is for equation (3.1) representing the diode charac-
teristic using the exponential model. The second plot, called the load line, is
from equation (3.2) due to the resistive load of the circuit.
The solution is given by the point where the plots for the two equations
meet. At this point, both equations share the same ID and VD , and is called
the operating point or the Q point. This is a method of finding the solution of
two simultaneous equations, one of which can be nonlinear. When the number
of equations is large, this method is unwieldy, and one resorts to a numerical
method of solving these equations.

Figure 7: The graphical solution yields the solution of a transcendental equation

quickly by visual inspection. (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

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3.1.2 Iterative Analysis—Method of Successive Approximations

Figure 8: Iterative method such as the method of successive approximation can

be converted into a computer program easily (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

The graphical method can be used by humans easily because of our gifted visual
intelligence. However, it is difficult to program a computer to pick out the op-
erating point or the Q point on a graph. For numerical or computer method, it
is better to design an algorithm that can be converted to a program systemat-
ically: such is the spirit of iteration analysis or method. We will illustrate this
with the method of successive approximation in the following example,
which can be converted into a computer program easily.

Example 2.3
In this method, first, we guess a VD which is not correct, unless we have
clairvoyance. Say, one starts with VD = 0.7 V, and we can find out where on
the load line the current should be if it were to satisfy (3.2). To this end, the
correspond current through the resistor is given by
VDD − VD 5 − 0.7
ID = = = 0.43 mA (3.4)
R 1
Next, given this new ID , one needs to ascertain what VD should be from the
diode equation. One can invert equation (3.1) to obtain VD , given ID . However,
we do not know IS , but it can be found since it is given, in this example, that
ID = 1 mA when VD is 0.7 V. Alternatively, one can use the fact that

I1 = IS eV1 /VT , I2 = IS eV2 /VT (3.5)

3 This is Example 4.2 of the textbook.

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then
I2
= e(V2 −V1 )/VT (3.6)
I1
Inverting the above gives
I2 I2
V2 − V1 = VT ln , V2 − V1 = 2.3VT log10 (3.7)
I1 I1
Using the above, and using that 2.3VT = 60 mV, with V1 = 0.7 V, I1 = 1
mA, and I2 = 4.3 mA, gives V2 = 0.738 V. This process can be repeated until
the solution converges. When convergence is reached, the solution changes little
with iteration number.

The method of successive approximation is also shown in Figure 8. A word

of caution is that this method does not always converge. Then other iterative
or numerical methods have to be used, for instance, the secant method, or the
Newton-Raphson method.

4 The Constant-Voltage-Drop Model

As can be seen previously, when nonlinear equations are involved, their solutions
are often difficult. One method is to approximate the I-V characteristics of a
diode with piecewise linear approximation. When the diode is operating in the
piecewise linear regime, simpler linear methods can be applied. The constant-
voltage-drop model is such an attempt to simplify the analysis. The gist of this
method is shown in Figure 9. When the diode is off, or the bias voltage is below
0.7 V, then it is replaced by an open circuit. When the diode is on, it is replaced
by a short circuit with an internal battery with voltage of vD as shown.

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Figure 9: The constant-voltage-drop model can be use to simplify the analysis
of diode circuits (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

5 Small-Signal Model
Another way of making a linear approximation to a nonlinear equation is to use
the small signal model. The schematic for this model is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: The circuit for a small signal model where a small voltage ∆VDD is
superposed on top of a large voltage VDD (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

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Figure 11: Graphical depiction of the small signal model where vd (t) is assumed
to be much smaller than VD (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

The Math Behind Small Signal Model

In this model, one assumes that the voltage across the diode

vD (t) = VD + vd (t) (5.1)

where vd (t) is a small signal voltage compared to VD , the quiescent DC voltage.

The corresponding current through the diode is then

iD (t) = IS evD (t)/VT = IS e(VD +vd (t))/VT (5.2)

The above can be rewritten as

iD (t) = IS eVD /VT evd (t)/VT = ID evd (t)/VT (5.3)

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where ID is time independent, and is

ID = IS eVD /VT (5.4)

Since vd (t)/VT  1 always, using ex ≈ 1+x when x is small, the above equation
(5.3) can be approximated, namely,
 
vd (t) ID
iD (t) ≈ ID 1 + = ID + vd (t) (5.5)
VT VT

Writing
iD (t) = ID + id (t) (5.6)
where id (t) is a small signal current, or that id (t)  ID , then

ID
id (t) = vd (t) (5.7)
VT
One can then define an incremental resistance, or small-signal resistance
VT
rd = (5.8)
ID
The above approximation converts a nonlinear problem into a linear problem at
the DC bias point, the quiescent point, or the Q point. The slope of the i-v
curve at this point is also inversely proportional to the incremental resistance,
namely that  
∂iD 1
= (5.9)
∂vD iD =ID rd

Figure 12: A nonlinear diode circuit can be replaced by a linear resistor circuit
under the small signal approximation (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

The small-signal approximation is mathematically equivalent to Taylor se-

ries approximation. By so doing, a nonlinear function is replaced with a linear
function around the Q point. This is also called the linearization approxi-
mation.

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Figure 13: Figure for Example 4.5 of textbook illustrating the use of small-signal
model to solve a nonlinear diode problem (Courtesy of Sedra and Smith).

Example 3.4
Consider a circuit shown in Figure 13 with R = 10 kΩ. The power source
V + has a DC value of 10 V, on top of which is superposed an AC signal with
1-V peak amplitude at 60 Hz. This models the imperfection of the power supply
ripple. Find the DC voltage of the diode, and the sinusoidal signal across it,
assuming that VD of the diode is 0.7 V at then ID = 1 mA.
Answer:
Assuming DC signal only, and that VD = 0.7 V, as shown in Figure 13(b),
then
10 − 0.7
ID = 0 = 0.93 mA (5.10)
1
Since we are in the small-signal regime, then the incremental resistance is given
by
VT 25
rd = = = 26.9 Ω (5.11)
ID 0.93
The original circuit can now be replaced by the small signal model of Figure
13(c). Using the voltage divider rule, then
rd
vd (t) = vs (t) (5.12)
R + rd
The peak voltage is then
rd 0.0269
vd (peak) = vs (peak) =1 = 2.68 mV (5.13)
R + rd 10 + 0.0269
This voltage is small compared to VT affirming out small-signal assumption.

4 Same as Example 4.5 of the textbook.

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