di ode s

16
16.1 I NT RODUCT I ON
The diode was introduced in Chapter 4 as an example of a nonlinear device.
We used its nonlinear v i characteristic to develop several methods of analyzing
nonlinear circuits. It turns out that the diode is a particularly useful nonlinear
device, and merits closer examination. Figure 16.1 shows a few discrete diodes.
This chapter explores several useful diode circuits, and develops additional
analysis methods that are specific to diodes.
16.2 SEMI CONDUCT OR DI ODE
CHARACT ERI ST I CS
We will consider semiconductor diodes made out of silicon. Recall, we have
previously seen an example of a silicon-based device, namely the MOSFET. Let
us first review briefly the properties of silicon and semiconductors. Silicon is an
element in the cubic crystal class of Group IV in the periodic table (along with
germanium). In pure crystalline silicon, each atom forms covalent bonds with
its nearest neighbors, so that at room temperature almost all valence electrons
are involved in the structural bonding, and very few are free to move about
the crystal. Hence pure silicon at room temperature is a very poor conductor
of electricity.
However, if minute amounts of impurities are added to the silicon by high
temperature diffusion, or by ion implantation, for example, then the electrical
FI GURE 16.1 Discrete diodes.
( Photograph Courtesy of Maxim
Integrated Products.)
905
906 C H A P T E R S I X T E E N d i o d e s
properties change dramatically. Add a part per million of a Group V element,
such as phosphorus, to the Group IV element silicon, and we obtain a crystal
that has many mobile electrons not involved in covalent bonds. Hence the
material is now a good conductor. We call this material n-type silicon (n stand-
ing for negative, indicating mobile negative charge carriers, that is, electrons).
Similarly, if we add small amounts of a Group III element such as aluminum
to the pure silicon, the resulting crystal will have a large deficit of electrons in
the bonding structure. One useful way of visualizing the effect of this deficit is
to imagine that we have created not a deficit of negative charges, but a surplus
of positive charges, which we call holes. (A hole is thus a convenient way of
representing the absence of an electron.) This is called p-type silicon, signifying
mobile positive charge carriers. Both n-type and p-type silicon are electrically
neutral, because the constituents were electrically neutral. But unlike pure sili-
con, both are relatively good conductors of electricity. You may recall the use
of both p-type and n-type silicon in the fabrication of MOSFETs.
One way to make a semiconductor diode is to metallurgically create a
wafer of silicon containing n-type material adjoining p-type material. In an
n-channel MOSFET, for example, the n-type drain juxtaposed to the p-type
channel region forms a diode. The circuit symbol for the diode, shown in
Figure 16.2, emphasizes this asymmetric structure by denoting the p region
with an arrow, and the n region as a line. If a battery and a resistor are connected
to the diode to make the p region positive with respect to the n region, as in
Figure 16.3a, large currents will flow. This is called forward bias. But if the
battery is connected in the opposite way (Figure 16.3b), to make the n region
more positive than the p region to reverse bias the diode, almost no current
will flow. This gross asymmetry in electrical behavior is the essence of the
semiconductor diode.
An analytical expression for the relation between the voltage v
D
and the
current i
D
for the diode can be derived from semiconductor physics:
i
D
= I
s
(e
v
D
/V
TH
1). (16.1)
The parameter, V
TH
= kT/q, is called the thermal voltage, and the constant I
s
is the saturation current. For silicon I
s
is typically 10
12
amps. q is the charge
i
D
v
D
-
+
n p
FI GURE 16.2 A semiconductor diode.
- +
R
- +
R
(a) (b)
FI GURE 16.3 (a) Forward bias; (b) reverse bias.
16.2 Semiconductor Diode Characteristics C H A P T E R S I X T E E N 907
v
D
10 pA
i
D
v
D
10 mA
i
D
5 V
(a) (b)
0.5 V
FI GURE 16.4 vi characteristics
of a silicon diode.
of an electron,
1
k is the Boltzmanns constant,
2
and T is the temperature in
kelvins.
3
At room temperature, kT/q is approximately 0.025 volts.
Typical measured v i characteristics for a silicon diode are shown
in Figure 16.4. If we plot on a current scale of pico-amps (10
12
amps), as
in Figure 16.4a, then the expected exponential shape appears. But if we plot on
a more typical scale of milliamps (Figure 16.4b), then the curve looks quite
different. The current appears to be zero until the diode voltage is almost
0.6 volts, at which point the characteristic rises very sharply. This apparent
knee is entirely due to the mathematical behavior of exponentials, rather than
some physically-related threshold in the device. Nonetheless, on the scale of
milliamperes, silicon diodes appear to have a voltage threshold of 0.6 to 0.7 V,
(0.2 V for germanium diodes). This threshold has important consequences for
semiconductor circuit design, some detrimental but others of great value. For
example, recall that digital logic depends critically on the presence of such a
threshold, as we saw in Chapter 6.
e x a m p l e 16. 1 a n a l y s i s o f a d i o d e - b a s e d t e m p e r -
a t u r e m e a s u r e m e n t c i r c u i t To achieve the greatest possible
computational performance, microprocessors in notebook computers and servers
operate with a variable-frequency clock. The faster the clock, the more operations per
second a microprocessor can perform. However, as its clock frequency increases, a
microprocessor becomes hotter for reasons that are discussed in Chapter 11. Generally,
the temperature of a microprocessor should be limited to about 110

C. To increase
its performance, the clock frequency of a microprocessor is increased until the thermal
limit is reached. How does a microprocessor determine its temperature?
Diodes in a microprocessor can be used to sense temperature. For example, the MAXIM
MAX1617 device measures temperature by forcing two different currents through a
1. The electron charge q = 1.602 10
19
C.
2. The Boltzmanns constant k = 1.380 10
23
J /

K.
3. The temperature in kelvins can be obtained from the temperature in degrees Celsius as follows:
T [

K] = T [

C] + 273.15 [

C].
908 C H A P T E R S I X T E E N d i o d e s
diode and comparing the resulting voltages. For sufficiently large voltages, the diode
equation can be approximated by:
i
D
I
s
e
qv
D
/kT
.
Therefore, the voltage v
D
across the diode is given approximately by:
v
D
=
kT
q
ln

i
D
I
s

.
To measure temperature, the MAX1617 first forces the current i
D1
through the diode,
and next forces the current i
D2
through the diode. The resulting voltages, v
D1
and v
D2
,
are then differenced to obtain
v
D1
v
D2
=
kT
q
ln

i
D1
i
D2

.
This voltage difference is proportional only to absolute temperature in kelvins if the ratio
between i
D1
and i
D2
is fixed.
Suppose i
D1
= 100 A and i
D2
= 10 A. Then, for T = 300

K, or 27

C, the volt-
age difference is 59.5 mV. If the temperature rises to T = 383

K, or 110

C, the voltage
difference rises to 76.0 mV.
16.3 ANALYSI S OF DI ODE CI RCUI T S
Given the analytical expression for the diode characteristic, Equation 16.1, how
-
+
R
-
+
- +
v
D
i
D
E
v
R
FI GURE 16.5 Circuit with diode.
can we calculate the voltages and currents in a simple circuit such as Figure 16.5?
Depending on our requirements, as discussed in Chapter 4, we can use one
of the four methods of analyzing nonlinear circuits developed previously: (1)
analytical solutions, (2) graphical analysis, (3) piecewise-linear analysis, and (4)
incremental analysis. However, circuits with multiple diodes and other elements
get algebraically complex quickly and become virtually impossible to analyze
directly. Fortunately, it turns out that the dichotomous behavior of the diode
under forward bias and reverse bias allows us to decompose more complex
diode circuits into simple subcircuits, each of which can be independently ana-
lyzed using one of the four methods. This decomposition method is called the
method of assumed diode states.
16.3.1 ME T HOD OF A S S UME D S T A T E S
Recall from the graphical construction illustrated in Figure 16.6 (as well as
from the original definition of the ideal diode outlined in Equations 16.2 and
i
D
v
D
(a)
i
D
+
-
v
D
(b)
Short
Open
circuit
circuit
FI GURE 16.6 Ideal diode model.
16.3), that the ideal diode has two mutually exclusive states: the ON state, for
which the diode voltage v
D
is zero (the diode is a short circuit), and the OFF state,