Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
characteristic of a diode
Debangshu Mukherjee
BS.c Physics,1st Year
Chennai Mathematical Institute
31.10.2008
Aim of experiment
Apparatus required
a)A diode
b)A DC voltage supplier
c)Bread board
d)100 resistor
e)2 multimeter for measuring current and voltage
f)Connecting wires
Theory of experiment
I = Is (e nVT 1)
In the above equation, I is the forward current, V is the forward voltage, It
is the saturation current, and VT = kT /q is the thermal voltage. Initially,
the V vs I graph is linear but then after reaching breakdown, it becomes
exponential.
Procedure
First, complete a circuit as shown below with a 100 resistor and an variable
DC input voltage source.
We first note the point where the ammeter starts deflecting. We note this
point and gradually increase the input voltage and take the corressponding
current readings. We have to take many readings till the input voltage is
2
Claculations
5.1
S.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Current(mA)
0
0.001
0.001
0.005
0.009
0.012
0.018
0.047
0.060
0.082
0.101
0.145
0.175
0.181
0.246
0.306
0.412
0.509
0.646
0.693
0.822
0.979
1.112
1.335
1.805
2.007
2.392
3.4
3.9
4.3
5.3
6.7
7.6
8.0
3
5.2
S.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Voltage(V )
0.90
1.60
2.07
3.78
4.94
5.95
7.27
8.01
9.32
9.84
10.34
11.94
12.77
13.93
15.11
16.32
17.03
17.81
18.56
19.35
Current(A)
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
0.007
0.008
0.009
0.010
0.011
0.012
0.013
0.014
0.015
0.016
0.017
0.018
0.019
Results
We plot the readings on a V vs I curve and the two graphs look as follows:
Forward bias graph:
Discussion
If, we just reverse the diode to measure the I-V characteristics, the sudden
change might destroy the diode.
The diode should not be short-circuited. That will allow a flow of huge
current which might destroy the diode.
Current must not pass through it for a very long time. It will then increase
the depletion region and develop a fluctuating resistance.