Clippers -- Overview

Lab Overview
After performing this lab exercise, learner will be able to:

Design positive and negative shunt clipper

Design positive and negative series clipper
Build the clipper circuit and observe the output

Equipment
To carry out this experiment, you will need:
TBS 1000B-EDUOscilloscope from Tektronix.
Voltage probe (provided with oscilloscope) / BNC cables
Breadboard and connecting wires
Circuit components - Resistor 1K, 0.25W, Diode 1N4002
/IN4148/equ, Regulated DC supply 0-30V DC, Signal /Function
generator 10Hz to 1 Mhz

Theory
Clipping circuits are used to select and transmit a part of the given
waveform. The other parts of the waveform are clipped or removed
by the diode clipper circuit.

These circuits are also known as voltage or current limiters,

amplitude selectors or slicers.

The piecewise linear model of diode characteristic exhibits a

discontinuity in slope at the cut off voltage Vk. and this point of
slope discontinuity is called a break point.

For silicon diode the break point occurs at VK ~ 0.7V. This concept
can be used to explain the transfer characteristics of a clipper
circuit, which is a plot of output voltage against the input voltage.

Design
The limiting resistor R in the circuit can be designed in the
following manner.

From the diode forward and reverse characteristics, the resistance

in either direction can be determined, respectively, as Rf and Rr. It
can be shown that limiting resistor R = .

The ratio Rr/Rf can be called the figure of merit of the diode. From
V-I characteristics of diode, we have Rf= 20 and Rr = 1 M. From
these values, limiting resistor required is R = 3.3 K (std), watt
and we can use 1K to 5K .

Circuit Diagram

Biased Clipping Circuits

Clippers -- Procedures
Step 1
Study the circuit, expected waveform and transfer characteristic.

Step 2
Place the components on bread board or connection board and
connect them as per given circuit diagram. Use patch cords/ wires
for connection as required.

Step 3
Switch on the signal generator and set voltage to 10V P-P and
frequency to 1kHz

Step 4
Set DC voltage to 2 V in case of biased circuits

Step 5
Connect the input and output of the circuit to the two channels of
the CRO. Observe the input and output ( in DC mode only)
waveforms and ensures that it matches with expected wave form.

Step 6
Measure the voltage amplitude, clipping voltage using CRO. Keep
CRO setting in XY mode and observe the transfer characteristic.

Step 7
Draw the waveform on graph sheet.

Step 8
Repeat this for all clipping circuits.

Step 9
Expected Input and Output waveforms
Step 10
Result
Clipper circuits have been tested and out put wave forms match with
the expected waveforms.