Kuliah9Diodes s

A diode is a twoterm minal electro onic component with asy ymmetric tra ansfer charac cteristic, with low h ero) resistance to current flow in one direction, a high (ide t e and eally infinite) resistance in the ) (ideally ze other. A semiconducto diode, the most comm type tod s or e mon day, is a crystalline piece of semicond ductor materialw withapnjun nctionconnec ctedtotwoel lectricalterm minals

Fig1;Typicaldiodepac ckagesinsam mealignmentas Figure 2 Closeup of a diode, sh 2: f howing the square mbol.Thinbar rdepictsthecathode. diodesym shapeds semiconductorcrystal(bla ackobjectonleft). Them mostcommon nfunctionof fadiodeisto oallowanel lectric curren to pass in one directio (called th diode's forward nt n on he direct tion), while b blocking curr rent in the o opposite dire ection (ther reversedirect tion).Thus,t thediodecan nbethought ofas an electronic vers sion of a ch heck valve. T This unidirectional behav vior is calle d rectificatio and is used to co on, onvert altern nating curren to direct c nt current, including extracti of ion modu ulation from radio signa in radio receivers als these diode esareformso ofrectifiers. can Howe ever, diodes c have mo complicat behavior than ore ted r thissi impleonoff action.Semi iconductordi iodesdonot begin condu ucting electr icity until a certain thr reshold volta age is presentintheforw warddirectio on(astatein whichthedio odeis said to be forw wardbiased). The voltage drop acro a oss forwa ardbiaseddio odevarieson nlyalittlewit ththecurrent t,and is a function of t f temperature; this effect can be used as a d tempe eraturesenso ororvoltagereference. diodes' Semic conductor nonlinear currentvo oltage characteristic can be tailored by varying the semicond ductor mater rials and in ntroducing impurities in nto (doping) the ) mater rials.Thesea areexploited inspecialpu urposediodesthat perform many dif fferent functions. For exa ample, diode are es used to regulate voltage (Zen diodes), t protect ci ner to ircuits from highvoltage surges(avala anchediodes s),toelectron nically Figure2:V Varioussemic conductordio odes tune radio and TV receivers ( V (varactor dio odes), to gen nerate radio frequency o oscillations ( (tunnel diodes, Gunn di iodes, IMPAT diodes),a TT andtoproduc celight (light temittingdio odes). Tunne eldiodesexh hibitnegative resistance,w whichmakes them usefulinsometyp esofcircuits. .

Junctiondiodes Most diodes today are silicon junction diodes. A junction is formed between the p and n regions whichisalsocalledadepletionregion. pnjunctiondiode A pn junction diode is made of a crystal of semiconductor. Impurities are added to it to create a region on one side that contains negativechargecarriers(electrons),calledntype semiconductor, and a region on the other side that contains positive charge carriers (holes), called ptype semiconductor. The diode's terminals are attached to each of these regions. Theboundarybetweenthesetworegions,called a pn junction, is where the action of the diode takes place. The crystal allows electrons to flow from the Ntype side (called the cathode) to the Ptype side (called the anode), but not in the oppositedirection. Schottkydiode Another type of junction diode, the Schottky diode, is formed from a metalsemiconductor junctionratherthanapnjunction.withreduced capacitanceandthatincreasespeedofswitching. Currentvoltagecharacteristic A semiconductor diodes behavior in a circuit is givenbyitscurrentvoltagecharacteristic,orIV graph (see graph below). A diodes IV characteristic can be approximated by four regionsofoperation. At very large reverse bias, beyond the peak inverse voltage or PIV, a process called reverse breakdownoccursthatcausesalargeincreasein current (i.e., a large number of electrons and holesarecreatedat,andmoveawayfromthep n junction) that usually damages the device permanently. The second region, at reverse biases more positive than the PIV, has only a very small reversesaturationcurrent.Inthereversebias

regionforanormalPNrectifierdiode,thecurrent through the device is very low (in the A range). However, this is temperature dependent, and at sufficientlyhightemperatures,asubstantialamount ofreversecurrentcanbeobserved(mAormore). The third region is forward but small bias, where onlyasmallforwardcurrentisconducted. As the potential difference is increased above an arbitrarily defined "cutin voltage" or "onvoltage" or "diode forward voltage drop (Vd)", the diode current becomes appreciable (the level of current considered "appreciable" and the value of cutin voltagedependsontheapplication),andthediode presentsaverylowresistance.Thecurrentvoltage curve is exponential. In a normal silicon diode at rated currents, the arbitrary cutin voltage is definedas0.6to0.7volts.Thevalueisdifferentfor other diode types Schottky diodes can be rated as low as 0.2 V, Germanium diodes 0.25 to 0.3 V, and red or blue lightemitting diodes (LEDs) can havevaluesof1.4Vand4.0Vrespectively. At higher currents the forward voltage drop of the diodeincreases.Adropof1Vto1.5Vistypicalat fullratedcurrentforpowerdiodes.