Diodes

1. The current voltage characteristic of a diode is shown below:

a. What is the threshold voltage?

b. The diode is connected in the following setup:

10V of voltage is supplied, determine the current and power dissipated by the diode
when the resistance has a value of i) 100 and ii) 1000 .
c. What is the voltage drop across the resistor and diode when the diode is reversed?
Does the value of the resistor affect the voltage drop?

2. An LED has the following characteristic graph:

The LED is connected to a 10 battery in series with a resistor. The power of the LED is
measured to be 250

. What is the value of the resistance?

3. Given a diode with a threshold voltage of

and a resistor of

battery with EMF of , find the power dissipated in terms of

4. A typical LED can handle a maximum current of 20

connected in series to a
,

and .

before burning out. Suppose a red

LED with voltage of 1.8 is connected to a 6.0 battery.

a. What is the maximum power dissipated by the LED?
b. What is the minimum required resistance needed by the limiting resistor to prevent
the LED from burning out?
5. A blue LED has a voltage of 3.6 , and it is connected as follows:

a. How is the brightness of the LED affected by the resistance of the parallel variable
resistor it is connected to?
b. Calculate the current flowing through and the power dissipated by the LED when
the variable resistor resistance is set to:
i. 200
ii. 400
6. Two diodes are connected in series to a battery along with a resistor:

Explain why the minimum voltage needed for current to be able to flow through the circuit
is equals to the sum of threshold voltage of each diodes.
7. In designing a circuit involving LED, Simon claims that a LED cannot be connected to a
voltage source greater than its threshold voltage, as it will burn the LED out. Discuss the
validity of his statement.
8. A red, green and blue LED with respective voltage of 2.3 , 3.2 and 3.8 respectively are
connected parallel with a variable EMF source along with resistors as shown:

a. Explain what happens when the variable EMFs voltage increases from 0 .
b. Suppose the EMF is set to 12.0 , what are the values of
in order for the LEDs to operate at 80

, and

needed

9. A red and blue LED with threshold voltage of 2.0 and 3.5 are connected in series to a
100 resistor with a 9 battery.
a. What is the current flowing through the circuit?
b. What are the powers dissipated by both LEDs?
10. A blue and red LED are connected in parallel in a circuit as shown:

As the red LEDs threshold voltage is lower than the blue LEDs, explain why the blue
LED does not light up.

11. Consider the following setup:

Suppose the LED has a threshold voltage of 2.0 . What is the minimum value of
order for the LED to light up?

in