ertan016 Basic question about coe voltage drop and resistor posion - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange Here's how itworks: - is.a question and answer site for slectronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. Join them, it only takes a minute [Anybody can ask ‘Anybody can The best answers are voted ‘a question ‘answer up andise tothe op Basic question about diode voltage drop and resistor position Tm new here and also new to electrical engineering so no fancy stuff yet, stil tinkering with basic components such as resister, lec, caps and batteries. Ithink 7 caught up witn the bad side of conventional + and - #0 I'd ike ta impose a Few question 1 was reading this book “All New Electronics Self-Teaching Gulde, 3rd Ea" by Kybett ané Boysen to remembers bts what I've learnt s0 far. On C2 about diode, I stumbee on the idea of the Voltage drop in diode. In series of resistors, it's pretty straight forward, it's a ratio of resistors’ value, higher value drops more voltage, etc But when 2 diode is introduced after the resistors, you have to decrease the source voltage with the voltage drop of the dlode first before you can measure the new voltage drop of each resistor. Why is this happening? Is it prety bizarre to count backward frst as the current move from + to~ Also I've seen several examples where a resistor is introduced before anode, which I think is logical and introduced after cathode which is plenty weird as resistor is used to limit the current going into the led but in actual reality, both do just fne(I ‘ried both ways). Is this because of positive charge and negative charge? Because P-N junctlon, holes and p stuff? Update (request by Anindo) : Here is the page ofthe book in goaglesook Previous pages explaining in simple series are gone. 59/450) hore (Please ecit this, IF t's against the aw) > full book you can see it on page 47 (or 71/450, ch 2 starts at aignacovesquerAtcams why eles your ans? 3 Answers Junction diodes are constructed from a single crystal of semiconductor material that has been altered to form 2 PN junction hp lolectones stackexchange.comiquostions7270aasc-cuestor-abou-dode-volage-crop-and.cesstr-positon 18ertan016 Basic question about coe voltage drop and resistor posion - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange anode cathode i) wo Semiconductors fall somewhere between the conductors (metalic elements) and ron conductors (non metallic elements). Generally speaking pure (intrinsic) semiconductor isan element with 4 electrons in its outer shell and is pretty useless electrically. tis neither a good conductor or a good insulator. The first semiconductors used Germanium, Devices today use Silicon ‘The reason semiconductor materials are useful is that we can easily ete their electrical properties (especially conductivity) by adding or DOPING them with (very) small amounts of other elements, These daping atoms fit into the crystal lattice but ther diferent electron structure alters the way electrical current can flow through the materia Making P type and N type semiconductors. type has lots of ‘extra’ electrons because the dopant had 5 electrons in its outer shell~ I more than (intrinsic) semiconductor Similarly ° Type has Gaps or HOLES in the outer electron shells because the dopant ‘nly as 3 electrons compared to 4 ofthe (intrinsic) semiconductor When the PN junction is mace the material in the ‘middle is nether P or N type as allthe fee charge carriers are swept to one side or the other. This Is known as the DEPLETION layer. (2 bit ike no-man's lanc between two apposing armies) epletion layer —ait- anode cathode i) 7 wo ‘This depletion layer is the source of the voltage drop across the diode. 0 get current (low of charge) through the dlade the charge has to “jump over this barter (its more technical then that but let's Keep it simple). It needs an extra bit of energy fo do this. Now energy is charge x voltage. The value of the charge Is feed - Its simply the electronic charge - 1.602 X 10-19 so the only charges that can cross the barrier hipdoleceries stackexchange.camiquestion72708tbasic-queston-abou- dodo-volage-&op-and.cesstr-postonertan016 Basic question about code voltage drop and resistor postion. ‘must have have energies of more than the barrier As the charge is fixed and Unchangeable we simply talk about the Barrer vallage. For Silicon this is about 0.6 volts, For Germanium this is about 0.2 vols, lectrcal Engineering Stack Exchange he barier acts like a small battery of 0.6V connected in the OPPOSITE direction tothe current few. (Conventional current - postive to negative). You can only measure this when current Is flowing through the diode. Photodiodes can generate actual voltage but that's another matter. ee ‘This means that for every diade inthe circult we wil lose 0.6V when they are conducting (fornard biased). (This increases slightly with current value) Ina series circut with resistors it does not really matter If the resistor comes before or after the diode, The current passing tough resistor and diode is the same. The total voltage drop across the resistor and diode will be the same. 06 voltage drop = 0.6 +R = FR +0.6 ‘The LIGHT EMITTING DIODE has 2 much larger voltage drop (about 1.5V- 3.0 V) than a ‘norma’ diode. It uses this extra energy to output light hipdoleceries stackexchange.camiquestion72708tbasic-queston-abou- dodo-volage-&op-and.cesstr-postonertan016 Basic question about coe voltage drop and resistor posion - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange n — > | uD voltage drop =1.5V-+ FR Total voltage drop is the same war. Crystal char explanation, sr ansnered mest ef my questions hrk might ad been vague ana hare te grasp tne meaning) Sethi reduce Onstage dopfrst phenomenon suse by deplton amy anc yeu, 7 1 calton ayer (aumeacten Just want to dary ttn above Sure we spel 10V to cei which nave reaitonce ne teen dade 0.6V 50 co we aly get the 18.57 -9.9 Vm the end ? What about the vane =P rogue (20.9.6 = 3.4) Te vokage ro willbe 0.6 + 14a tte he’s rontance’ of he junction fain emallandin same macele = ven ten sera (e.g. peret ose mode) you lak athe {72ph of 8 Year ede (/W) yu nll se that the weFape dep rceass we cure but tha (ee rear Dare ona) saute step Warge change in forward curren, small change in votage drop. The Inverse ofthis lope te ttesive forward estan ofthe dode va), Ths smelineease ie Yokape One way to think of a diode is that a diode is just @ special kind of resister. If you apply 2 low voltage to it (below about 0.6 V) then its resistance is very high. If you Apply a high voltage to it (above 0.6 V) then its resistance is very low So when you put tin series with 2 resistor, ou have a resistor divider but you don't know yet whether the dlode isin its high-resistance mede or its Iow-resistance ‘mode. If t's in high resistance mode, then the current through itis Iow..s0 the Current through the other resistor is aleo low. So the drop across the other resistor is ow..s0 the drop across the cloce must be high (because the two voltages have ‘to acd upto the source voltage)... ps, It cant then be in the high-resistance mode, If the diode isin low resistance mode then the current through itis high, so the current through the other resistor is nigh. So the voltage across the otner resistor Is high, meaning the voltage across the dioge must be low, Ooops, the diode can't be In ow-resistance made elther, Since the diode cart bein either mode, it must be right on the edge between ‘them..sitting right at 0.6-V with whatever current through i is allowed by the series resstor [As for whether to connect the resistor on the anode side ofthe diode or the cathode side, it doesn't matter. Just lke with any two resistors, the current flowing through ‘them only depends on the sum of the two resistances, not what order thay're hooked up in I hp lolectones stackexchange.comiquastions7270abasc-cuestor-abou-dode-volage-crop-and.cesstr-positonertan016 Basic question about coe voltage drop and resistor position - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange ‘he Proton hk miedingntng oh dae ores, ely hen ou sta aking {eSiasvola ne low sted rau, ado none ester, whether you thnk tats confusing or “Tanks for your answer Ina ht bull oxamale, te eatin i ery emp eth io Youtudecomvaten=opkne95ty0 But Tm eonfised on dade sa wnole new wer Teresi ‘reedboerd and the reding in DMM f within the range too) Try sun 1413 at? ‘etry, have» ok here ene r/o. Ine_ S28 baronet 29 ~The Phin Jn 449 ‘The voltage drop across resistors varies depending on the current running through it ‘The voltage drop across a diade (inthe forward biased state) Is close to constant regardless of the current running trough i. Here is @ graph ofthe voltage-current relationship ofa clade. Voltage is graphed on the x axis, and currant is graphed on the y axis. The graph is an exponential curve. ‘The key idea to take away from this graph is that no current flaws until a small voltage occurs across the cloce, at which point virtually any current produces close to the same voltage across the diode For example, look atthe voltage produced when 3 A of current goes through the diode, From this graph i lok close to 3 V. Increasing to 4 A of current only Increases the potential difference to ~3.05 V. In realty, mast diodes reach forward bias at about .7 V. Because the voltage changes so litte with current, a good approximation for their function Is just to assume that the voltage drop is always around .7 V when they are forward biased, Current (i) - xa = ° 2 + Poteutial difference (V) If you want to dig deeper, this effect is a consequence of the non-linearity of semiconductors. Diodes are also called a "p-n junction", searching that term should provide you information about the mechanism by which this occurs. Shaevca protected by cabacchio Jun 14713. 6:35 ‘Thank your yourlarat inthis questan Beaute ae afaced owt span anerstht hao be emeved, posting an anewer no agus D epuaton conte ae Gh assacion baru Sos nl ea oul you I to answer ane of has vsrsnores quan teas? hp lolectones stackexchange.comiquostions7270abasc-cuestor-abou-dode-volage-crop-and.cesstr-positon