Lab 2 Report

Ishaan Aggarwal
September 28, 2021

1 Diode Characteristics and half-wave rectifier

1a) This section a simple circuit was produced (shown in Fig 1). A 1N4001 diode was placed
in series with a load resistor. The load resistor is here to limit the current flowing through
the circuit. I measured the current (I) of the circuit by measuring the voltage across the Rl ,
which gives us Vl = IRl . I expect the graph to increase exponentially after approximately
0.7V . Rl = 102.5Ω (from a DMM measurement). I sent a 5Vpp sine wave through the circuit.

Figure 1: This is the circuit used for part 1 in the lab. It shows the schematic for a simple
diode in series with a Rl

Fig 2shows the plot of voltage across Rl vs the input voltage. It shows the behaviour
of the diode with voltage. We see that at approximately 0.7V there is a sharp increase in
the current of the diode. This current is not just IRl rather there is also a resistance from
within the diode that gets factored in. The increasing current flow is better represented as:
I(Rl + Rb ) where Rb is the bulk resistance inside the diode. Since it is a lot smaller than Rl
we can approximate it to be 0.

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 Figure 2: This is the oscilloscope grab of the characteristic of a diode plot

1b) Fig 3 showcases I versus time on channel 2. As we can see at the positive peaks
of the supplied voltage (channel 1), the current also peaks. At the negative peak of the
supplied voltage however, we see that the current is close to 0. This is due to the resistance
of the diode in the negative (n-p) direction. This result is the reason diodes are so useful in
circuitry.

Figure 3: This is the oscilloscope grab of the current vs time display. Supply voltage is
shown on channel 1 (top) and current is shown on channel 2 (bottom). Here again the
current is I(Rl + Rb )

1c) Now I will replace the ”1N4001” diode in 1 with an LED. The LED is a type of
diode as well and the characteristic curve of this is shown in Fig 4. The current vs time of
an LED (channel 2) shows a smaller peak and a longer 0 voltage area. This is due to the
function of an LED. We want the LED to give off light, and to do so, it must be inefficient
at conducting the current through as it will let some of the energy escape in terms of light.
It also showcases a longer 0 voltage area, due to its stronger resistance to negative voltage.

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Figure 4: This is the oscilloscope grab of the current vs time display for an LED. Supply
voltage is shown on channel 1 (top) and current is shown on channel 2 (bottom). Here again
the current is I(Rl + Rb )

2 Full-Wave Rectifier Bridge

2a) Here we constructed a full wave rectifier bridge circuit shown in Fig 5. We powered it
using a function generator with a Vrms = 14.5V (DMM measurement). In order to protect
the diodes from the current flowing through them, I chose a Rl = 10.03kΩ. The diode
labelled D1 is the path taken by the circuit when there is a ”negative” voltage entering the
circuit and D2 represents the path taken when the ”positive” current is entering the circuit.
We are again going to take the current across the load resistor for the first part as it will
show the current the circuit produces.

Figure 5: This is the circuit schematic used in part 2 of the lab script.

Fig 6 shows the output from the circuit when none of the diodes is removed from the
circuit. This is a full wave rectified wave. Meaning that all voltage in results in current flow
from one of the paths of the circuit. Either D1 (negative path) or D2 (positive path). Fig 7
shows the output from the circuit when D2 is removed from the circuit. Since this path is
incomplete, the only time current is going to flow through the circuit is from the D1 path.
The D2 path produces a resistance circuit, allowing almost no current to flow through the
circuit. The same would happen if we removed D1, except the 0 voltage output points in 7
will be peaks and the now peaks will be zero areas.

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Figure 6: This is the oscilloscope grab of the current display. Here again the current is
I(Rl + Rb ). Without the removal of any of the diodes.

Figure 7: This is the oscilloscope grab of current display across Rl when D2 is taken out of
the circuit.

2b) Now I will connect a capacitor filter in parallel with the resistor. This will result in
a rectifying of the output wave. We expect the capacitor to store some charge during the
path and then discharge during the down cycle. If the capacitor is going to be discharging
a lot slower than the frequency of the transformer, we will get a DC source. The capacitor
will discharge according to time constant τ = RC. The frequency fo of the transformer
will be 120Hz. Even though the transformer takes in ac supply from the outlet which has
fo = 60Hz, we will be rectifying the wave, essentially doubling its frequency to fo = 120Hz.

First we will be using a 13.25µF (capacitor measurement) capacitor. Our time constant
here will be τ = RC which gives us τ = 0.133Hz. We will get a dc voltage source. as shown
in Fig 8.

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 Next we use capacitors of strength C = 485µF (DMM measurement). This will give us
a τ = 4.86. This will give us an even better approximation of the DC voltage source. This is
because τ is even larger than previous, giving us a longer discharge time. Which essentially
gives us a fully charged capacitor and even output voltage at all times. This is shown in
Fig 9 as we see a virtually straight line, proving our hypothesis of the result of adding a
larger capacitor filter.

Figure 8: This shows the capacitor filter on a recitfied wave with τ = 0.123. Giving us an
almost DC power source.

Figure 9: This is the oscilloscope grab of current display across Rl when D2 is taken out of
the circuit.

3 Voltage Doubler
In this section we will be building a voltage doubler according to Fig 10. For our source
I am going to be using a Vrms = 14.5V (DMM measurement), with capacitors of values

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9.84nF and9.81nF respectively. The voltage will double because the capacitors will be col-
lecting charge on each cycle and then discharge through the load resistor which is going to
be our out. The capacitors will discharge with τ = 0.001 as I have chosen Rl = 998kΩ. This
will provide for a very slow discharge.

The first run which uses the 9.84nF capacitors is shown in fig 11. We see almost a dual
voltage in this output. The first peak is the peak from the supply voltage ( 20V) and
the second peak is from the capacitors discharging through it, giving us our double voltage
( 40V). However there is a huge disparity between these peaks and the reason for these
peaks is the capacitors. Which are small, causing them to discharge much faster than we
would like. Thus increasing our capacitors to 1.2µF and1.3µF respectively should solve this
problem. We should in theory get much higher and more stable output voltage. Which is
exactly what we see in Fig 12. There is still an oscillation about 40 V but it is much better
(visually) than our first run. If we were to increase our capacitors or our Rl further we would
get better and better approximations of a dc voltage source at 40V

Figure 10: This is the schematic of circuit for voltage doubler.

Figure 11: This is a voltage doubler output with small capacitors of 9.84nF and9.81nF

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 Figure 12: This is a voltage doubler output with small capacitors of 1.3µF and1.2µF

4 Diode Clipper
In this section we are going to make a diode clipper circuit. The schematic is shown in Fig 13.
The clipper diode is going to limit the voltage at our designated spot, either in the positive
or negative direction. Here we will be using Rs = 1kΩ, a 1N914 Diode, a 5V battery, and a
Rl = 100kΩ. Our input is going to be a function generator powering the circuit with 10Vpp
at 1kHz frequency. The circuit is designed to let all the negative voltage pass through to
the load resistor however limit the positive voltage to 5V + 0.7V . This is because the diode
will allow voltages above 0.7V to pass through where a 5V is also added in series causing
the positive voltage to be clipped at 5.7V. This theory is supported by the output shown
in Fig 14. We can see that the positive voltage is clipped at a little above 5V (5.7V to be
exact) and the negative voltage is left uncapped at 10V. This is due to the orientation of the
diode in the circuit.

In order to clip a sine wave symmetrically around 0V. We will not add a dc voltage source
in series to the circuit. Also we would need a diode in the opposite orientation in parallel
with the first diode and Rl acting as a barrier for the negative voltages. However the circuit
is not going to output a perfectly 0V wave as there will still be a 0.7Vpp clipped wave around
0V. This is because the diodes have infinite resistance until 0.7V is passed through them.
Until that point is reached by our input sine wave, the diodes will not be able to conduct
any current causing the voltages below 0.7V and above -0.7V to be passed on to the output.
The schematic for this circuit is shown in Fig 15.

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Figure 13: This is the schematic of the diode clipper circuit used for this section.

Figure 14: This shows the output of the diode clipper circuit.

Figure 15: This shows the output of the diode clipper circuit around 0V.

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5 Diode Voltage Clamper
In this section we will be doing the same thing as the previous section except with two
distinction. We will be changing the orientation of the diode, causing the clamping to
happen at the negative voltage. We will also be changing the dc voltage source to 4V. This
This will cause the negative clamping to happen at −4V −0.7V = 4.7V . This is again due to
the barrier voltage of the diode. The diode needs 0.7V at an input for the diode to conduct
current. We will be supplying a sine wave, a square wave, and a triangle wave through the
circuit. Theoretically there should not be any difference among them except for the shape.
Each wave will get clamped at around 4.7V .

Figure 16: This is the schematic of the diode clipper circuit used for this section. It clamps
the negative sine wave at 4.7V

The output of this circuit is going to be in a sine, a square and a triangle wave. This is
shown in Fig 17, 18, 19. As we can see the results support the theory. The negative sine
wave is made positive and capped at 4.7V . The only difference between the waves are their
respective shapes.

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Figure 17: Output of a diode voltage clamper at a 4.7V , while being supplied with a sine
wave of 10Vpp

Figure 18: Output of a diode voltage clamper at a 4.7V , while being supplied with a square
wave of 10Vpp

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Figure 19: Output of a diode voltage clamper at a 4.7V , while being supplied with a triangle
wave of 10Vpp

6 Despiker
In this section we are going to create a despiker using a RC highpass filter and then use a
diode in a despiker circuit to showcase the ability of the diode to act as a despiker (surge
protector). The circuit is produced according to Fig 20. The first half of the circuit is a
spike creating circuit. If the τ = RC value is very small the capacitor is going to discharge
very quickly essentially creating a spike in the circuit. The spike is then going to through
the diode and get filtered out as the diode is only going to conduct current after a voltage
of 0.7V. The following table shows the components used and their values,
Component Value
Capacitor 0.1µF
R1 1kΩ
R2 1kΩ
Diode 1N 914

Figure 20: Schematic for the circuit used as the despiker circuit

Fig 21 shows the output from the despiker circuit. On CH 1 (top) we see the output across
the load resistor which is showing the spikes which have been neutralized. Ch 2 (bottom)

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shows the spikes incoming into the circuit which are created from the RC highpass filter.
The interesting thing is that there are still spikes that are going through the circuit, while
half of them don’t. This is due to the input source. We are using a function generator which
is providing a sine wave. This sine wave is going to have negative and positive components,
thereby creating negative and positive spikes in the circuit. The diode however is only
filtering out the negative spikes due to its orientation. If we were to place the diode in a
reversed format to how it is now, the positive spikes would have been neutralized while the
negative spikes would go to the Rl . The way to neutralized both spikes would be to place
a diode in both orientations on the upper and lower half of the circuit, thereby creating a
double despiker circuit, which would filter out all spikes.

Figure 21: This shows the output from the despiker circuit. Ch 1 shows the voltage output
from the Rl with the neutralized spikes. Ch 2 shows the voltage output (spikes) from the
RC highpass filters.

7 Zener Diode
In this section we will place a zener diode in place of a silicon diode in Fig 1. Nothing else
is going to change for the circuit except for the Rl . The formula for the load resistor of a
zener diode is as follows,
Vs − Vz
Rl = (1)
Iz
I am using the data sheet provided at the back of the lab script to get the values Vz = 5.1V
and Iz = 49mA. I will be running the circuit using a 10Vpp sine wave, therefore Vs = 10V .
This gives a value of Rl = 100Ω. I am going to play it very safe and choose Rl = 1kΩ. This
should keep the circuit safe. Just like in section 1, we will be measuring the voltage drop
across the Rl which will give us I(Rl + Rb ) Where Rb is the bulk resistance of the diode.
From Fig 22 we see that the zener diode has a reversal barrier voltage of about 4V. This
small reverse barrier voltage is the defining characteristic of the zener diode. As well as the

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blunt slope in the increasing direction. The zener diode is known for changing its orientation
and being useful in doing so, and this figure shows just that

Figure 22: This shows the output of the zener diode circuit. Ch 1 (top) shows the input
voltage. Ch 2 (bottom) shows the voltage measured across the load resistor, giving us current
in the format; I(Rl + Rb )

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