DC Characteristics of Diodes

Objectives:
• Detect the I/V characteristic curve of semiconductor diode in both forward
and reverse directions.
• To find cut in voltage (knee voltage) for the diode.
• To be familiar with Diode data sheet and familiarize the student with some
important specification.
• How to check diode with help of multimeter.

Theoretical Background:
The semiconductor diode is formed by doping P-type impurity on one side
and N-type of impurity on another side of the semiconductor crystal forming a
p-n junction.

At the junction initially free charge carriers from both sides recombine
forming negatively charged ions in P side of the junction (an atom in P-side
accept electron and becomes negatively charged ion) and positively charged
ion on n side (an atom in n-side accepts hole i.e. donates electron and becomes
positively charged ion) region.

Reverse-Bias Condition: If the negative terminal of battery (DC power supply)

is connected with P-type terminal of diode and +Ve terminal of battery
connected to N type then the diode is said to be reverse biased.

In short, current flows through diode in forward bias and does not flow
through diode in reverse bias. Diode can pass current only in one
direction.

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Experiment Procedure:
• Connect the power supply, voltmeter, current meter with the diode as
shown in the figure for forwarding bias diode, and we used two multimeters
(one to measure the current through the diode and the other to measure the
voltage across the diode).

• Increase voltage from the power supply from 0V to 20 V in step as shown in

the observation table

• Measure voltage across the diode and current through the diode.

• Reverse DC power supply polarity for reverse bias.

• Repeat the above procedure for the different values of supply voltage for
reverse bias.

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 WORKSHEET

Observation table: (Forward bias):

Supply voltage (V) Diode voltage (Vd) Diode current (Id)

0.2 0.2 0.01

0.4 0.4 0.02

0.6 0.53 0.3

0.8 0.58 0.86

1 0.6 1.37

1.3 0.622 2.08

1.6 0.64 2.9

2 0.659 4.3

2.5 0.671 5.42

3 0.682 7.07

3.5 0.691 8.52

4 0.698 10.06

4.5 0.707 11..61

5 0.714 13.29

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Observation table: (Reverse bias):

Supply voltage (V) Diode voltage (Vd) Diode current (Id)

0.2 0.2 0

0.4 0.39 0

0.6 0.639 0

0.8 0.864 0

1 1.076 0

1.6 1.605 0

2 2.043 0

2.5 2.506 0

3 3.012 0

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Circuit Daiode:

Diode Characteristic :

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Comments:
The lab was easy and fun, but some multimeters gave me problems. Other
than that, the explanation was clear and easy.