Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering

University of Moratuwa

EN1803 Basic Electronics for Engineering Applications

Semester 2, 2022

Workshop 02
Design of a Simple Zener Regulated DC Power Supply

Designed by: Samiru Gayan (samirug@uom.lk)

Welcome to Workshop 02 of EN1803. This workshop focuses on designing a simple Zener

regulated DC power supply using LTspice simulation environment.

There are 20 marks available for the successful completion of all tasks in this
workshop. This workshop is worth 5% of your overall mark for the module.

General Instructions

For each workshop, you need to prepare a report with your responses to all the tasks and submit
it by the deadline indicated on Moodle page. You may hand-write or use MS Word or LATEX,
as per your convenience. To perform the simulation tasks, you need to install LTspice in your
PC by following the instructions below:

• Go to:
https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice-simulator.html

• Download LTspice, choose an option depending on the operating system under the ’Download
LTspice’ section of the page.

• Run the executable file LTspiceXVII and follow the instructions to install.

Testing a Diode

The resistance of a forward biased diode Rf is low and the resistance of a reversed biased diode
Rr is high. By observing these two resistances of the diode, Rf and Rr , it is possible to test a
diode and determine whether it is working or not. In the laboratory, we can use the analog or
digital multimeter to measure Rf and Rr .

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 In the LTspice simulation environment, we can not directly measure the resistance of a diode.
However, we can have a rough estimation of the resistance by manipulating the voltage and
current readings across another resister R1 as shown in Fig. 1.

TASK 1 Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a forward and reversed biased diode. Construct
this circuit in LTspice and provide a screenshot of your circuit in your report. Using the
simulation, roughly estimate the forward and reverse biased resistance of the diode D1 .
Briefly discuss your observations.

Note: For all the simulations in this workshop, use Transient simulation with Stop time
set to 50 ms. This helps to get clear screenshots of the waveforms.
There are 5/20 marks for the successful completion of this task.

Figure 1: Forward and reversed biased diode.

Bridge Rectifier

The Bridge rectifier in Fig. 2 is a full wave rectifier which converts an AC signal to DC. The
AC input is applied across A and B while the DC output is taken across P and Q.

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 Figure 2: Full wave rectifier.

TASK 2 Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 2 in LTspice and provide a screenshot of your circuit
in your report. Set the amplitude and the frequency of the AC input to be 5 V and 50
Hz, respectively.

Observe the AC input voltage across AB using the simulation and provide a screenshot
of the waveform.

Then, observe the DC output voltage across PQ using the simulation and provide a
screenshot of the waveform. You may plot both of these together.

Measure the maximum voltage of the output (Vmax ) and estimate Vdc using the expression
Vdc = π2 Vmax .
There are 5/20 marks for the successful completion of this task.

Capacitor Filter

The output from the full wave rectifier that we discussed is still a time-varying signal and it
is not a true DC waveform. It is almost always necessary to have steady DC voltages for the
electronic circuits to function properly. Many different smoothing circuits or filter circuits are
used to produce a steady DC from the rectified output. The simplest such filter circuit is the
capacitor filter as shown in Fig. 3.

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 Figure 3: Full wave rectifier with capacitor filter.

TASK 3 Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 3 in LTspice and provide a screenshot of your circuit
in your report. Set the capacitor value to be 4.7 µF.

Observe the output voltage across the load resistor using the simulation and provide a
screenshot of the waveform.

Replace the 4.7 µF capacitor with the 220 µF capacitor and observe the output voltage
and provide a screenshot of the waveform. You may plot both of these together.

Briefly discuss your observations on the effect of the capacitor filter.

There are 5/20 marks for the successful completion of this task.

Zener Regulator

The DC output voltage after the capacitor filter is smooth. However, it would vary if the load
resistor varies. Hence, the DC output voltage has to be further stabilized. A simple Zener
regulator can help in this regard.

Connect a Zener diode along with a series resistor Rs as shown in Fig: 4.

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 Figure 4: Full wave rectifier with capacitor filter.

TASK 4 Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 4 in LTspice and provide a screenshot of your circuit
in your report. Set the capacitor value to 220 µF. The breakdown voltage of the Zener
diode is 4.7 V and Rs = 1 kΩ.

Observe the output voltage across the load resistor using the simulation and provide a
screenshot of the waveform.

Change the load resistor RL to 100 KΩ. Observe the output voltage across the load
resistor using the simulation and provide a screenshot of the waveform.

Change the load resistor RL to 1 KΩ. Observe the output voltage across the load resistor
using the simulation and provide a screenshot of the waveform.

Briefly discuss your observations as RL is changed.

There are 5/20 marks for the successful completion of this task.