Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology

CHAPTER 4 Special Purpose Diode

Objectives
After studying the material in this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the Schottky diode.

2. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the Varactor diode.
3. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the Varistor.
4. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the Zener Diode.
5. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the Light Emitting Diode (LED).
6. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the LCD.
7. Describe the application of LED and LCD in the aircraft systems.
8. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the photodiode and phototransistor.
9. Describe the purpose, construction and operation of the LASER.
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Schottky Diodes
• Schottky diode – diode with a low forward voltage drop
and a very fast switching action.
(For normal diodes, as frequency increase, it will deteriorate, and it cannot
switch off fast enough for well-defined results)
– Also known as Schottky-barrier, hot-carrier, or surface-
barrier diodes.
– Capable of operating at frequency up to 20Ghz.
– Lower power loss across the device in forward
biased.
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Schottky Diodes
• Schottky diode – A high-speed diode with very little pn junction
capacitance.
– Capable of operating at frequency up to 20Ghz.
– Used for high-speed switching applications.
• It is the most important application in digital computer.
– Since they are constructed using a metal compound on one side
of their junction and doped silicon on the other side, the Schottky
diode therefore has no depletion layer
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Schottky Diode Symbol & Curve

Forward voltage drop ~ < 0.4V

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Varactor Diodes
• A varactor diode is a variable-capacitance diode
• Varactor diodes have relatively high junction capacitance
when reverse biased
• The depletion region acts like a variable dielectric. The
dielectric is adjusted by bias changes.
• As reverse bias voltage increases, depletion region
widens, capacitance become smaller.
• It works in reverse bias region.
• Generally used in electronic tuning circuits and
communication systems.
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Varactor Junction Capacitance

• The width of the varactor
depletion layer (Wd ) is A
controlled by the junction Ct = e
reverse bias. Wd
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Varactor Bias vs. Capacitance

Capacitance decreases
as the magnitude of
reverse bias increases.
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Varactor-Tuned LC Circuit
• The varactor acts as a voltage-
controlled capacitance.
– The R2 setting is varied to
adjust varactor capacitance.
• The varactor capacitance
determines (in part) the resonant
frequency of the LC circuit.

1
fr =
2p LC
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Varistor
• Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV) is semiconductor
resistor made of zinc oxide semiconductor
crystals.
• It is a voltage dependent resistor.
• High voltage – resistor breakdown and become
conductor
• Used for transient voltage suppression, voltage
stabilization and switch contact protection
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Zener Diode
• A diode designed to operate
in the reverse breakdown
region of its operating curve.
• Constant voltage, variable
current device
• Used as a voltage
stabilizer/regulator – to keep
the voltage constant across a
circuit irrespective of load
current or supply voltage
variations.
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A voltage regulator is to provide a constant output voltage to a load connected in

parallel with it in spite of the ripples in the supply voltage or variations in the load
current.
Stabilized output is the same as breakdown voltage, Vz of the diode

Rs- to limit max

current flow

Zener Current Zener Application

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Exercise:
A 5.0V stabilised power supply is required to be produced from a 12V DC power
supply input source. The maximum power rating PZ of the zener diode is 2W. Using
the zener regulator circuit above calculate
a) Max I flow thru Zener diode

b) Min value or Rs

c) IL if load, RL is 1k ohm across Zener diode

d) Zener current, IZ at full load

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Zener Current Ratings

IZK – min I
Diode will not
regulate

IZT – nominal I
Zener test
current

IZM – max I
If exceed
diode
damage
Specially designed to have a low and specified Reverse Breakdown Voltage
Highly doped pn junction, depletion layer thinner than normal diode
Vz - can range from less than one volt to a few hundred volts.
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Zener Impedance (ZZ )

• The zener diode’s opposition to any change in
current.
• Normally specified at Zener test current IZT
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Light Emitters and Detectors

• Light emitter – Optoelectronic devices that produce
light.
– The LED is an example of a light emitter.
• Light detector – Optoelectronic devices that respond
to light.
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Light
• Light – Electromagnetic energy that falls within a specific
range of frequencies.
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Wavelength
• Wavelength (l) – The physical length of one cycle of a
transmitted electromagnetic wave.

c
l=
f
c = speed of light
f = frequency
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Light Intensity
• Light intensity – The amount of light per unit area received
by a given photodetector. Also called irradiance.
– Light intensity decreases as the distance between the light
emitter and detector increases
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Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

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Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

• when the device is forward-
biased, electrons cross the pn
junction from the n-type material
and recombine with holes in the
p-type material

• Since the electrons in the

conduction band are at a higher
energy level than the holes in the
valence band, when
recombination takes place,
energy is released in the form of
heat and light
– A large exposed surface on one
layer of the LED permits the
photons to be emitted as light,
termed electroluminescence.
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LED Level Indicators

• The LED in circuit (a) lights when the driver output is +5V.
• The LED in circuit (b) lights when the driver output is 0 V.
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Multisegment Display

• Multisegment display – A device used to display

alphanumeric characters (numbers, letters, symbols,
and punctuation marks).
– LED displays contain some number of diodes that are
connected in a common-cathode or a common-anode
configuration.
– A liquid crystal display (LCD) consists of segments that
reflect (or do not reflect) ambient light when provided
an active input.
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Seven-Segment Displays
• The display uses LEDs that are arranged in a figure 8
configuration.
– The display represented below is a common-cathode
display. Each LED lights when a positive voltage is
applied to the appropriate pin.
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LCD-GENERAL
• Operate from low voltage (3 to 15 Vrms), low frequency
(25-60hz) ac signal.
• passive device-does not emit light, used ambient light in
the environment.
• slower than led but draw much less current.
• preferred technology whenever low power consumption
and compact size are critical. often used in battery
operated device
• not actually liquid, more like a paste.
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LCD-OPERATION
When no current passing through an LCD,
the molecules in the substance are stable, so
the device is transparent.

If a current pass through an LCD, between

the segment and backplane, the molecules in
the material vibrate causing it become
opaque.
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LCD-OPERATION

The LCD is normally sandwiched

between two pieces of glass. the
bottom piece of glass has a
mirrored upper surface, so any light
shone will reflect back, except
where the LCD is opaque, thus
displaying number.
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Photodiodes
• Photodiode – A diode
whose reverse
conduction is light-
intensity controlled.
– Light current (IL) – The
reverse current with an
active light input present.
– Dark current (ID) – The
reverse current with no
active light input present.
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Photodiode Ratings
• Wavelength of peak spectral response (lS) – The
wavelength that causes the strongest response in a
photodetector.
• Sensitivity – The response of a photodetector to a
specified light intensity, measured in mA/mW/cm2.
• Spectral response – A measure of a photodetector’s
response to a change in input wavelength.
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LASER (Laser Diode)

• Similar to LED, but it emit converge (focus) light while LED is
highly diverged light
• wide range of applications that include fiber optic
communications, barcode readers, laser pointers, CD/DVD/Blu-
ray disc reading/recording, laser printing, laser scanning and
light beam illumination
• Lasers emit light from exciting a
population of particles to an excited
state, which then causes emission
of a photon
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The Phototransistor
• The phototransistor has a light-sensitive, collector-base
junction and is exposed to light through a lens opening in
the transistor package.
• When there is no incident light, there is a small thermally
generated leakage current, ICEO, called the dark current
and is typically in the nA range.
• When light strikes the collector-base pn junction, a base
current, Il, is produced that is directly proportional to the
light intensity.
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Symbol & Characteristic of Phototransistor

IC (mA)
2
/cm
+VCC 50 mW
10 /cm2
40 mW
RC 8 W/cm2
30 m
6 /cm2
20 mW
4 m2
10 mW/c
2 Dark current
5 10 15 20 25 VCE (V)
Bias circuit Collector characteristic curves
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Phototransistor
• A phototransistor can be either a two-lead or
three-lead device.
• The collector characteristic curves show the
collector current increasing with light intensity.
• Phototransistors are sensitive only to light within
a certain range of wavelengths as defined by
their spectral response curve.
• Photodarlingtons have higher light sensitivity
than phototransistors but slower switching
speed .
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Applications of Phototransistors
+V
• Phototransistors are
used in a wide variety Alarm
of applications such
as automatic door R1 SCR
activators, process
counters, and various Reset
switch
light-activated alarms. Q1 R2

Light-interruption alarm