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type material.
• The joint between the P-type and N-type material is called PN junction.
• Have 2 terminal( anode and cathode).
• Produced from the silicon wafer(mostly).
• Diode is a non linear, unidirectional device.
Zero Bias Condition
• Initially, the concentration of holes is high in the p region and low in the n region, holes
diffuse across the junction from the p side to the n side. Similarly, electrons diffuse
across the junction from the n side to the p side. These two current components add
together to form the diffusion current ID , whose direction is from the p side to the n
side
• The flow of holes from the p-region uncovers negatively charged acceptor ions, and the
flow of electrons from the n-region uncovers positively charged donor ions.
• This action creates a charge separation, which sets up an electric field oriented in the
direction from the positive charge to the negative charge.
• This electric field creates a drift component of current from n to p, opposing the
diffusion current.
• If no voltage is applied to the pn junction, the diffusion of holes and electrons must
eventually cease. The direction of the induced electric field will cause the resulting
force to repel the diffusion of holes from the p-region and the diffusion of electrons
from the n-region.
• In addition to the current component ID due to majority-carrier diffusion, a component
due to minority-carrier drift exists across the junction.
• Specifically, some of the thermally generated holes in the n material move
toward the junction and reach the edge of the depletion region. There,
they experience the electric field in the depletion region, which sweeps
them across that region into the p side.
• Similarly, some of the minority thermally generated electrons in the p
material move to the edge of the depletion region and get swept by the
electric field in the depletion region across that region into the n side.
• These two current components—electrons moved by drift from p to n and
holes moved by drift from n to p—add together to form the drift current Is
, whose direction is from the n side to the p side of the junction.
• No net current can flow across the junction at equilibrium, the current due
to the drift of carriers in the Electric field must exactly cancel the diffusion
current
ID = majority-carrier diffusion
Is= Drift current
• Electrons in the conduction band of the n region see a potential barrier in
trying to move into the conduction band of the p region. This potential
barrier is referred to as the built-in potential barrier.
• This potential difference across the junction cannot be measured with a
voltmeter.
• If we assume that no voltage is applied across the pn junction, then the
junction is in thermal equilibrium—the Fermi energy level is constant
throughout the entire system.
• The region which becomes depleted (free) of the mobile charge carriers is
called the depletion region.
• Width of depletion region depends upon the doping level. The higher the
doping level, thinner will be the depletion region.
The Junction Built-in Voltage
• Junction built in voltage can seen as
Note : subscript “0” signifying equilibrium (i.e., before external voltages are applied,
• if we denote the width of the depletion region in the p side by xp and in the n
side by xn,
• Avalanche breakdown
• Zener Breakdown
Avalanche breakdown
• occurs when carriers crossing the space charge region gain sufficient
kinetic energy from the high electric field to be able to break covalent
bonds during a collision process.
• Collision of carrier with crystal ion take place.
• This carrier collides with a crystal ion and imparts sufficient energy to
disrupt a covalent bond generating a new electron hole pair
• The generated electron–hole pairs can themselves be involved in a
collision process generating additional electron–hole pairs, thus the
avalanche process.
• Larger doping concentrations result in smaller breakdown voltages.
• Avalanche breakdown is seen at lightly doped diodes( wider depletion
width)
• Avalanche breakdown is seen at a voltage greater than 6V.
Zener Breakdown
• Even if the initially available carriers do not acquire sufficient energy to disrupt
bonds, it is possible to initiate breakdown through a direct rupture of the
bonds.
• Because of the existence of the electric field at the junction, a sufficiently
strong force may be exerted on a bound electron by the field to tear it out of
its covalent bond.
• The new hole-electron pair which is created increases the reverse current.
• The field intensity E increases as the impurity concentration increases, for a
fixed applied voltage.
• It is found that Zener breakdown occurs at a field of approximately 2 X 107 V/m
which can be achieved at voltages below about 6 V for heavily doped diodes.
• Occurs in highly doped diode ( narrower depletion width)
• For lightly doped diodes, the breakdown voltage is higher, and avalanche
multiplication is the predominant effect.
Capacitive Effects in the pn Junction
• There are two charge-storage mechanisms in the pn junction
1. charge stored in the depletion region
2. minority-carrier charge stored in the n and p materials as a result of
the concentration profiles established by carrier injection.
• While the first is easier to see when the pn junction is reverse biased, the
second is in effect only when the junction is forward biased.
SPACE-CHARGE, OR TRANSITION,
CAPACITANCE CT or Cj
• a reverse bias causes majority carriers to move away from the junction,
thereby uncovering more immobile charges.
• Hence the thickness of the space-charge layer at the junction increases
with reverse voltage.
• This increase in uncovered charge with applied voltage may be considered
a capacitive effect.
where m is a constant called the grading coefficient, whose value ranges from 1/3
to ½ depending on the manner in which the concentration changes from the p to the
n side.
DIFFUSION CAPACITANCE CD
• For a forward-biased junction, holes diffuse from the p side to the n side and
electron diffuses from n side to p side.
• Consequently, in the vicinity of the junction on the n side, we have a greater
hole concentration than normally exists because of the diffusion.
• Similarly, the grater electron concentration exist on p side
• This "excess" hole/electron density can be considered as charge storage in the
neighborhood of the junction.
• The amount of excess charge is established by the degree of forward bias.
• As we move further from the junction, the excess hole/electron concentration
decreases because of recombination with the majority charge carrier.
• Now, if a signal is applied which increases the forward bias by V , the
increased hole (electron) diffusion causes a change Q in the charge stored
near the junction.
• This causes the capacitance known as diffusion capacitance
Contd.
• rate of change of injected charge with voltage, called the diffusion, or
storage, capacitance CD
The excess hole charge stored in the n region can be found from the shaded area under
the exponential
Note that Cd is directly proportional to the forward current I and thus is negligibly
small when the diode is reverse biased.
Also note that to keep Cd small, the transit time τT must be made small, an important
requirement for a pn junction intended for high-speed or high-frequency operation.
For Ideal Diode
• Short circuit while conducting
• Open circuit while non conducting
DIODE EQUIVALENT CIRCUITS
• Exponential Model
• Piecewise-Linear Equivalent Circuit
– approximate the characteristics of the device by
straight-line segments,
– the straight-line segments do not result in an
exact duplication of the actual characteristics,
especially in the cut in voltage region.
• Simplified model
Piecewise-Linear Equivalent Circuit
The Exponential Model
• The most accurate description of the diode operation
• But, its severely nonlinear nature makes this model the most difficult to
use.
• The load line intersects the diode curve at point Q, which represents the
operating point of the circuit
We then use the diode equation to obtain a better estimate for VD.
Simplified Equivalent model/
The Constant-Voltage-Drop Model
• For most applications, the resistance of diode is sufficiently small in
comparison to the other elements of the network and hence can be
neglected.
Ideal Equivalent Circuit
• If the resistance of the diode is negligible as compared to the other
elements of the network and voltage drop across diode is also considered
negligible compared to the applied voltage
Practical Diode Equivalent Circuit
The Small-Signal Model
vD (t ) VD vd (t )
• We express the voltage across the diode as the sum of the dc voltage VD
and the time-varying signal vd(t),
vD VD vd
iD (t ) I S e VT
Substituting for vD VD vd ( t )
VT
iD (t ) I S e
VD vd ( t )
VT VT
iD (t ) I S e e
In the absence of the signal vd(t), the diode voltage is equal to VD, and the diode
current is ID
vd ( t )
iD (t ) I D e VT
Now if the amplitude of the signal vd(t) is kept sufficiently small such that
vd ( t ) vd (t )
iD (t ) I D e VT iD (t ) I D 1
VT
vd (t )
iD (t ) I D I D *
VT
Small signal
model justified
JUNCTION-DIODE SWITCHING TIMES
• The transient response of diode signifies that when a diode goes from On
state to off state or vice versa, Some time is elapsed for the diode to reach
the steady state.
input waveform
Current waveform displaying storage
and transition times
Transition time t t :
The time which elapses between t 1, and the time when the diode has nominally
recovered
Storage time t S :
The interval 0 to t1, for the stored-minority charge to become zero, is called the
storage time.
Reverse Recovery Time t rr :
The time trr is the interval from the current reversal at t = 0 until the diode has
recovered to a specified extent in terms either of the diode current or of the diode
resistance
Commercial switching- type diodes are available with times trr in the range from less
than 1 nanosecond (ns) up to as high as 1 microsecond (.s)