UNIVERSITY OF MALAWI

SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ELECTRONICS
ELE-LAB REPORT

TITLE : FORWARD AND REVERSE BIAS CHARACTERISITCS OF PN JUNCTION

DIODE
TO : MR H SAUTENI AND
FROM : EDUAR AARON MHANGO
REG NO :BSC-ELE-06-20
COURSE : ELE316 PRACTICALS/RESEARCH PROJECT IN LINEAR INTEGRATED
CIRCUITS
COURSE CODE : ELE316
CONDUCTED ON: 17th October , 2023
DATE OF SUBMISSION:24th October

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 AIM

This experiment aimed at investigating the characteristics of the PN junction diode under forward
bias and reverse bias, and finding out the required cut-in voltage, static and dynamic resistance.

THEORY

A diode is the two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction.
It has low resistance in one direction and high resistance in the other direction

Diagram 1

The external DC voltage is applied to the diode and this is called biasing. When the diode is not
biased there is no current in unbiased PN junction. There are two types of biasing depending on
the polarity of the DC voltage externally applied to diode. When the positive terminal of the input
supply is connected to anode (p side) and the negative terminal of the input supply is connected to
cathode (n side). Then the diode is termed to be in forward biasing. On this state the potential
barrier is reduced and current flows through the diode and also in the circuit. This means the diode
is in ON state.

If the negative terminal of the input supply is connected to anode and the positive terminal of the
input supply is connected to cathode, then the diode is described to be in reverse biasing. In this
case the potential barrier across the junction increases. Thus, the junction resistance increases and
becomes so high such that very small currents flow in the circuit. This condition makes the diode
to be in OFF state.

METHODS

We started conducting the experiment with the forward biasing of the diode and examine its
behavior with of the forward current (If) and forward voltage (Vf)

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In the first place the circuit diagram was connected as demonstrated in the circuit diagram below
using the silicon diode.

After the setup of the circuit, the supply voltage Vs was varied in steps from 0V onwards with
continuous values of 0.1V, 0.2V up to 1V. During the varying of different forward voltages,
corresponding forward currents were noted down through the diode with the caution of not
exceeding the rated value of maximum current of 20 mA. After that, the results were tabulated in
the tabular form for forward current and forward voltage which led to the plotting of the graph.
The experiment was reconducted in forward biasing by replacing the silicon diode with the
germanium diode with the same flow of procedures, the results and data collected were written on
the separate sheet.

In the next set up we examined the reverse characteristics of the silicon diode and the circuit
diagram was connected as shown in the figure below.

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After the setup of the circuit, the supply voltage Vs was varied in steps from 0V onwards with
discrete values of 1V, 2V up to 10V. The reverse current (Ir) through the silicon diode for different
reverse voltages (Vr) were noted without exceeding the rated value of maximum voltage of 15V.
Thereafter, the results and data collected were tabulated in a tabular form for the reverse voltages
and reverse currents, the data was used to plot the graph between reverse voltages and reverse
currents. The experiment was reconducted in reverse biasing by replacing the silicon diode with
germanium diode with the same flow of procedures, the collected data was written on the separate
sheet.

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 TABULAR AND GRAPHICAL DATA

1. Forward bias

voltage Current
(V) (mA)
0.1 0
0.2 0
0.3 0
0.4 0 voltage current
0.5 0 0.1 0
0.6 1 0.2 0
0.7 15 0.3 2
0.7 16 0.35 5
0.7 17 0.4 10
Table 1 silicon diode Table 2 germanium diode

silicon diode (forward bias)

18
16
foward current (mA)

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
foward voltage (V)

Graph 1

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 germanium diode (forward bias)
12

10
foward current (mA)
8

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45
foward voltage (V)

Graph 2

2. Reverse bias

voltage (V) current (µA) voltage current

1 0 1 -2
2 0 2 -4
3 -2 3 -5
4 -3 4 -6
5 -4 5 -7
6 -6 6 -9
12 -12 7 -10
15 -15 8 -10.5
Table 3 silicon diode 9 -11
12 -16
15 -20
Table 4 germanium diode

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 silicon diode (reverse bias)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
-2

-4
reverse current (µA) -6

-8

-10

-12

-14

-16
reverse voltage (V)

Graph 3

germanium diode (reverse bias)

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

-5
reverse current (µA)

-10

-15

-20

-25
reverse voltage (V)

Graph 4

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

In forward biased when the positive terminal of the battery attached to the p-type region the holes
are attracted toward positive charge and electron goes toward the depletion region. The negative
terminal of the battery is attached to the n-type region the negative ion moves toward the depletion
region. In that case the depletion region becomes smaller, hence the flow of current starts. In
reverse biased the positive terminal attached to the n-type and the negative terminal attached to the

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p-type. In that case depletion region becomes greater because the electron moves toward p-type
and the positive ion moves towards the n-type. Therefore, no current flows in reverse biased.

If the external voltage applied on the silicon diode is less than 0.7 volts, the silicon diode allows
only a small electric current. However, this small electric current is considered as negligible. When
the external voltage applied on the silicon diode reaches 0.7 volts, the p-n junction diode starts
allowing large electric current through it. At this point, a small increase in voltage increases the
electric current rapidly. The forward voltage at which the silicon diode starts allowing large electric
current is called cut-in voltage. The cut-in voltage for silicon diode is approximately 0.7 volts.

CONCLUSION

This experiment is about to investigate the behavior of diode and analysis how it works. By
observing the behavior of diode on different applied voltages and find the results and calculation
for its practical proves. It is in forward-biased when its resistance has a smaller value while it is in
reverse-biased when its resistance has a larger value. The forward-biased voltage of diode is its
barrier potential while the reverse-biased voltage of diode is infinite over range which shows that
the diode is in healthy condition. This experiment proved that diode controls the direction of the
current.

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REFERENCE

[1] T. L. FLOYD, PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRIC CIRCUITS.

[2] J. MLATHO, PRACTICALS IN DIGITAL ELECTRONICS, ZOMBA: UNIVERSITY OF MALWI, 2019.

[3] DAVID BUCHLA,EXPERIMENTS IN ELECTRONICS-FUNDAMENTALS

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