Basic Electrical principles

Electron flow and conventional flow

• If an electrical pressure (electromotive force
or voltage) is applied to a conductor, a
directional movement of electrons will take
place(for example when connecting a battery
to a wire).
• This is because the electrons are attached to
the positive side and repelled from the
negative side.
Conditions are necessary to cause an electron
flow:
• A pressure source, e.g. From a battery or
generator.
• A complete conducting path in which the
electrons can move(e.g. Wires).
• Electrons flow is from negative to positive
• Conventional current flow is said to be from
positive to negative
 Effects of current flow
When a current flow in a circuit, it can produce
only three effects:
• Heat
• Magnetism
• Chemical effects
Heat, magnetic and chemical effects
• The heating effect is the basis of electrical components such
as lights and heater plugs.
• The magnetic effect is the basis of relays and motors and
generators.
• The chemical effects is the basis for electroplating and battery
charging.
• The chemical energy of the battery is first converted to
electrical energy and then into heat energy in the lamp
filament.
• The electrical effects are reversible.
• Heat applied to a thermocouple will cause a
small electromotive force and therefore a
small current flow.
• A coil of wire rotated in the field of a magnet
will produce an electromotive force and can
cause current to flow. This is the basis of a
generator.
• Chemical action, such as in a battery, produces
an electromotive force, which can cause
current to flow.
Electrical circuit with voltage, current,
resistance and power parameters
• Voltage= current * resistance
• V= I*R

• Power= voltage * current

• P=I*V
 Describing Electrical Circuits
• Open circuit:
This means the circuit is broken therefore no current can flow.
Short circuit:
This means that a fault has caused a wire to touch another
conductor and the current uses this as an easier way to
complete the circuit.
High resistance:
This means a part of the circuit has developed a high
resistance(such as a dirty connection), which will reduce the
amount of current that can flow.
 capacitance
Property of a capacitor that determines how
much charge be stored in it for a given potential
difference between its terminals.
C= Q/V
C= € A/d farad
Where A= Plate Area
d= distance between
€ = permittivity of dielectric
 Inductance
• Where a changing current in a circuit built up
a magnetic field which induces an
electromotive force either in the same circuit
and opposing the current(self inductance) or
in another circuit(mutual inductance).
• Symbol is L and unit is H(henry)
Determine current
Determine current
 Diodes

• Diode, an electrical component that allows the

flow of current in only one direction.
• One application of diodes is in rectification
– the example below shows a half-wave rectifier

• In practice, no real diode has ideal characteristics

but semiconductor pn junctions make good diodes
• To understand such devices we need to look at
some properties of materials
 Electrical Properties of Solids

• Conductors
– e.g. copper or aluminium
– have a cloud of free electrons (at all temperatures
above absolute zero). If an electric field is applied
electrons will flow causing an electric current
• Insulators
– e.g. polythene
– electrons are tightly bound to atoms so few can break
free to conduct electricity
• Semiconductors
– e.g. silicon or germanium
– at very low temperatures these have the properties of
insulators
– as the material warms up some electrons break free
and can move about, and it takes on the properties of
a conductor
– however, semiconductors have several properties that
make them distinct from conductors and insulators
 Semiconductors
• Pure semiconductors
– thermal vibration results in some bonds being broken
generating free electrons which move about
– these leave behind holes which accept electrons from
adjacent atoms and therefore also move about
– electrons are negative charge carriers
– holes are positive charge carriers
• At room temperatures there are few charge
carriers
– pure semiconductors are poor conductors
– this is intrinsic conduction
• Doping
– the addition of small amounts of impurities
drastically affects its properties
– some materials form an excess of electrons and
produce an n-type semiconductor
– some materials form an excess of holes and
produce a p-type semiconductor
– both n-type and p-type materials have much
greater conductivity than pure semiconductors
– this is extrinsic conduction
• The dominant charge carriers in a doped semiconductor (e.g.
electrons in n-type material) are called majority charge carriers.
Other type are minority charge carriers.
 pn Junctions

• When p-type and n-type materials are joined

this forms a pn junction
– majority charge carriers on each side diffuse across
the junction where they combine with (and
remove) charge carriers of the opposite polarity
– hence around the junction there are few free
charge carriers and we have a depletion layer (also
called a space-charge layer)
• Potential barrier
– the barrier opposes the flow of majority charge carriers
and only a small number have enough energy to
surmount it
• this generates a small diffusion current
• Due to concentration of the carriers
– the barrier encourages the flow of minority carriers and
any that come close to it will be swept over
• this generates a small drift current
• Due to electric field applied
– for an isolated junction these two currents must
balance each other and the net current is zero
• Forward bias
– if the p-type side is made positive with respect to
the
n-type side the height of the barrier is reduced
– more majority charge carriers have sufficient
energy to surmount it
– the diffusion current therefore increases while the
drift current remains the same
– there is thus a net current flow across the junction
which increases with the applied voltage
Forward and Reverse Bias
• Reverse bias
– if the p-type side is made negative with respect to the
n-type side the height of the barrier is increased
– the number of majority charge carriers that have
sufficient energy to surmount it rapidly decreases
– the diffusion current therefore vanishes while the drift
current remains the same
– thus the only current is a small leakage current caused
by the (approximately constant) drift current
– the leakage current is usually negligible (a few nA)
• Forward and reverse currents
– pn junction current is given approximately by
 eV 
I  Is  exp  1
 ηkT 
– where I is the current, e is the electronic charge, V
is the applied voltage, k is Boltzmann’s constant, T
is the absolute temperature and  (Greek letter
eta) is a constant in the range 1 to 2 determined
by the junction material
– for most purposes we can assume  = 1
• Thus
 eV 
I  Is  exp  1
 kT 
at room temperature e/kT ~ 40 V-1

• If V > +0.1 V
 eV 
I  Is  exp   Is exp 40V 
 kT 
• If V < -0.1 V
I  Is 0  1  Is
– IS is the reverse saturation current
• Turn-on and breakdown voltages for a silicon
device
 Zener Diodes
• The Zener diode is made to operate under reverse bias once a sufficiently high
voltage has been reached. Notice that under reverse bias and low voltage the
current assumes a low negative value, just as in a normal pn-junction diode.
But when a sufficiently large reverse bias voltage is reached, the current
increases at a very high rate.

Figure 11.15: A typical I-V curve for a Figure 11.16: A Zener diode reference
Zener diode. circuit.

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 Transistors
• Another use of semiconductor technology is in the fabrication of transistors,
devices that amplify voltages or currents in many kinds of circuits.
• The three terminals (one on each semiconducting material) are known as the
collector, emitter, and base. A good way of thinking of the operation of the npn-
junction transistor is to think of two pn-junction diodes back to back.

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 Transistors
 If the emitter is more heavily doped than the base, then there is a heavy flow of
electrons from left to right into the base. The base is made thin enough so that virtually
all of those electrons can pass through the collector and into the output portion of the
circuit. As a result the output current is a very high fraction of the input current.

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Thyristor (Silicon Controlled Rectifier
(SCR))
It consist of four layers of silicon in a P-N-P-N structure. The
addition of the gate connection to this structure enables the
rectifier to be switched from a non-conducting 'forward
blocking' state into a low resistance, 'forward conducting' state
So a small current applied to the gate is able to switch on a very
much larger current (also at a much higher voltage) applied
between anode and cathode. Once the SCR is conducting.
When the SCR is forward biased however, unlike a normal diode, rather than
current beginning to flow when just over 0.6V is applied, no current apart from a
small leakage current flows. This is called the forward blocking mode, which
extends to a comparatively high voltage called the 'Forward Break over Voltage'.

The SCR is normally operated at voltages considerably less than the forward
break over voltage as any voltage higher than the forward break over voltage will
cause the SCR to conduct in an uncontrolled manner; the SCR then suddenly
exhibits a very low forward resistance, allowing a large current to flow. This
current is 'latched' and will continue to flow until.
 Applications
A common application for SCRs is in the switching of high
power loads. They are the switching element in many
domestic light dimmers and are also used as control
elements in variable or regulated power supplies
 Amplifiers

The simplest form of amplifier involves just one resistor and

one transistor. A small change of current on the input terminal
will cause a similar change of current through the transistor
and an amplified signal will be evident at the output terminal.
 Op-Amp
• Operational Amplifier (Op-Amp) is a high gain amplifier, that
can be used to amplify dc as well as ac signals.
• It has two input terminals and one output terminal.
• Negative terminal is called inverting terminal.
• Positive terminal is called non-inverting terminal
• Op-amps are used in many applications and in particular, can
be used as signal amplifiers.
• A major role for this device is also to act as a buffer between a
sensor and a load such as a display.

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 Pin diagram of Op-Amp
• IC741 is used as Op-Amp

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 Op-Amp
𝑉𝑜
• Open loop gain 𝐴𝑂𝐿 = ---1
𝑉𝑑
Where 𝑉𝑑 = 𝑉1 - 𝑉2
from eq. no. 1
𝑉𝑜 = 𝐴𝑂𝐿 (𝑉1 - 𝑉2 )

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 Op-Amp applications
• Inverting Amplifier
• Non-Inverting Amplifier
• Differential Amplifier
• Summing amplifier
• Differentiator
• Integrator
• Voltage comparator

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 Inverting Amplifier
• The input signal is applied to the inverting terminal (Negative).

• As differential voltage V1-V2 = 0 at input terminal of Op-amp the

voltage at node G is same as the voltage at non-inverting terminal.

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 Inverting Amplifier
• KCL at point G

thus

Then, the Closed-Loop Voltage Gain of an Inverting Amplifier

is given as

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 Non-inverting Amplifier
• The input signal is applied to the non- inverting terminal (Positive).

• As differential voltage V1-V2 = 0 at input terminal of Op-amp the

voltage at node G is same as the voltage at non-inverting terminal.

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 Non-inverting Amplifier
KCL at Point G

thus

Then the closed loop voltage gain of a Non-inverting Operational

Amplifier will be given as:

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 Ideal Op-Amp
• Op-Amp is said to be ideal if it has the
following characteristics.
Open loop voltage gain , 𝐴𝑂𝐿 + =
Input impedance, Ri =
Output impedance, Ro = 0
Bandwidth, BW =
Infinite Common Mode rejection ratio (CMRR)

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 Op-Amp Characteristics
• O/P voltage is plotted against the difference
input signal voltage.
• When Vd is slightly positive, o/p voltage attain
nearly positive DC supply.
• When Vd is slightly negative, o/p voltage attain
nearly negative DC supply.

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Ignition control with battery
Electronics ignition system
• Electronics ignition is now fitted to almost all
spark ignition vehicles. This is because the
conventional mechanical system has some major
disadvantages.
• 1) Mechanical problem with the contact breakers,
not the least of which is the limited lifetime.
• 2) Current flow in the primary circuit is limited to
about 4 A or damage will occur to the contacts or
at least the lifetime will be seriously reduced.
3) Weaker mixtures require more energy from the
spark to ensure successful ignition, even at very
high engine speed.
4)These problem can be overcome by using a power
transistor to carry out the switching function and
a pulse generator to provide the timing signal.
5) Weak signal of the ignition coil will be amplified
by amplifier for proper distribution in the
distributor.
LM386 based Audio Amplifier
Electrical and Electronics components
PCB
Battery connection to lighting system
Battery connection to lighting system