Electronics Course

Lecture-7
Pages 64-67
18/11/2019
EME 214

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Last Lecture Review
• Two types of full-wave rectifiers:
Center-tapped, and
Bridge.

This lecture we will take another application

for Diode that is Limiter or Clipper.

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Diode Limiters
• The Diode Limiter, also known as a Diode
Clipper Limiter, is a wave shaping circuit that
takes an input waveform and clips or cuts off its
top half, bottom half or both halves together for
any waveform shape.
• There are three types:
 Positive Diode Clipping Circuits.
 Negative Diode Clipping Circuits.
 Positive- Negative Diode Clipping Circuits.
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1- Positive Diode Clipping Circuits
• There are two cases:
Case-1: As the input voltage goes above 0.7 V.

• The diode becomes forward biased and

conducts current.
• Point A is limited to +0.7 V when the input
voltage exceeds this value
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1- Positive Diode Clipping Circuits 2

• Case-2:when the input voltage goes back

below 0.7 V, the diode is reverse-biased and
appears as an open.

• The output voltage looks like the negative part

of the input voltage.
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• The output voltage magnitude determined by
the voltage divider formed by R 1 and the load
resistor, RL.

• If R1 is small compared to RL, then Vout=Vin.

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2- Negative-Diode Clipping Circuits

• The negative part of the input voltage is

clipped off.
• There are two cases:
• Case-1: As the input voltage goes from 0 to-
0.7 V the diode is forward biased and conduct
current.

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• Case-2: When the input voltage goes above
-0.7 V the diode is no longer forward-biased;
and a voltage appears across RL proportional to
the input voltage Vin.

Point A is held at -0.7 V.

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Positive-Negative Diode Clipping Circuits

• When connected two diodes in inverse parallel

as shown, then both the positive and negative
half cycles would be clipped as diode D1 clips
the positive half cycle of the sinusoidal input
waveform while diode D2 clips the negative
half cycle.

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Biased Limiters
• The level to which an ac voltage is limited can
be adjusted (different voltage level) by adding
a bias voltage, VBIAS, in series with the diode.
• There are three types of biased limiters:
 Positive Bias Diode Limiter.
 Negative Bias Diode Limiter.
 Positive-Negative Bias Diode Limiter.

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Positive Bias Diode Limiter
• Case-1: The voltage at point A must equal
VBIAS + 0.7 V before the diode will become
forward-biased and conduct. Once the diode
begins to conduct, the voltage at point A is
limited to VBIAS + 0.7 V so that all input
voltage above this level is clipped off.

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Positive Bias Diode Limiter 2
• Case-2: By turning the diode around, the
positive limiter can be modified to limit the
output voltage to the portion of the input
voltage waveform above VBIAS - 0.7 V.

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Negative Bias Diode Limiter
• Case-1: The voltage at point A must go below
(- VBIAS - 0.7 V) to forward-bias the diode and
initiate limiting action.

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Negative Bias Diode Limiter 2
• Case-2: the negative limiter can be modified
to limit the output voltage to the portion of the
input voltage waveform below -VBIAS + 0.7 V.

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 Positive-Negative Bias Diode Limiter
• When the voltage of the positive half cycle
reaches +4.7 V, diode D1 conducts and limits
the waveform at +4.7 V. Diode D2 does not
conduct until the voltage reaches –6.7 V.
Therefore, all positive voltages above +4.7 V
and negative voltages below –6.7 V are
automatically clipped.

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