BASIC ELECTRONICS

Chap # 2
Diode

Engr. Farwa Batool

 V-I Characteristic for Forward Bias
• When a forward-bias voltage is applied across a diode, there is
current. This current is called the forward current and is
designated IF or diode current ID.
• With 0 V across the diode, there is no forward current. As you
gradually increase the forward-bias voltage, the forward current
and the voltage across the diode gradually increase.
• When the forward-bias voltage is increased to a value where
the voltage across the diode reaches approximately 0.7 V
(barrier potential), the forward current begins to increase
rapidly.
• 0.7V is the knee voltage for silicon.
 V-I Characteristic for Forward Bias
• Shockley diode equation:

• Where,
 I is the diode current,
 IS is the reverse bias Saturation current
 VD is the voltage across the diode
 VT is the thermal voltage
 n is the ideality factor, also known as the quality factor.
 VT = kT/q 
  k is the Boltzmann constant.
 T is the absolute temperature of the p–n junction
 q is the magnitude of charge of an electron.
 V-I Characteristic for Forward Bias
• By using Shockley diode equation we can see that when VD=0V, the
current through diode is also 0.
• By increasing the voltage across diode, voltage across diode
becomes equal to barrier potential thus at that time there is flood of
electrons crossing the junction therefore current through the diode
increases.
 V-I Characteristic for Forward Bias
• Three points A, B, and C are shown in Figure.
• Point A corresponds to a zero-bias condition.
• Point B corresponds to point where the forward voltage is less than
the barrier potential of 0.7 V.
• Point C corresponds to point where
the forward voltage approximately
equals the barrier potential.
 V-I Characteristic for Reverse Bias
• When a reverse-bias voltage is applied across a diode, there is only
an extremely small reverse current IR or saturation current IS through
the pn junction.
• With 0 V across the diode, there is no reverse current.
• As you gradually increase the reverse-bias voltage, there is a very
small reverse current and the voltage across the diode increases.
• When the applied bias voltage is increased to a value where the
reverse voltage across the diode (VR) reaches the breakdown
value (VBR), the reverse current begins to increase rapidly.
• VBR is known as knee voltage in case of reverse bias condition of
diode.
• By using Shockley equation we can see that current through diode
is equal to – IR.
V-I curve for Reverse Bias
The Complete V-I Characteristic Curve