STUDY OF

PHOTODIODE

PHYSICS PROJECT
 AIM OF EXPERIMENT
To study current Vs intensity characteristics of a photodiode and a
Buzzer alarm based on Photodiode.

It was invented by Dr. John N. Shive at Bell

The Brain Behind the Invention – John
Northrup Shive
Labs in 1948 but it was not announced until
1950. The electrons that are generated by
photons in the base–collector junction are
injected into the base, and this photodiode
current is amplified by the transistor's
current gain β.

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 APPARATUS
● An inbuilt circuit board consisting of
(i)Two photodiodes (one for current-intensity characteristics and another for alarm)
(ii)6 volt inbuilt dc power supply
(iii)An inbuilt single stage transistor amplifier based on BC107 transistor
● (2)Multimeter
● (3)An arrangement for changing the distance between bulb and photodiode.
● (4)Connecting wires

WHAT IS PHOTODIODE?
A photodiode is a special type of p-n junction diode fabricated with a
transparent window to allow light to fall on the diode and the generation
of electron and hole pairs takes place in or near the depletion region of
the diode.

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 I-V CHARACTERISTICS
Photodiode operates in reverse bias
condition. Reverse voltages are
plotted along X axis in volts and
.
reverse current are plotted along Y-
axis in microampere. Reverse
current does not depend on reverse
voltage. When there is no light
illumination, reverse current will be
almost zero. The minimum amount
of current present is called as Dark
Current. Once when the light
illumination increases, reverse
current also increases linearly.
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DEMONSTRATION OF THE BUZZER ALARM
This Photodiode based Alarm can be used to give a warning alarm when someone passes
through a protected area. The circuit is kept standby through a laser beam or IR beam focused
on to the Photodiode. When the beam path breaks, alarm will be triggered.

Photodiode Alarm Circuit

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 MY UNDERSTANDING ABOUT
EXPERIMENT

If we increase the distance between photodiode and bulb

then intensity and photocurrent decreases i.e.,
d α 1/I and d α 1/photocurrent.

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THANK TOU!!