19ECE112:ELECTRONIC Team members-

BL.EN.U4ECE22022-E.Sandeep
DEVICES AND BL.EN.U4ECE22033-M.Bhanu
CIRCUITS Charan
BL.EN.U4ECE22046-D.Rahul
  ASSIGNMENT Varma
Aim

 To Analyze the voltage and current characteristics of

the photodiode and determine the effect of
temperature changes on the performance of the
circuit.
Objective

Working Principle and operation of photo diode

V-I Characteristics of photo diode
Effect of Temperature on circuit
 Applications
Introduction
• A photo diode is reversed-biased silicon or germanium pn junction
in which reversed current increased when the junction is exposed to
light.
• Reverse current  is directly proportional to  intensity of light
falling on its P-N junction.
• This means greater the  intensity of light falling on its pn junction of
photo diode , the greater will be the  reverse current.
 Working Principle-

•  When a rectifier diode is reversed biased, it has a very small reversed

leakage current. The same is for photo diode. The reverse
current is produced by thermally generated electrons-holes pairs
which are swept across the junction by electric field created by the
reverse voltage. In a rectifier diode , the reverse current increases with
temperature due to an increase in the number electrons-holes pairs.
Whereas in photo diode, when pn junction is exposed to light the
reverse current increases with increase light intensity.
Operation
1. When no light is incident on the pn junction of photodiode, the reverse current   
 is extremely small. This current is Dark Current.  The resistance of photo
diode is called Dark Resistance.            
 Dark resistance of photo diode,     
  
2.  When light is incident on the pn junction of the 
photo diode , there is a transfer of energy from the
 incident light(photons) to atoms in the junction.
this will create more free electrons(and more holes).
These additional free electrons will increase the reverse current
3. As the intensity of light increases ,the reverse current     goes on
increaseing till it becomes maximum. This is called  "saturation
current".
 Photo diode package
• It consists of pn junction mounted on an insulated substrate and  sealed
inside metal case. A glass window is mounted on top of the case to allow
light to enter and  strike   the  pn  junction. 
V-I Characteristics of
Photodiode
• There are two important characteristics of photodiode.
1.Reverse Current-Illumination Curve:
      The reverse current is shown on the vertical axis and is
measured in µA. The illumination is indicated on the horizontal
axis and measured in                                  
The quantity m is called the "sensitivity" of the photodiode
• The "sensitivity" of a photodiode is the ratio of amount of
current flow with unit light irradiance. It can expressed as .
                                                
   
2.Reverse voltage-Reverse current curve:
The graph between  reverse current(    )
and reversed voltage(     ) for various
illumination  Levels. It is clear that  for a
given reverse-biased voltage        ,the
reverse current             increase   as the
illumination (E) on the pn junction of
photo diode is increased.      
Practical Graph
Temperature affects the photo diode in several
ways:
1. Dark Current: Dark current is the current that flows through a photo diode
even when no light is incident on it. Higher temperatures can increase the dark
current of a photo diode. This is because at higher temperatures, the thermal
energy excites more electrons, leading to an increase in the number of
thermally generated electron-hole pairs, which contribute to the dark current.
2. Sensitivity: The sensitivity of a photo diode, which refers to its ability to convert
light energy into an electrical signal, can be temperature-dependent. Different types
of photo diodes have varying temperature coefficients of sensitivity. In some cases,
the sensitivity may decrease with increasing temperature, leading to a reduction in
the photo diode's performance.
• 3.Bandgap Energy: The variations in temperature degrees affect the electrical and optical
properties of semiconductor materials. A rise in atmospheric temperature changes the
chemical bonding as electrons are promoted from valence band (VB) to conduction band
(CB). The active layer material of the solid state optoelectronic device structure is
affected by the temperature. Thus, the device characteristics governed by the material
property will also be changed. The stability of energy of band gap and thus the
semiconductors beyond room temperature is one of the most significant characteristics to
be considered.
4. Response Time: The response time of a photo diode, which is the time it takes to switch 
  between the on and off states when exposed to light, can also be influenced by
temperature. Higher temperatures can lead to longer response times, reducing the speed
at which the photo diode can detect changes in incident light.

To mitigate the temperature effects on a photo diode, various techniques can be employed,
such as temperature compensation circuits or using temperature-stabilized environments.
Additionally, selecting photo diodes with lower temperature coefficients of sensitivity can
help minimize the impact of temperature variations on their performance.
 • There are a large number  of applications of photo
diodes. However, we shall give two applications of
photo- diodes by way of illustration.
Applications
(i) Alarm circuit using photo-diode:
  Light from a light source is allowed to fall on a
photo-diode  fitted in the doorway. The reverse
current     will continue to flow so long as the light
beam is not broken. If a person passes through the
door, light beam is broken and the reverse current
drops to the dark current level. As a result, an alarm
is sounded.
(ii)Counter circuit using photo-diode:
 A photodiode may be used to count
items on a conveyor belt. A photo-diode
circuit used in a system that counts
objects as they pass by on a conveyor. In
this circuit, a source of light sends a
concentrated beam of light across a
conveyor to a photo-diode. As the object
passes, the light beam is broken,      drops
to the dark current level and the count is
increased by one.
 Optoisolator
• An optoisolator (also called optocoupler) is a device that uses light to couple a
signal from its input (a photoemitter e.g., a LED) to its output (a photodetector
e.g., a photo-diode).
• Shows a LED-photo diode optoisolator. The LED is on the left and
the photo-diode is on the right. The arrangement shown in Fig is referred to
as optocoupling because the output from the LED circuit is coupled via light
to the photo-diode circuit. When the LED is energised, current flows through
the LED. The light from the LED hits the photo diode and sets up a reverse
current through resistor      The voltage across the photo-diode is given by:

• The output voltage depends on how large the reverse current is. If we vary
the LED supply, the  amount  of light changes and this causes the photo
diode current to change. As a result, V out changes. The key advantage of
an optoisolator is the electrical isolation between the input and output
circuits; the only contact between the input and output circuits is the stream
of light.