VCD stands for 'Video Compact Disc' and basically it is a CD that contains moving pictures and sound.

If you're familiar with regular audio/music CDs, then you will know what a VCD looks like. A VCD has
the capacity to hold up to 74/80 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs respectively of full-motion video along
with quality stereo sound. VCDs use a compression standard called MPEG to store the video and audio.
A VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a
DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to
use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a VCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with
background audio. The quality of a very good VCD is about the same as a VHS tape based movie but
VCD is usually a bit more blurry. If you want better quality checkout SVCD,CVD or DVD.

A transformer is a device which is use to convert high alternatic voltage to a low alternatic
voltage and vice versa. Transformer works on the principle of mutual induction of two coils.
When current in the primary coil is changed the flux linked to the secondary coil also changes.

Construction:

The diac is basically a two terminal parellel-inverse combination of semiconductor layers that permits
triggering in either direction. The basic arrangement of the semiconductor layers of the diac is shown
in the figure, along with its graphical symbol. Nore that either terminal is referred as the cathode.
Instead, there is an anode 1 and an anode 2. When the anode 1 is positive with respect to anode 2,
the semiconductor

Operation:

Diac circuits use the fact that a diac only conducts current only after a certain breakdown voltage has
been exceeded. The actual breakdown voltage will depend upon the specification for the particular
component type.

When the diac breakdown voltage occurs, the resistance of the component decreases abruptly and this
leads to a sharp decrease in the voltage drop across the diac, and a corresponding increase in current.
The diac will remain in its conducing state until the current flow through it drops below a particular
value known as the holding current. When the current falls below the holding current, the diac
switches back to its high resistance, or non-conducting state.

Diacs are widely used in AC applications and it is found that the device is "reset" to its non-conducting
state, each time the voltage on the cycle falls so that the current falls below the holding current. As
the behaviour of the device is approximately equal in both directions, it can provide a method of
providing equal switching for both halves of an AC cycle, e.g for triacs.

Most diacs have a breakdown voltage of around 30 volts, although the exact specifications will depend
upon the particular type of device.. Interestingly their behaviour is somewhat similar to that of a neon
lamp, although they offer a far more precise switch on voltage and thereby provide a far better degree
of switching equalisation

Triac-Construction and
Operation
Last Updated on September 18, 2009 by jojo in Tutorials with 2 Comments

Introduction to Triac-Its construction and Operation

The triac is another three-terminal ac switch that is triggered into conduction when a low-energy
signal is applied to its gate terminal. Unlike the SCR, the triac conducts in either direction when
turned on. The triac also differs from the SCR in that either a positive or negative gate signal triggers
it into conduction. Thus the triac is a three terminal, four layer bidirectional semiconductor device that
controls ac power whereas an SCR controls dc power or forward biased half cycles of ac in a load.
Because of its bidirectional conduction property, the triac is widely used in the field of power
electronics for control purposes. Triacs of 16 kW rating are readily available in the market.

Triac is an abbreviation for three terminal ac switch. Tri-indicates that the device has three
terminals and ac indicates that the device controls alternating current or can conduct in either
direction.
Triac Circuit Symbol

Construction of a Triac

As mentioned above, triac is a three terminal, four layer bilateral semiconductor device. It
incorporates two SCRs connected in inverse parallel with a common gate terminal in a single chip
device. The arrangement of the triac is shown in figure. As seen, it has six doped regions. The gate
terminal G makes ohmic contacts with both the N and P materials. This permits trigger pulse of either
polarity to start conduction. Electrical equivalent circuit and schematic symbol are shown in figure.b
and figure.c respectively. Since the triac is a bilateral device, the term anode and cathode has no
meaning, and therefore, terminals are designated as main terminal 1. (MT 1), main terminal 2 (MT2)
and gate G. To avoid confusion, it has become common practice to specify all voltages and currents
using MT1 as the reference.

Triac Basic Structure

Operation and Working of a Triac

Though the triac can be turned on without any gate current provided the supply voltage becomes
equal to the breakover voltage of the triac but the normal way to turn on the triac is by applying a
proper gate current. As in case of SCR, here too, the larger the gate current, the smaller the supply
voltage at which the triac is turned on. Triac can conduct current irrespective of the voltage polarity of
terminals MT1 and MT2 with respect to each other and that of gate and terminal MT 2. Consequently
four different possibilities of operation of triac exists. They are:

1. Terminal MT2 and gate are positive with respect to terminal MT1

When terminal MT2 is positive with respect to terminal MT1 current flows through path P1-N1-P2-N2. The
two junctions P1-N1 and P2-N2 are forward biased whereas junction N1 P2 is blocked. The triac is now
said to be positively biased.

A positive gate with respect to terminal MT 1 forward biases the junction P2-N2 and the breakdown
occurs as in a normal SCR.

2. Terminal MT2 is positive but gate is negative with respect to terminal MT1

Though the flow path of current remains the same as in mode 1 but now junction P 2-N3 is forward
biased and current carriers injected into P2 turn on the triac.

3.Terminal MT2 and gate are negative with respect to terminal MT1

When terminal MT2 is negative with respect to terminal MT 1, the current flow path is P2-N1-P1-N4. The
two junctions P2-N1 and P1 N4 are forward biased whereas junction N1-P1 is blocked. The triac is now
said to be negatively biased.

A negative gate with respect to terminal MT 1 injects current carriers by forward biasing junction P2-
N3 and thus initiates the conduction.

4. Terminal MT2 is negative but gate is positive with respect to terminal MT1

Though the flow path of current remains the same as in mode 3 but now junction P 2-N2 is forward
biased, current carriers are injected and therefore, the triac is turned on.

Generally, trigger mode 4 should be avoided especially in circuits where high di/dt may occur. The
sensitivity of triggering modes 2 and 3 is high and in case of marginal triggering capability negative
gate pulses should be used. Though the triggering mode 1 is more sensitive compared to modes 2
and 3, it requires a positive gate trigger. However, for bidirectional control and uniform gate trigger
modes 2 and 3 are preferred.
Construction[edit]

The silicon control rectifier (SCR) consists of four layers of semiconductors, which
form NPNP or PNPN structures. It has three junctions, labeled J1, J2 and J3, and three terminals.
The anode terminal of an SCR is connected to the p-type material of a PNPN structure, and the
cathode terminal is connected to the n-type layer, while the gate of the SCR is connected to the p-
type material nearest to the cathode.[6]

An SCR consists of four layers of alternating p- and n-type semiconductor materials. Silicon is used
as the intrinsic semiconductor, to which the proper dopants are added. The junctions are either
diffused or alloyed. The planar construction is used for low-power SCRs (and all the junctions are
diffused). The mesa-type construction is used for high-power SCRs. In this case, junction J2 is
obtained by the diffusion method, and then the outer two layers are alloyed to it, since the PNPN
pellet is required to handle large currents. It is properly braced with tungsten or molybdenum plates
to provide greater mechanical strength. One of these plates is hard-soldered to a copper stud, which
is threaded for attachment of heat sink. The doping of PNPN depends on the application of SCR,
since its characteristics are similar to those of the thyratron. Today, the term "thyristor" applies to the
larger family of multilayer devices that exhibit bistable state-change behaviour, that is, switching
either on or off

Modes of operation[edit]

There are three modes of operation for an SCR depending upon the biasing given to it:

1. Forward blocking mode (off state)

2. Forward conduction mode (on state)

3. Reverse blocking mode (off state)

Forward blocking mode[edit]

In this mode of operation, the anode is given a positive voltage while the cathode is given a negative
voltage, keeping the gate at zero potential i.e. disconnected. In this case junction J1 and J3 are
forward-biased, while J2 is reverse-biased, due to which only a small leakage current exists from the
anode to the cathode until the applied voltage reaches its breakover value, at which J2 undergoes
avalanche breakdown, and at this breakover voltage it starts conducting, but below breakover
voltage it offers very high resistance to the current and is said to be in the off state.

Forward conduction mode[edit]

SCR can be brought from blocking mode to conduction mode in two ways: either by increasing the
voltage across anode to cathode beyond breakover voltage or by applying positive pulse at gate.
Once SCR starts conducting, no more gate voltage is required to maintain it in the on state. There
are two ways to turn it off: 1. Reduce the current through it below a minimal value called the holding
current and 2. With the gate turned off, short out the anode and cathode momentarily with a push-
button switch or transistor across the junction.

Reverse blocking mode[edit]

SCRs are available with reverse blocking capability, which adds to the forward voltage drop because
of the need to have a long, low-doped P1 region. (If one cannot determine which region is P1, a
labeled diagram of layers and junctions can help). Usually, the reverse blocking voltage rating and
forward blocking voltage rating are the same. The typical application for reverse blocking SCR is in
current-source inverters.

SCRs incapable of blocking reverse voltage are known as asymmetrical SCR, abbreviated ASCR.
They typically have a reverse breakdown rating in the tens of volts. ASCRs are used where either a
reverse conducting diode is applied in parallel (for example, in voltage-source inverters) or where
reverse voltage would never occur (for example, in switching power supplies or DC traction
choppers).

What is a LCD(Liquid Crystal Display)?

A liquid crystal display or LCD draws its definition from its name itself. It is combination of two states
of matter, the solid and the liquid. LCD uses a liquid crystal to produce a visible image. Liquid crystal
displays are super-thin technology display screen that are generally used in laptop computer screen,
TVs, cell phones and portable video games. LCDs technologies allow displays to be much thinner
when compared to cathode ray tube (CRT) technology.
Liquid crystal display is composed of several layers which include two polarized panel filters and
electrodes. LCD technology is used for displaying the image in notebook or some other electronic
devices like mini computers. Light is projected from a lens on a layer of liquid crystal. This
combination of colored light with the grayscale image of the crystal (formed as electric current flows
through the crystal) forms the colored image. This image is then displayed on the screen.

An LCD

An LCD is either made up of an active matrix display grid or a passive display grid. Most of the
Smartphones with LCD display technology uses active matrix display, but some of the older displays
still make use of the passive display grid designs. Most of the electronic devices mainly depend on
liquid crystal display technology for their display. The liquid has a unique advantage of having low
power consumption than the LED or cathode ray tube.

Liquid crystal display screen works on the principle of blocking light rather than emitting light. LCDs
requires backlight as they do not emits light by them. We always use devices which are made up of
LCDs displays which are replacing the use of cathode ray tube. Cathode ray tube draws more
power compared to LCDs and are also heavier and bigger.

How LCDs are Constructed?

 LCD Layered Diagram

Simple facts that should be considered while making an LCD:

1. The basic structure of LCD should be controlled by changing the applied current.

2. We must use a polarized light.

3. Liquid crystal should able be to control both of the operation to transmit or can also able to
change the polarized light.

As mentioned above that we need to take two polarized glass pieces filter in the making of the liquid
crystal. The glass which does not have a polarized film on the surface of it must be rubbed with a
special polymer which will create microscopic grooves on the surface of the polarized glass filter.
The grooves must be in the same direction of the polarized film. Now we have to add a coating of
pneumatic liquid phase crystal on one of the polarized filter of the polarized glass. The microscopic
channel cause the first layer molecule to align with filter orientation. When the right angle appears at
the first layer piece, we should add a second piece of glass with the polarized film. The first filter will
be naturally polarized as the light strikes it at the starting stage.

Thus the light travels through each layer and guided on the next with the help of molecule. The
molecule tends to change its plane of vibration of the light in order to match their angle. When the
light reaches to the far end of the liquid crystal substance, it vibrates at the same angle as that of the
final layer of the molecule vibrates. The light is allowed to enter into the device only if the second
layer of the polarized glass matches with the final layer of the molecule.

How LCDs Work?

The principle behind the LCDs is that when an electrical current is applied to the liquid crystal
molecule, the molecule tends to untwist. This causes the angle of light which is passing through the
molecule of the polarized glass and also cause a change in the angle of the top polarizing filter. As a
result a little light is allowed to pass the polarized glass through a particular area of the LCD. Thus
that particular area will become dark compared to other. The LCD works on the principle of blocking
light. While constructing the LCDs, a reflected mirror is arranged at the back. An electrode plane is
made of indium-tin oxide which is kept on top and a polarized glass with a polarizing film is also
added on the bottom of the device. The complete region of the LCD has to be enclosed by a
common electrode and above it should be the liquid crystal matter.

Next comes to the second piece of glass with an electrode in the form of the rectangle on the bottom
and, on top, another polarizing film. It must be considered that both the pieces are kept at right
angles. When there is no current, the light passes through the front of the LCD it will be reflected by
the mirror and bounced back. As the electrode is connected to a battery the current from it will cause
 the liquid crystals between the common-plane electrode and the electrode shaped like a rectangle to
untwist. Thus the light is blocked from passing through. That particular rectangular area appears
blank.

Advantages of an LCDs:

o LCDs consumes less amount of power compared to CRT and LED

o LCDs are consist of some microwatts for display in comparison to some mill watts for LEDs

o LCDs are of low cost

o Provides excellent contrast

o LCDs are thinner and lighter when compared to cathode ray tube and LED

Disadvantages of an LCDs:

o Require additional light sources

o Range of temperature is limited for operation

o Low reliability

o Speed is very low

o LCDs need an AC drive

Applications of Liquid Crystal Display

Liquid crystal technology has major applications in the field of science and engineering as well on
electronic devices.

o Liquid crystal thermometer

o Optical imaging

o The liquid crystal display technique is also applicable in visualization of the radio frequency
waves in the waveguide

o Used in the medical applications

Few LCD Based Displays

 Hope you have got good knowledge about LCDs. Here I leave a task for you. How is an LCD
interfaced to a microcontroller? Leave your answer in the comment section below.

Photo Credit:

o LCD by Encrypted

o LCD Layered Diagram by Circuitstoday

o LCD Display on smart phones by Encrypted

o LCD Display Camera by Encrypted

o LCD Display Monitor by Encrypted