Electronics Assignment

PN Junctions And MOSFETs Real

Applications

Submitted to DR. Karim Osama

By :
Ahmed Ashraf Hamdy
B.N. :2

Abdullah Ahmed Hemdan

B.N.: 39
PN Junction Applications
A p-n junction diode is a two terminal device that allows electric current in
one direction and blocks electric current in another direction.

In forward bias condition, the diode allows electric current whereas in reverse bias condition, the diode does not allow
electric current. Due to this characteristic, the diode has many real applications.

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LIGHT EMITTING DIODE (LED)

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are the most widely used semiconductor diodes among all the different types of
semiconductor diodes available today. Light emitting diodes emit either visible light or invisible infrared light when
forward biased. The LEDs which emit invisible infrared light are used for remote controls. LED is an optical
semiconductor device that converts electrical energy into light energy.

Like the normal p-n junction diodes, LEDs also operates only in forward bias condition. To create an LED, the n-type
material should be negatively charged, and the p-type material should be positively charged.

 Energy Level Diagram (click to view original size).

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  Operation
 The light emitting diode emits light when it is forward biased. When a voltage is applied across the junction to
make it forward biased, current flows as in the case of any PN junction. Holes from the p-type region and
electrons from the n-type region enter the junction and recombine like a normal diode to enable the current to
flow. When this occurs energy is released, some of which is in the form of light photons.
 For example, some free electrons from n-type semiconductor cross the p-n junction and recombines with holes in
p-type semiconductor. In the similar way, holes from p-type semiconductor cross the p-n junction and recombines
with free electrons in the n-type semiconductor.
 The free electrons in the conduction band releases energy in the form of light before they recombine with holes
in the valence band.

 The energy level of free electrons in the conduction band is high compared to the energy level of valence
electrons or holes in the valence band. Therefore, free electrons in the conduction band need to lose energy in
order to recombine with the holes in the valence band.
 The free electrons in the conduction band do not stay for long period. After a short period, the free electrons lose
energy in the form of light and recombine with the holes in the valence band. Each recombination of charge
carrier will emit some light energy.
 The brightness of the emitted light depends on the material used for constructing LED and forward current flow
through the LED.(You can find more details about LED materials and colors here).
 In light emitting diodes, light is produced due to recombination process. Recombination of charge carriers takes
place only under forward bias condition. Hence, LEDs operate only in forward bias condition.
 If the reverse bias voltage applied to the LED is highly increased, the device may also be damaged.
 All diodes emit photons or light but not all diodes emit visible light. The material in an LED is selected in such a
way that the wavelength of the released photons falls within the visible portion of the light spectrum. Light
emitting diodes can be switched ON and OFF at a very fast speed of 1 ns.

 Equivalent Circuit
 An LED circuit is an electrical circuit used to power a light-emitting diode (LED). The circuit must provide sufficient
current to light the LED at the required brightness but must limit the current to prevent damaging the LED.
 Very simple circuits are used for low-power indicator LEDs. More complex, current source circuits are required when
driving high-power LEDs for illumination to achieve correct current regulation.

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 The simplest circuit to drive an LED is through a series resistor. Although simple, this circuit is not the most energy
efficient circuit to drive an LED, since energy is lost in the resistor. More complicated circuits improve the energy
efficiency.

 An LED has a voltage drop specified at the intended operating current. Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's circuit laws are
used to calculate the appropriate resistor value to obtain the desired current. The value is computed by subtracting
the LED voltage drop from the supply voltage and dividing by the desired operating current.
 This basic circuit is used in a wide range of applications, including many consumer appliances such as mobile phone
chargers.

RECTIFIER
The main application of P-N junction diode is the rectification of Alternating Current (AC) into Direct Current (DC). A
diode allows electric current in one direction. This unique property of the diode allows it to act like a rectifier.

A rectifier is an electrical device that converts an Alternating Current (AC) into a Direct Current (DC) by using one or
more P-N junction diodes.

 Operation
At first, we need to know the characteristics of the P-N junctions as a forward bias and reverse bias.
When the voltage is applied to the P-N junction diode in such a way that the positive terminal of the battery is
connected to the p-type semiconductor and the negative terminal of the battery is connected to the n-type
semiconductor, the diode is said to be forward biased.

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 When this forward bias voltage is applied to the P-N junction diode, a large number of free electrons (majority
carriers) in the n-type semiconductor experience a repulsive force from the negative terminal of the battery
similarly a large number of holes (majority carriers) in the p-type semiconductor experience a repulsive force from
the positive terminal of the battery. As a result, the free electrons in the n-type semiconductor start moving from n-
side to p-side similarly the holes in the p-type semiconductor start moving from p-side to n-side.
The majority carriers produce the electric current in forward bias condition. So the electric current produced in
forward bias condition is also known as majority current.
When the voltage is applied to the P-N junction diode in such a way that the positive terminal of the battery is
connected to the n-type semiconductor and the negative terminal of the battery is connected to the p-type
semiconductor, the diode is said to be reverse biased.

When this reverse bias voltage is applied to the P-N junction diode, a large number of free electrons (majority
carriers) in the n-type semiconductor experience an attractive force from the positive terminal of the battery
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 similarly a large number of holes (majority carriers) in the p-type semiconductor experience an attractive force from
the negative terminal of the battery.
Therefore, the electric current flow does not occur across the P-N junction. As a result, the minority carriers free
electrons in the p-type semiconductor and the minority carriers holes in the n-type semiconductor starts flowing
across the junction. Thus, electric current is produced in the reverse bias diode due to the minority carriers.
However, the electric current produced by the minority carriers is very small. So the minority carrier current in the
reverse bias condition is neglected.
The forward bias and reverse bias voltage applied to the diode is nothing but a DC voltage. Now let’s take look at a
P-N junction diode when AC voltage is applied to it.

The AC voltage or AC current is often represented by a sinusoidal waveform whereas the DC current is represented
by a straight horizontal line.
The positive half cycle of the AC voltage is analogous to the forward bias DC voltage and the negative half cycle of
the AC voltage is analogous to the reverse bias DC voltage.
When AC voltage or AC current is applied across the P-N junction diode, during the positive half cycle, the diode
allows current and during the negative half cycle, the diode blocks current. Thus, electric current flows through the
diode only during the positive half cycle of the AC current.
A junction diode can be used as a rectifier in two ways:

Half wave rectifier is a type of rectifier which converts half of the AC input signal (positive half cycle) into pulsating
DC output signal and the remaining half signal (negative half cycle) is blocked or lost. In half wave rectifier circuit,
we use only a single diode.

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 Full wave rectifier is a type of rectifier which converts the full AC input signal (positive half cycle and negative half
cycle) to pulsating DC output signal. Unlike the half wave rectifier, the input signal is not wasted in full wave rectifier.
The efficiency of full wave rectifier is high as compared to the half wave rectifier.

As a practical example, laptops or notebook computer convert AC current into DC current before they consume the
power.
The AC adapter of the laptop connected to the AC source converts the high AC voltage or high AC current into low
DC voltage or low DC current. This low DC current is supplied to the laptop battery and this is what we called laptop
charging. However, the laptop will not turn on unless you manually turned it on by pressing the on button. When
you press the laptop "power on" button, the laptop battery starts supplying DC current.
The AC adapters consist of all the essential components needed for AC to DC conversion. These components are a
transformer, capacitor, and several diodes. Out of these components, the main key component is a diode which
converts the alternating current into direct current.
The transformer in the AC adapter reduces the high AC voltage to a low AC voltage. The rectifier (made up of
diodes) converts this low AC voltage or AC current into low DC voltage or DC current. However, the converted
current is not pure DC current. It is a pulsating DC current. The capacitor filters this pulsating DC current to pure DC
current.

 Equivalent Circuit
 The rectifier shown below, provides full-wave rectification.

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  Case 1: vIN > 0. In this case, we see that the most positive potential appears at the anode of D2. Based on this, we
may predict that D2 is ON while D1 is OFF. Since the most negative potential appears at the anode of D4, we may
conclude that D4 is OFF. Based on this reasoning, we infer that the current flows in a zig-zag through D2, then the
load, then D3. The potential appearing across the load is v OUT ≈ vIN – 1.4V.
 Case 2: vIN < 0. In this case the most positive potential appears at the anode of D4, and the most negative potential
appears at the cathode of D1. We may conclude that the current flows in a zig-zag through D4, then the load, then
D1. In this case the potential appearing across the load is v OUT ≈ abs(vIN) – 1.4V.

VARACTOR

A varactor is a diode whose capacitance depends non-linearly on the voltage applied, and thus it is a non-linear
capacitor.

Varactor diodes are used mainly in radio frequency (RF) circuits to be able to provide a capacitance that can be varied by
changing a voltage in an electronics circuit. This can be used for tuning circuits including radio frequency oscillators and
filters.

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  Operation
 To understan how a varactor diode works we need to look at what a capacitor is and what can change the
capacitance.

 A capacitor consists of two plates with an insulating dielectric between them. The capacitance and the amount of
charge that can be stored depends on the area of the plates and the distance between them. The greater the
distance the smaller the level of capacitance.
 A reverse biased diode has no current flowing between the P-type area and the N-type area. The N-type region and
the P-type regions can conduct electricity, and can be considered to be the two plates, and the region between
them - the depletion region is the insulating dielectric. This is exactly the same as the capacitor.

 As with any diode, if the reverse bias is changed so does the size of the depletion region. If the reverse voltage on
the varactor diode is increased, the depletion region of the diode increases and if the reverse voltage on varactor
diode is decreased the depletion region narrows. Therefore, by changing the reverse bias on the diode it is possible
to change the capacitance.

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 The Varactor diode is used for storing the charge not for flowing the charge.
 The formula gives the capacitance of varactor diode. Where, ε – Permittivity of the semiconductor material. A –
area of PN-junction W – width of depletion region.

 The capacitance of the varactor diode increases with the increase of n and the p-type region and decreases with the
increases of the depletion region. The increase in capacitance means the more charges are stored in the diode. For
increasing the storage capacity of charge the depletion region (which acts as a dielectric of the capacitor) of the
diode should be kept small.

 Equivalent Circuit
 The property of capacitance change is utilized to achieve a change in the frequency and/or the phase of an
electrical circuit.
 A simple model of a packaged varactor diode is shown below:

 In the above figure, CJ (V) is the variable junction capacitance of the diode die and RS (V) is the variable series
resistance of the diode die. CP is the fixed parasitic capacitance arising from the installation of the die in a package.
Contributors to the parasitic capacitance are the package material, geometry and the bonding wires or ribbons.
These factors also contribute to the parasitic inductance LP. The contribution to the series resistance from the
packaging is very small and may be ignored. Similarly, the inductance associated with the die itself is very small and
may be ignored.

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MOSFET Applications

The metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is a type of field-effect transistor (FET), most
commonly fabricated by the controlled oxidation of silicon. MOSFET is the basic building block of most computer chips,
as well as of chips that include analog and digital circuits.

The main advantage of a MOSFET is that it requires almost no input current to control the load current, when compared
with bipolar transistors (bipolar junction transistors/BJTs).

THE MOSFET AS A SWITCH

 MOSFETs exhibit three regions of operation viz., Cut-off, Linear or Ohmic and Saturation. When the MOSFETs are
required to function as switches, they should be biased in such a way that they alter between cut-off and
saturation states. This is because, in cut-off region, there is no current flow through the device while in saturation
region there will be a constant amount of current flowing through the device, just mimicking the behavior of an
open and closed switch, respectively.
 The N-channel, Enhancement-mode MOSFET operates using a positive input voltage and has an extremely high
input resistance (almost infinite) making it possible to interface with nearly any logic gate or driver capable of
producing a positive output.
 The below figure shows a simple circuit which uses an n-channel enhancement MOSFET as a switch. Here the
drain terminal (D) of the MOSFET is connected to the supply voltage VS via the drain resistor RD while its source
terminal (S) is grounded. Further, it has an input voltage Vi applied at its gate terminal (G) while the output Vo is
drawn from its drain.

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  When Vi applied is 0V, which means the gate terminal of the MOSFET is left unbiased. As a result, the MOSFET will
be OFF and operates in its cutoff region wherein it offers a high impedance path to the flow of current which
makes the IDS almost equivalent to zero. As a result, even the voltage drop across R D will become zero due to
which the output voltage Vo will become almost equal to VS.
 When Vi applied is greater than the threshold voltage V th of the device. Under this condition, the MOSFET will
start to conduct and if the VS provided is greater than the pinch-off voltage V P of the device (usually it will be so),
then the MOSFET starts to operate in its saturation region. This further means that the device will offer low
resistance path for the flow of constant I DS, almost acting like a short circuit. As a result, the output voltage will be
pulled towards low voltage level, which will be ideally zero.
 Thus, it can be concluded that MOSFETs can be made to function as electronic switches when made to operate
between cut-off and saturation operating regions.
 Similar to the case of n-channel enhancement type MOSFET, even n-channel depletion type MOSFETs can be used
to perform switching action. The behavior of such a circuit is seen to be almost identical to that explained above
except the fact that for cut-off, the gate voltage V G needs to be made negative and should be lesser than -V th.

 In the case of p-type devices the conduction current will be due to holes and will thus flow from source to drain
ISD, and not from drain to source (IDS) as in the case of n-type devices. Now, let us assume that the input voltage
which is nothing but the gate voltage VG of the MOSFET goes low. This causes the MOSFET to switch ON and to
offer a low (almost negligible) resistance path to the current flow. As a result heavy current flows through the
device which results in a large voltage drop across the resistor R D. This intern results in the output which is almost
equal to the supply voltage VS.

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  When Vi goes high i.e. when Vi will be greater than the threshold voltage of the device (V th will be negative for
these devices). Under this condition, the MOSFET will be OFF and offers a high impedance path for the current
flow. This results in almost zero current leading to almost zero voltage at the output terminal.
 Similar to this, even p-channel depletion-type MOSFETs can be used to perform switching action. The working of
this circuit is almost similar to the one explained above except for the fact that here the cut-off region is
experienced only if Vi = VG is made positive such that it exceeds the threshold voltage of the device.

 To summarize:

CHOPPER
 A chopper is a device that converts fixed DC input to a variable DC output voltage directly. Essentially, a chopper is
an electronic switch that is used to interrupt one signal under the control of another. The switching action of
MOSFETs can be exploited to design chopper circuits.
 MOSFET is nowadays the most preferred switching device used in the chopper circuits. MOSFET is a voltage
controlled device and has zero storage time. MOSFET is highly suitable for high frequency switching and as such is
widely used because of absence of minority carrier storage time.
 Here the DC voltage, VDC is converted into AC voltage with the same amplitude level, V AC by biasing the MOSFET
using a square voltage waveform between its gate and source terminals. This causes the MOSFETs to operate in
cut-off and saturation regions in alternate cycles.

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  Basic chopper circuit:

A SAMPLE-AND-HOLD CIRCUIT

 A sample and hold circuit is an analog device that samples the voltage of a continuously varying analog signal and
holds its value at a constant level for a specified period of time. These circuits and related peak detectors are the
fundamental analog memory devices. They are typically used in analog-to-digital converters to eliminate
variations in input signal that can disturb the conversion process.
 Below is the basic MOSFET sample and hold circuit.

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  By using this sample and hold circuit we can get samples of the analog signal, followed by a capacitor. It holds
these samples for a particular time. As a result of this, a stable signal is produced this can be changed into the
digital signal with the help of ADC (analog to digital converters).
 The working of this circuit can be simply understood using its components working. The main components to
build the sample and hold circuit include an N-channel Enhancement type MOSFET, a capacitor, and a high
accuracy operational amplifier.
 The input voltage is given via MOSFET's drain terminal and control voltage is also given through its gate terminal.
When the +ve pulse of the control voltage is applied, the MOSFET will be activated state. And it performs as a
closed switch. On the opposing, when the control voltage is nothing then the MOSFET will be deactivated state
and works as the open switch.
 When the MOSFET works as a closed switch, the analog signal given to it through the drain terminal will be fed to
the capacitor. Then the capacitor will charge to its peak value. When the switch is released, then the capacitor
discontinues charging. Due to the high impedance op-amp connected at the circuit end, the capacitor will
knowledge high impedance due to this it cannot get discharged.
 It is clear from the waveform of the circuit, that during the ON period what will be the voltage at the o/p.
Throughout the OFF period the voltage that exists at the o/p of the op-amp.

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MOSFET AS AMPLIFIER
 MOSFET is an excellent choice for small signal linear amplifiers as their input impedance is extremely high making
them easy to bias.
 We can control how the MOSFET operates by creating or “enhancing” its conductive channel between the source
and drain regions producing a type of MOSFET commonly called an n-channel Enhancement-mode MOSFET,
which simply means that unless we bias them positively on the gate (negatively for the p-channel), no channel
current will flow. An E-MOSFET does not conduct until the gate-source voltage, VGS is less than the threshold
voltage, VTh.
 Let’s consider the basic E-MOSFET amplifier circuit below.

 This simple enhancement-mode common source MOSFET amplifier configuration uses a single supply at the drain
and generates the required gate voltage, VG using a resistor divider. As we know that for a MOSFET, no current
flows into the gate terminal, we can make the following basic assumptions about the MOSFET amplifiers DC
operating conditions.

 Hence,

 and the MOSFET gate-to-source voltage, VGS is given as:

 For proper operation of the MOSFET, this gate-source voltage must be greater than the threshold voltage of the
MOSFET, that is VGS > VTH. Since IS = ID, the gate voltage, VG is therefore equal too:

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  To set the MOSFET amplifier gate voltage to this value we select the values of the resistors, R1 and R2 within the
voltage divider network to the required values. Since, no current flows into the gate terminal of a MOSFET device
so the formula for voltage division is given as:

 It can be noted that, this voltage divider equation only determines the ratio of the two bias resistors, R1 and R2
and not their actual values. It is always desirable to make the values of these two resistors as large as possible to
reduce their I2R power loss and increase the MOSFETs amplifiers input resistance.

Sources:
 Electronic Post
 Physics and radio electronics
 ElectronicsTutorials
 All about circuits
 Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
 ElectronicsForU

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