Chapter 4: Electronics and thermionic emission

Light-emitting diode (LED)

 Some special diodes called LEDs give out light when current passes through them.
 When forward biased the current in it makes it emit red, yellow or green light.
 No light is emitted on reverse bias.
 If the reverse bias voltage exceeds 5 V, it may cause damage.
 LEDs must have a suitable resistor R in series with it to limit the current.
 Figure b shows the symbol for LED (the use of the circle is optional).

LEDs are used as

 indicator lamps on computers, radios and other electronic devices

 in seven – segment displays in digital clocks and calculators

Photodiode

 A photodiode is a diode that consumes light energy to produce an electric current.

 They are also called a photo-detector, a light detector, and a photo-sensor.
 Photodiodes are designed to work in reverse bias condition and the tiny reverse current
increases with the light intensity.
 The symbol of the photodiode is similar to that of LED, but in photodiode the arrows
point inwards.

Uses of photodiodes

 Photodiodes are used for the measurement of the intensity of light

 Photodiodes are used in smoke detectors.

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  Photodiodes are used as fast counters
 It is used in solar cell panels.
 It is used in optical communications

Transistors:

 Transistors are small semiconductor devices used in electronic circuits.

 Transistors have three connections called the base (B), the collector (C), and the emitter
(E).

How a transistor works

There are two current paths through a transistor.

One is the base–emitter path and the other is the collector–emitter path
Current through the collector is called the collector current and current through the base
is called the base current.
In a transistor, the base current(IB) switches on and controls the much greater collector
current(IC)

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  When S is open, the base current IB is zero and neither L1 nor L2 lights up, showing that
the collector current IC is also zero even though the battery is correctly connected across
the C–E path.
 When S is closed, B is connected through R to the battery + terminal and L2 lights up but
not L1.
 This shows there is now collector current (which is in L2) and that it is much greater than
the base current (which is in L1 but is too small to light it).
 Resistor R has to be in the circuit to limit the base current which would otherwise create
so large collector current which destroys the transistor by overheating.
 A transistor is considered to be ‘’off” when the collector current is zero or very small. It
is ‘on’ when the collector current is much larger.

Uses of transistors

Transistors are mainly used

 For amplifying current
 In switching circuits

a)Light sensitive switch

 The LDR is part

of a potential divider. In day light, the LDR has a low resistance and a low share of
battery voltage – too low to switch the transistor on.
 In darkness the resistance of LDR rises, and so does its share of battery voltage. Now,
the voltage across the LDR is high enough to switch the transistor on, so the bulb light
up.

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 This principle is used in lamps which come on automatically at night.

b) Temperature sensitive switch

The thermistor and the variable resistor

are the two parts of a potential divider.

As the thermistor gets hotter and its

resistance decreases, its share of
voltage decreases and so the voltage
across the variable resistor increases.
This increases B – E voltage
and switches on the transistor

C) Time delay switch

 When you close the main switch in the circuit below, there is a time delay before the
bulb light up.
 The delay is caused by the capacitor in the potential divider. The capacitor charges up
slowly, and it is several seconds before the voltage across it is high enough to switch the
transistor on.

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  The delay can be increased by increasing the capacitance or increasing the resistance of
the upper resistor.

Logic gates
 Logic gates are the switching circuits used in computers and other electronic systems.
 There are five basic types; the behavior of each is described by a truth table.
 The output and inputs are represented by 1 and 0 respectively.
 All these have two or more inputs and one output. Below are the truth tables with their
simple circuits.

The five logic gates are:

1. NOT gate or inverter

2. AND gate
3. OR gate
4. NAND gate
5. NOR gate

1. The NOT gate or inverter

This is simplest gate, with one input and one output. It produces a ‘high’ output if the input is
low and vice versa. Its symbol and truth table are given.

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  when the switch is open (input = 0) the lamp is on (output = 1)
 When the switch is closed ( input =1) the lamp is off output ( 0)

2. The AND gate

 For the output to be high both inputs must be high. The circuit, truth table and symbol
of the AND gate are shown below

3. OR gate
 Here the switches are in parallel. The lamp will come on if either switch A or switch B is
closed.
 It will also come on if both switches are closed.
 The truth table, circuit and the symbol is shown below.

4. NOR gate

NOR gate contains two combined gates:

OR + NOT = NOR
 A high output results if both the inputs are low.
 If one or both inputs is high a low output results.
 This shown below

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 5. N
A N
D

gate
 NAND gate contains AND gate and NOT gate combined together:

AND + NOT = NAND

 Here the output is opposite to the AND gate results.
 The truth table and symbol of the NAND gate is shown below.
 Compare its results to the AND gate results.

Combination of Logic Gates

 Logic gates can be combined to make logic systems. These show more complex behavior
than single logic gates.
 The output can be determined by constructing a truth table,

Example 1

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In the combination of logic gates above, find the outputs X, Y and Z of the inputs A and B.

Answer.

INPUT OUTPUT

A B X Y Z

0 0 1 1 1

0 1 1 0 1

1 0 0 1 1

1 1 0 0 0

Example 2

In the combination of logic

gates above, find the outputs
X, Y and Z of the inputs A
and B.

Answer

INPUT OUTPUT

A B W X Y Z

0 0 0 0 1 1

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0 1 1 0 0 0

1 0 1 0 0 0

1 1 1 1 0 1

Exercise

In the combination of logic gate above, find the outputs X, Y and Z of the inputs A and B.

Use this table for your answer

INPUT OUTPUT

A B X Y Z

Using logic gates

1. A designer of washing machines wants to ensure that the motor will not start until the
on/off switch is on and the door is safely closed:

Construct a truth table

Switch Door motor Conclusion

1 1 1 Switch on, door shut = motor starts
1 0 0 Switch on, door open= motor will not start
0 1 0 Switch off, door shut = motor will not start

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 0 0 0 Switch off, door open = motor will not start

3) Simple Security system

 A simple system that might be used by a jeweler to protect an expensive clock is shown
in the block diagram below.
 The clock sits on a push switch which sends a 1 to the NOT gate, unless the clock is
lifted when a 0 is sent.
 In that case the output from the NOT gate is a 1 which rings the bell.

Thermionic emission
 Thermionic emission is the process of emitting electrons from the surface of a heated
metal.
 The fast moving electrons from the surface of the metal are called cathode rays.

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  The rate of emission (number of electrons emitted in 1 second) is affected by 4 factors.

1. The temperature of the heated metal

2. The surface area of the heated metal
3. The type of metal
4. The coated material on the surface of the metal

Production of cathode rays

 They are produced in a cathode ray tube (CRT).

 The electrons produced at the cathode by thermionic emission are accelerated towards
the fluorescent screen by the anode.
 The tube is evacuated to prevent electrons from colliding with the air molecules.

Properties of cathode rays

1. They travel in straight lines

2. They cause certain substances to glow or fluoresce
3. They are negatively charged particles ( they are deflected by both magnetic field and
electric fields)
4. They possess kinetic energy
5. They produce X-rays when suddenly stopped by a metal target

Cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO)

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  The cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO) is a type of electrical instrument which is used for
displaying waveforms.

The cathode-ray oscilloscope (C.R.O.) consists of the following components:

1. The electron gun
2. The deflecting plates
3. A fluorescent screen

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 4. The electron gun

Parts of Electron Gun Function

Filament To heat the cathode.

Cathode Release electrons when heated by the filament.

Grid It is used for brightness control. When the grid is made less negative, more
electrons cross over and when made more negative, the number of electrons

hitting the screen will decrease.

Focusing Anode and The accelerating anode accelerates the electrons and the electrons are
focused into a fine beam as they pass through the focusing anode.

Accelerating anode

2. The deflecting plates

Part of the deflecting

Function 
system

 Y-plate The Y-plates will cause deflection in the vertical direction when a
voltage is applied across them.

  X-plate  The X-plates will cause the electron beam to be deflected in the
horizontal direction if a voltage is applied across them.

3. The fluorescent screen

 The screen is coated with a fluorescent material, for example, zinc sulphide.
 When the electrons hit the screen, it will cause to produce a flash of light and hence a
bright spot on the screen.

Effect of the Time Base

 The time base is a circuit inside the CRO that applies changing voltage to the X-plates
and moves the bright spot across the screen at a constant speed.
 The speed is very high. As a result, we are not able to see the motion of the bright spot,
but a straight line across the screen.
 Figure below shows the display of a CRO when the time base is ON and OFF.

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 Direct Current (Time Base Switched Off) Direct Current (Time Base Switched On)

Alternating Current (Time Base Switched Alternating Current (Time Base Switched
Off) On)

Uses of Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO)

Cathode ray oscilloscope can be used for

 Displaying different types of wave forms

 Determining the frequency of an a.c signal
 measure short time interval
 measure potential difference (as a voltmeter)

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