PN JUNCTION DIODE

In a piece of semiconductor material, if one half is doped by P-type impurity and the other half
is doped by N-type impurity, a PN junction is formed. The plane dividing the two halves or zones is
called PN junction. As shown in Fig. 12.8, the N-type material has high concentration of free electrons
while P-type material has high concentration of holes. Therefore, at the junction there is a tendency
for the free electrons to diffuse over to the P-side and holes to the N-side. This process is called
diffusion. As the free electrons move across the junction from N-type to P-type, the donor ions become
positively charged. Hence a positive charge is built

on the N-side of the junction. The free electrons that cross the junction uncover the negative acceptor
ions by filling in the holes. Therefore, a net negative charge is established on the P-side of the junction.
This net negative charge on the P-side prevents further diffusion of electrons into the P-side. Similarly,
the net positive charge on the N-side repels the holes crossing from P-side to N-side. Thus a barrier is
set up near the junction which prevents further movement of charge carriers, i.e. electrons and holes.
This is called potential barrier or junction barrier V0. V0 is 0.3 V for germanium and 0.72 V for silicon.
The electrostatic field across the junction caused by the positively charged N-type region tends to
drive the holes away from the junction and negatively charged P-type region tends to drive the
electrons away from the junction. Thus the junction region is depleted to mobile charge carriers. Hence
it is called depletion layer.
Under Forward Bias Condition
When positive terminal of the battery is connected to the P-type and negative terminal to the N-type
of the PN junction diode, the bias applied is known as forward bias.

Operation As shown in Fig. 12.9, the applied potential with external battery acts in opposition to the
internal potential barrier. Under the forward bias condition, the applied positive potential repels the
holes in P-type region so that the holes move

towards the junction and the applied negative potential repels the electrons in the N-type region and
the electrons move towards the junction. Eventually when the applied potential is more than the
internal barrier potential, the depletion region and internal potential barrier disappear.

V-I Characteristics of a Diode Under Forward Bias

Under forward bias condition, the V-I characteristics of a PN junction diode are shown in Fig. 12.10.
As the forward voltage (VF) is increased, for VF < V0, the forward current IF is almost zero (region OA),
because the potential barrier prevents the holes from P-region and electrons from N-region to flow
across the depletion region in the opposite direction.
For VF > V0, the potential barrier at the junction completely disappears and hence, the holes cross the
junction from P-type to N-type and the electrons cross the junction in the opposite direction, resulting
in relatively large current flow in the external circuit.

A feature worth noting in the forward characteristics shown in Fig. 12.10 is the cut in or threshold
voltage (Vr) below which the current is very small. It is 0.3 V and 0.72 V for germanium and silicon
respectively. At the cut in voltage, the potential barrier is overcome and the current through the
junction starts to increase rapidly.
Under Reverse Bias Condition
When the negative terminal of the battery is connected to the P-type and positive terminal of
the battery is connected to the N-type of the PN junction, the bias applied is known as reverse bias.

Operation Under applied reverse bias as shown in Fig. 12.11, holes which form the majority carriers
of the P-side move towards the negative terminal of the battery and electrons which form the majority
carrier of the N-side are attracted towards the positive terminal of the battery. Hence the width of the
depletion region which is depleted of mobile charge carriers increases. Thus the electric field
produced by applied reverse bias, is in the same direction as the electric field of the potential barrier.
Hence, the resultant potential barrier is increased, which prevents the flow of majority carriers in both
directions. Therefore, theoretically no current should flow in the external circuit. But in practice, a
very small current of the order of a few microamperes flows under reverse bias as shown in Fig.
12.12. Electrons forming covalent
bonds of the semiconductor atoms in the P- and N-type regions may absorb sufficient energy from
heat and light to cause breaking of some covalent bonds. Hence electron-hole pairs are continually
produced in both the regions. Under the reverse bias condition, the thermally generated holes in
the P-region are attracted towards the negative terminal of the battery and the electrons in the N-
region are attracted towards the positive terminal of the battery. Consequently, the minority
carriers, electrons in the P-region and holes in the N-region, wander over to the junction and flow
towards their majority carrier side giving rise to a small reverse current. This current is known as
reverse saturation current. The magnitude of reverse saturation current mainly depends upon
junction temperature because the major source of minority carriers is thermally broken covalent
bonds.
For large applied reverse bias, the free electrons from the N-type moving towards the positive
terminal of the battery acquire sufficient energy to move with high velocity to dislodge valence
electrons from semiconductor atoms in the crystal. These newly liberated electrons, in turn,
acquire sufficient energy to dislodge other parent electrons. Thus, a large number of free electrons
are formed which is commonly called as an avalanche of free electrons. This leads to the
breakdown of the junction leading to very large reverse current. The reverse voltage at which the
junction breakdown occurs is known as breakdown voltage.
The PN junction diode will perform satisfactorily only if it is operated within certain limiting
values. They are:
1) Maximum forward current It is the highest instantaneous current under forward bias condition
that can flow through the junction.
2) Peak inverse voltage It is the maximum reverse voltage that can be applied to the PN junction.
If the voltage across the junction exceeds PIV, under reverse bias condition, the junction gets
damaged.
 3) Maximum power rating It is the maximum power that can be dissipated at the junction without
damaging the junction. Power dissipation is the product of voltage across the junction and current
through the junction.

PN JUNCTION DIODE APPLICATIONS

An ideal PN junction diode is a two terminal polarity sensitive device that has zero resistance (diode
conducts) when it is forward biased and infinite resistance (diode does not conduct) when reverse
biased. Due to this characteristic the diode finds a number of applications as follows.
1) rectifiers in dc power supplies
2) switch in digital logic circuits used in computers
3) clamping network used as dc restorer in TV receivers and voltage multipliers
4) clipping circuits used as wave shaping circuits used in computers, radars, radio and TV
receivers
5) demodulation (detector) circuits.
6) The same PN junction with different doping concentration finds special applications as
follows:
7) detectors (APD, PIN photo diode) in optical communication circuits
8) Zener diodes in voltage regulators
9) varactor diodes in tuning sections of radio and TV receivers
10) light emitting diodes in digital displays
11) LASER diodes in optical communications
12) Tunnel diodes as a relaxation oscillator at microwave frequencies.
 Diode Equivalent Circuits
An equivalent circuit is nothing but a combination of elements that best represents the actual terminal
characteristics of the device. In simple language, it simply means the diode in the circuit can be
replaced by other elements without severely affecting the behavior of circuit. The diode can be
modeled in three different ways depending on the accuracy required. Three models with increasing
accuracy are listed below:

1. Piecewise-Linear Equivalent Circuit

A technique for obtaining an equivalent circuit for a diode is to approximate the characteristics of the
device by straight-line segments. The resulting equivalent circuit is naturally called the piecewise-
linear equivalent circuit

Piecewise-Linear
Equivalent Circuit
It is clear that the piece-wise linear characteristics do not exactly represent the characteristics of diode,
especially near the knee of the curve. However, it provides a good first approximation to the actual
characteristics of the diode. Piecewise linear characteristics can be obtained by replacing the diode
in the circuit with a resistor, a battery and an ideal diode.

2. Simplified Equivalent Circuit

The equivalent model in this case consists of a battery and an ideal diode. Consider the horizontal line
from (0 to 0.7 V) in the curve. The horizontal line indicates that the current flowing through diode is
zero for voltages between 0 and 0.7 V.

To model this behaviour, we put a battery of 0.7 V in the equivalent diode model. This does not mean
that diodes are a source of voltage. When you measure the voltage across an isolated diode, the
instrument will show zero value. The battery simply indicates that it opposes the flow of current in
forward direction until 0.7 V. As the voltage becomes larger than 0.7 V, the current starts flowing in
forward direction.
 Simplified
Equivalent Circuit

3. Ideal Diode Model

Figure indicates that the voltage drop across the diode is zero for any value of diode current. The ideal
diode does not allow any current to flow in reverse biased condition. The current flowing through the
diode is zero for any value of reverse biased voltage. Taking this into consideration, the ideal diode
can be modeled as open or closed switch depending on the bias voltage.

Ideal Diode
Model

1. Ideal diode allows the flow of forward current for any value of forward bias voltage. Hence, Ideal
diode can be modeled as closed switch under forward bias condition. This is shown in the figure.
2. Ideal diode allows zero current to flow under reverse biased condition. Hence it can be modeled as
open switch. This is indicated in the figure.