SELVAM COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY NAMAKKAL-03 Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering Electronic Devices & Circuits Two Marks-

PN junction diode and its applications 1. Define conductors and insulators. The materials which conducts the electricity very easily i.e. good conductor of electricity are called conductors. Ex. Copper, Aluminium. The materials which are very bad conductors of electricity are called insulators. Ex. Wood, Glass. 2. Define semiconductor with example. The materials whose conductivity lies between that of conductors and insulators are defined as semiconductors. Ex. Germanium, Silicon, 3. What is intrinsic semiconductor? A sample of semiconductor in its purest form is called an intrinsic semiconductor. The impurity content is very very small of the order of one part in 100 million parts of the semiconductor. 4. What is extrinsic semiconductor? In order to change the properties of intrinsic semiconductors a small amount of some other material to the crystal of intrinsic semiconductors to improve its conductivity is called doping. The impurity added is called dopant. Doped semiconductor material is called extrinsic semiconductor. 5. What are the types of extrinsic semiconductors? Based on the type of impurities added, there are 2 types. They are n-type and p-type. 6. Draw the energy band diagrams for conductors, Insulators and semiconductors.

7. Why a semiconductor is acts as an insulator at ordinary temperature? Because at low temperature the valence band remains full while conduction band is empty. Therefore semiconductors act as insulators. As temperature increases, valence electrons gain thermal energy larger than forbidden energy gap hence they move towards conduction band. 8. What is mobility? What is its unit? Mobility () of a charge carrier equals the ratio of average speed to the applied electric field intensity. The unit is square meters per volt seconds. =V/ sq.m/v.s 9. What is the relationship between mobility & conductivity?

Conductivity is given by, = n where - Conductivity, n-concentration of free electrons, -mobility of electrons. 10. Define valence band & conduction band. The range of energies possessed by valence electrons is called valence band. The valence electrons are the electrons present in the outermost orbit of an atom. The range of energies possessed by conduction electrons is called conduction band. The free electrons which left the valence band are occupying conduction band. 11. Name some donor and acceptor which can be added as impurities in Silicon and Germanium. Acceptor impurities: Boron, Indium, Gallium Donor impurities: Antimony, Arsenic. 12. Define mean life time of carriers. In a pure semiconductor material, due to thermal agitation new hole-electrons pairs are produced. At the same time other hole-electron pairs disappear due to recombination. On the average, the carrier (either hole or electron) will exist for some time before recombination which is referred as mean lifetime of carrier. Usually the carrier lifetimes ranges from microseconds to nanoseconds. 13. Differentiate drift and diffusion current. Developed due to potential gradient. Phenomenon found both in semiconductors & metals. Diffusion current: Developed due to charge concentration gradient. Only in semiconductors. 14. Why Si is preferred over Ge in the manufacture of semiconductor devices? The Si is preferred over Ge in the manufacture of semiconductor device because, Silicon has low leakage current Silicon has higher temperature stability The peak inverse voltage for Si is higher. 15. What causes the diffusion of holes and electrons across a PN junction? Due to charge concentration gradient in a semiconductor, the charge carriers tend to move from the region of higher carrier density to the region of lower carrier density. This process continues until all the carriers are uniformly distributed. During this action, the non-uniform charge carrier distribution makes the diffusion of electrons and holes. 16. What do you understand by depletion layer? The depletion layer is the region which does not have mobile charges. 17. Define electron volt. It is defined as the rise in kinetic energy of an electron which has fallen through a potential of one volt.

1ev= 1.6*10^-19 Joules 18. State the relationship between diode capacitance & the reverse biased voltage. Ct = K/ (VB-V) where, K - constant, depends on the nature of semiconductor material. VB- reverse bias, 0.7 for Si and 0.3 for Ge. n - constant depends on the nature of the junction. 19. State the relationship between temperature and the reverse current. As temperature is increasing, the diode current decreases. Mathematically,

I02- Saturation current at T2, I01- Saturation current at T1. 20. Define recovery time of a diode. The recovery time is the time difference between the 10 percent point of the diode voltage and the time when this voltage reaches and remains within 10 percent of its final value. 21. What is the forbidden gap? Forbidden gap is the energy gap between valence and conduction bands. For insulators, the gap will be more and for conductors it is nil. For Si, the gap is 1.1eV and for Ge it is 0.7eV. 22. Define peak inverse voltage. It is the maximum safe rating voltage of a rectifying diode when it is reverse biased. 23. Explain the terms knee voltage & break down voltage with respect to diodes. Knee voltage:It is the forward voltage of a PN diode at which the current through the junction starts increasing rapidly. Breakdown Voltage:It is the reverse voltage of a PN junction diode at which the junction breaks down with sudden rise in the reverse current. 24. Give the relationship between temperature and the concentration of charge carrires.

Where, Ec- lowest energy of conduction band Ev maximum energy of valence band] n- number of free electron concentration/m^3 Nv- density of particles in valence band P number of free hole concentration/m^3 Nc density of particles in concentration band K- Boltzman constant T- absolute temperature

25. Give the expression of depletion capacitance of a diode. G= K/ (VB-V)^n Where, G-depletion capacitance K-constant depends on the nature of semiconductor material V-reverse bias voltage. 26. Define depletion layer. It is the layer formed in a PN diode due to depleted electrons and holes. 27. Define biasing. Applying external DC voltage to any electronic devices is called biasing. Depending upon the polarity of the DC voltage externally applied to it, the biasing is classified as forward and reverse biasing. 28. Define forward biasing. If an external DC voltage is connected in such a way that the p region terminal is connected to the positive of the dc voltage and the n region is connected to the negative of the dc voltage, the biasing condition is called forward biasing. 29. Define reverse biasing. If an external dc voltage is connected in such a way that the p region terminal of a p-n junction is connected to the negative of the battery and the n region terminal of a p-n junction is connected to the positive terminal of the battery, the biasing condition is called reverse biasing. 30. Draw the complete VI characteristics of a diode.

31. What is reverse breakdown voltage? The voltage at which breakdown occurs is called reverse breakdown voltage denoted as VBR. 32. What is threshold potential? The potential at which current starts increasing exponentially is called offset potential, threshold potential or firing potential. 33. Define storage capacitance. The capacitance which is exhibited in a forward biased junction is called a diffusion or storage capacitance.

34. Calculate the maximum operating frequency of a diode whose reverse recovery time is 9ns. trr= 9 ns T= 10trr = 10*9=90ns fmax= 1/T = 1/10trr fmax= 1/(90*10^-9) = 11.111 MHZ 35. Define and explain peak inverse voltage (PIV). Peak inverse voltage is the maximum reverse voltage that can be applied to the PN junction without damage to the junction. If the reverse voltage across the junction exceeds to its peak inverse voltage, the junction may be destroyed due to excessive heat. 36. List the following with reference to a PN diode. Forward resistance: The resistance offered by a diode to forward bias is known as forward resistance. Reverse resistance: The resistance offered by the diode to the reverse bias is known as reverse resistance. 37. Define cut in voltage. This is the voltage at which the forward bias curve abruptly increases from the smaller value. The cut in voltage of Ge is 0.3V & for Si is 0.6V. 38. At what voltage zener breakdown mechanism occurs? Zener breakdown mechanism occurs at voltages less than 6V. 39. What do you understand by mean free path? The mean free path is the average distance between collisions of carriers. 40. How is hole formed in a semiconductor? Hole represents absence of an electron. The mass of a hole is zero which reveals that it is an imaginary particle. As the electron moves from its position, hole is formed that is representing the vacancy created by electron. The charge of hole is just opposite polarity value of charge of an electron. 41. Write down the expression for diffusion current density due to electron. The current due to the diffusion of electrons at any point in the P material is given by, In P(X)=-eDn dnP(X)/dx 42. Write down the expression for drift current density due to holes. J= PeV J- current density in Amperes/square meter P- holes per cubic meter e- charge of an electron V- voltage applied.

43. Write down & explain junction diode equation. The equation which explains the forward and reverse characteristics of a semiconductor diode is known as diode equation. The diode current is given by, I = I0 (e^V/VT - 1) Where, I0- reverse saturation current. -constant, 1 for Ge & 2 for Si. 44. Write down the equations showing the variation of reverse saturation current I0 with temperature for Ge & Si diodes.

VT- volt equivalent of temperature VG0 - voltage numerically equal to the forbidden gap energy in electron volts. 45. Why does reverse saturation current vary with temperature? The reverse saturation current is proportional to the absolute temperature. Therefore, as temperature increases the reverse saturation current will increase. 46. A 5V battery is connected across the two diodes connected in series opposing. Find the voltage drop across each diode at room temperature. As the two diodes are connected in opposite direction, one of the two diodes will be reverse biased. Therefore no current will flow in the circuit hence no voltage drop will be there. 51. What is voltage equivalent of temperature? VT=KT=voltage equivalent of temperature. The product of KT is called voltage equivalent of temperature. At room temperature of 270C T= 273+27= 3000K VT= KT=8.62 10-5 300 = 0.02586V = 26mV at 3000K. 52. What is carrier lifetime? In a pure semiconductor, the number of free electrons is always equal to number of holes. The thermal agitation continues to produce new hole electrons pair while previous pairs disappear. This disappearing of pairs is due to the creation and disappearance of a free electron and hole pair is called its lifetime. 53. What is diffusion length? The average distance covered by a an excess charge carrier while diffusion during its lifetime is called diffusion length of that charge carrier. It is denoted by L. Ln- diffusion length of free electron Lp- diffusion length of free hole n- mean life time of free electrons

p- mean lifetime of free hole L=D Ln=Dn n n=Ln 2/Dn Lp= Dp p p= Lp 2/dp 54. Give the V-I characteristic equation oe diode current equation. It gives voltage mathematically relationship between applied voltage V and the diode current I. It is given by, I=I0 [V/eVT-1] A. 55. What is switching characteristics of diode? When diode is switched from forward biased to the reverse biased state or vicevresa, it takes finite time to attain a steady state. This time consists of Transient and an interval of time before the diode attain a steady state. The Behavior of the diode during this time is called switching characteristics of the diode. 56. What Knee or Zener Knee? At a certain reverse voltage, current through Zener diode increases rapidly. The change from low value to large value of current is very sharp and well defined. Such a sharp change in the reverse characteristics is called Knee or Zener Knee of the curve. PARTB: 1. Explain the VI characteristics of PN junction diode. 2. Explain the forward biasing and reverse biasing of PN junction diode. 3 .a. Explain how zener diode can be used as a voltage regulator b. Explain switching characteristics of PN junction diode. 4. Draw a half wave rectifier circuit and explain its operation with suitable waveforms. Derive its Efficiency and ripple factor. 5. Draw a full wave rectifier circuit and explain its operation with suitable waveforms. Derive its Efficiency and ripple factor. 6. Explain how zener diode can be used as voltage regulator. 7. Draw a full wave bridge rectifier circuit and explain its operation with suitable waveforms.Derive its efficiency and ripple factor. 8. Explain the construction and working principle of LED. What are its merits and applications? 9. Explain the construction and working principle of LCD. What are its merits and applications? 10. Explain the VI characteristics of zener diode with suitable circuit and waveforms.

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