Dynamic resistance or AC resistance

The dynamic resistance is the resistance offered by the p-n junction diode when AC voltage is
applied.

When forward biased voltage is applied to a diode that is connected to AC circuit, an AC or

alternating current flows though the diode.

In AC circuit, charge carriers or electric current does not flow in single direction. It flows in both
forward and reverse direction.

Dynamic resistance is also defined as the ratio of change in voltage to the change in current. It
is denoted as rf.

http://www.physics-and-radio-electronics.com/electronic-devices-and-circuits/semiconductor-
diodes/dioderesistance-staticresistance-dynamicresistance.html

Diode current equation expresses the relationship between the current flowing
through the diode as a function of the voltage applied across it. Mathematically it is

given as Where,
I is the current flowing through the diode
I0 is the dark saturation current
q is the charge on the electron
V is the voltage applied across the diode
is the (exponential) ideality factor is the Boltzmann
constant T is the absolute temperature in Kelvin
In this equation, two parameters require to be discussed in quite detail. They are

I0, the Dark Saturation Current

Dark saturation current indicates the leakage current density flowing through the
diode in the absence of light (hence, dark). This parameter is the characteristic of
the diode under consideration and indicates the amount of recombination which
occurs within it. That is, I0 will be larger for a diode in which recombination rate is
higher and vice versa. Further, its value is also seen to be directly proportional to
the absolute temperature and inversely proportional to the material quality.
, the (exponential) Ideality Factor
Ideality factor indicates the nearness with which the considered diode behaves with
respect to the ideal diode. That is, if the diode under consideration behaves exactly
as that of an ideal diode, then will be 1. Its value increases from 1 as the
difference between the behaviors of the ideal diode and diode under consideration
increases: greater is the deviation, greater is the value of .

The value of is typically considered to be 1 for germanium diodes and 2 for silicon
diodes. However its exact value for the given diode depends on various factors like
electron drift, diffusion, carrier recombination which occurs within the depletion
region, its doping level, manufacturing technique and the purity of its materials. In
addition, its value is also seen to vary with the value of current and voltage levels.
Nevertheless, in most of the cases, its value is found to be within the range 1 to 2.
In forward biased condition, there will a large amount of current flow through the
diode. Thus the diode current equation (equation 1) becomes

On the other hand, if the diode is reverse biased, then the exponential term in
equation (1) becomes negligible. Thus we have

Now let us examine the mode the diode current equation takes its form when we
have the diode operating at room temperature. In this case, T = 300 K,
also, and . Thus

By reciprocating, one gets, 25.87 mV which is called thermal voltage. Thus the

diode equation at room temperature becomes

https://www.electrical4u.com/diode-current-equation/
 Ideality Factor
The ideality factor of a diode is a measure of how closely the diode follows the ideal diode
equation. The derivation of the simple diode equation uses certain assumption about the cell. In
practice, there are second order effects so that the diode does not follow the simple diode
equation and the ideality factor provides a way of describing them.

Recombination mechanisms
The ideal diode equation assumes that all the recombination occurs via band to band or
recombination via traps in the bulk areas from the device (i.e. not in the junction). Using that
assumption the derivation produces the ideal diode equation below and the ideality factor, n, is
equal to one.

However recombination does occur in other ways and in other areas of the device. These
recombinations produce ideality factors that deviate from the ideal. Deriving the ideal diode
equation by considering the number of carriers the need to come together during the process
produces the results in the table below.
Ideality
Recombination Type Description
factor
SRH, band to band (low level
1 Recombination limited by minority carrier.
injection)
SRH, band to band (high level
2 Recombination limited by both carrier types.
injection)
Two majority and one minority carriers required for
Auger 2/3
recombination.
Depletion region (junction) 2 two carriers limit recombination.

http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/ideality-factor