3: Diodes and Rectifiers
- Page ID
- 741
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- 3.3: Diode Ratings
- In addition to forward voltage drop (Vf) and peak inverse voltage (PIV), there are many other ratings of diodes important to circuit design and component selection. Semiconductor manufacturers provide detailed specifications on their products—diodes included—in publications known as datasheets. Datasheets for a wide variety of semiconductor components may be found in reference books and on the internet. I prefer the internet as a source of component specifications because all the data obtained f
- 3.7: Clamper Circuits
- The circuits in the figure below are known as clampers or DC restorers. The corresponding netlist is also in the figure below. These circuits clamp a peak of a waveform to a specific DC level compared with a capacitively coupled signal which swings about its average DC level (usually 0V). If the diode is removed from the clamper, it defaults to a simple coupling capacitor– no clamping.
- 3.8: Voltage Multipliers (Doublers, Triplers, Quadruplers, and More)
- A voltage multiplier is a specialized rectifier circuit producing an output which is theoretically an integer times the AC peak input, for example, 2, 3, or 4 times the AC peak input. Thus, it is possible to get 200 VDC from a 100 Vpeak AC source using a doubler, 400 VDC from a quadrupler. Any load in a practical circuit will lower these voltages.
- 3.10: Diode Switching Circuits
- Diodes can perform switching and digital logic operations. Forward and reverse bias switch a diode between the low and high impedance states, respectively. Thus, it serves as a switch.
- 3.11: What Are Zener Diodes?
- A Zener diode is a special type of rectifying diode that can handle breakdown due to reverse breakdown voltage without failing completely. Here we will discuss the concept of using diodes to regulate voltage drop and how the Zener diode operates in reverse-bias mode to regulate voltage in a circuit.