Relevant Theory And Background Information: Zener Diode

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Relevant Theory/Background Information (Heading, Level 2)
Experiment 2 :
Diodes are basic semiconductor devices that will only allow current to flow through them in one direction only, Forward bias. Diodes are made from two differently doped layers of semiconductor material that form a PN junction. When the diode is reverse biased, the positive holes are attracted towards the negative voltage and away from the junction. Likewise the negative electrons are attracted away from the junction towards the positive voltage applied to the cathode. As higher voltages are applied in reverse polarity to the diode, the depletion layer becomes wider as the applied voltage is attracting more charge carriers away from it. The diode will not conduct with a reverse voltage when a reverse bias applied. Once the voltage is applied in the forward direction, current will flow; in this case as the voltage is increased more current flows.

Experiment 2:
Rectifiers convert an AC into a DC by allowing a current to flow through it in one direction only. There are two kinds of rectifiers,
Half- wave: A half-wave rectifier allows only one half-cycle of the AC voltage waveform to be applied to the load, using one half cycle of the applied voltage, the other half cycle being suppressed because it conducts only in one …show more content…

The Zener Diode was used in its reverse bias. Zener Diode was basically used to produce a stabilized voltage output with low ripple under varying load current. The load current observed ranged btween 0 mA and 10 mA. By passing a small current through the diode, close to 0 A, from a voltage source, the zener diode conducts sufficient current to maintain a voltage drop at Vout. The zener diode as a voltage regulator, the clipping circuits are used to remove the part of a signal that undefined; while, the clamping circuits are used to shift an input signal by an amount defined by an independent voltage

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