The City College of New York

School of Engineering
EE32200 Electrical Engineering Laboratory II
Section 27667
Spring Semester 2022

Lab Report Experiment #2

Diodes and Diode Circuits

Instructor:
Saurabh Sachdeva
Student Name:
Ronny Vintimilla

03/30/2022
Introduction
In this practice are used some non linear diodes circuits such as diode with

independent current source, diode with sinusoidal source and resistor, Bridge type

diodes with transformer and resistor either with capacitor or without capacitor, Zener

diode with independent current source, and Zener diode with current source as a load.

As we know the behave of a diode depends how the current is flowing through circuit.

Ordinary diode could have two states; short circuit, called forward bias diode or open

circuit, called reversed bias diode. At the same, a Zener diode could be working as an

ordinary diode in forward direction, and as a Zener in reverse direction.

From this principle, we have done some applications for rectifier our output

signal as Half Wave Rectifier Circuit, Full Wave Rectifier Circuit. Also, we have

converted the signal from the AC output signal to DC output signal when we

implemented DC Power Supply circuit considering a capacitor as filter. Finally, we

built Voltage regulation from reverse biased Zener to control the voltage of Zener.

Purpose

The main objective of this practice was to know how a diode works and its I-V

characteristics of operation for designing different circuits.

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Equipment

1. Oscilloscope
2. Function Generator
3. DC Power Supply
4. Digital Multimeter
5. Protoboard

Pre-Lab Procedure:

The following figure of some circuit was simulated using Multisim to determine

the output Voltage and output current of each other, as shown below.

Step 1: The I-V characteristics of a Diode

Circuit 1a

Fig.1. Circuit Diagram for Diode Characterization

Fig.2. DC sweep the Diode Voltage vs Diode Current on Multisim by circuit 1 from 0 to
15mA in steps of 5uA.

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 1. We built I-V characteristics of a Diode circuit of Figure 1 using Multisim.
2. We simulated DC Sweep Analysis of Vout diode at node 1 to get the
graph of V vs I. Also, we swept some parameters of current source as
described in Figure 2.
3. We saved data as .txt file of Id in the first column and Vd in the second
column, and plotted data of I vs V in Matlab.

Matlab Code:
load figure1.txt;
Id1=figure1(:,1);
Vd1=figure1(:,2);
hold on;
grid on;
plot(Vd1,Id1,'r-')
title('The I-D Characteristic of a Diode / Id VS Vd')
xlabel('Diode Voltage (V)')
ylabel('Diode Current (A)')
xlim([0,1]);
ylim([0,0.015]);

Fig.3. Plot of Id vs Vd of data taken from Multisim by circuit 1.

• From I-V characteristics of a Diode, we observed that diode arrangement

in forwarding bias achieved a value of 0.65 V.

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We repeated steps 1-3, but we changed the time sweep of the current source from 0
to 50uA and made DC Sweep again on Multisim for figure 1.
Circuit 1b

Fig.4. DC sweep the Diode Voltage vs Diode Current on Multisim by circuit 1 from 0 to
50uA in steps of 0.05uA.
Matlab Code:
load figure1.txt;
Id1=figure1(:,1);
Vd1=figure1(:,2);
ideal_1=0.65;
plot(Vd1,Id1)
hold on
plot(ideal_1,Id1,'linewidth',1.5)
grid on
xlabel('Diode Voltage')
xlim([0 1]);
xline(ideal_1,'r','linewidth', 1.5)
ylabel('Diode Current')
ylim([0 0.015]);
legend('Diode Voltage','Battery')
title('The I-D Characteristic of a Diode / Id VS Vd')

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We loaded the data of Vd vs Id gotten from Multisim to Matlab, and plotted Id vs

Vd using an ideal battery.

Fig.5. Plot of Id vs Vd of data taken from Multisim by circuit 1.

• From I-V characteristics of a Diode using a battery of 0.65V, we

observed that diode in forwarding bias region gotten a knee point
voltage of 0.65 V.

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Step 2: Half Wave Rectifer Circuit

Circuit 2

Fig.6. Circuit Diagram for Half wave rectification of a sinusoidal source.

1. We built Half wave rectification of a sinusoidal source of Figure 6 using

Multisim.
2. We simulated AC Transient Analysis of V source and Vout diode at node
1 and 2 respectively to get the graph of V vs I.
3. We set end time from 0 to 50ms as described in Figure 7.

Fig.7. AC Transient analysis over 50ms (5 periods) of Voltage Source and Diode

Voltage on Multisim by circuit 2.

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 • From Half wave rectification of a sinusoidal source AC, we observed that
DC output waveform gotten was only the portion of positive half cycle
while negative half cycle was deleted.

Step 3: Full Wave Rectifier Circuit

Circuit 3

Fig.8. Circuit Diagram for Full wave rectification of a sinusoidal source.

1. We built Full wave rectification of a sinusoidal source of Figure 8 using

Multisim.
2. We simulated AC Transient Analysis of Vout R1 at node 1 to get the
graph of V vs I.
3. We set end time from 0 to 50ms as described in Figure 7.

Fig.9. AC Transient analysis over 50ms (5 periods) of output Voltage at node 1 on

Multisim by circuit 3.

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 • From Full wave rectification of a sinusoidal source AC, we observed that
DC output waveform gotten was only the portion of positive half cycle
while negative half cycle was raised together positive cycle .

Step 4: DC Power Supply with filter capacitor for circuit 2 and circuit 3

Circuit 4a

Fig.10. Circuit Diagram for Half wave rectification of a sinusoidal source with filter

capacitor.

Fig.11. AC Transient analysis over 50ms (3 periods) of output Voltage at node 1 on

Multisim by circuit 4a.

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 • From Half wave rectification of a sinusoidal source AC using a capacitor,
we observed that DC output waveform gotten was only the portion of
positive half cycle while negative half cycle was deleted in presence of
rectifier diodes, but when we used a capacitor, some variations was
gotten in the output voltage called ripple due to the charges and
discharges of capacitor.

Circuit 4b

Fig.12. Circuit Diagram for Full wave rectification of a sinusoidal source with filter

capacitor.

Fig.13. AC Transient analysis over 50ms (3 periods) of output Voltage at node 1 on

Multisim by circuit 4b.

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 • From Full wave rectification of a sinusoidal source AC using a capacitor,
we observed that DC output waveform gotten was both portions of
positive and negative half cycle of rectifier diodes, but when we used a
capacitor, ripple was less than Half wave rectification.
• Design Problem:

𝐼𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 100 𝑚𝐴
𝑉𝑑𝑐 = 17𝑉𝑝
%𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 5%
2𝜋
𝑇=
𝑓
𝑓 = 60𝐻𝑧
𝑉𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 = %𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 ∗ 𝑉𝑑𝑐
𝐼𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑∗𝑇
• 𝐶= = 1 𝑚𝐹
𝑉𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒
• For the Filter problem, the capacitor established was 1mF for having
5% of ripple.

Step 5: Characterization of a Zener Diode.

Circuit 5

Fig.14. Circuit Diagram for Zener Diode Characterization.

1. We built I-V characteristics of a Zener Diode circuit of Figure 14 using

Multisim.
2. We simulated DC Sweep Analysis of Vout diode at node 1 to get the
graph of V vs I. Also, we swept some parameters of current source as
described in Figure 15.
3. We saved data as .txt file of Iz in the first column and Vz in the second
column, and plotted data of I vs V in Matlab.

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 Fig.15. DC sweep the Zener Voltage vs Zener Current on Multisim by circuit 5 from
-10mA to 10mA in steps of 0.01mA.
Matlab Code:
load Zenerdiode.txt;
Iz=Zenerdiode(:,1);
Vz=Zenerdiode(:,2);
hold on;
grid on;
plot(Vz,Iz,'r-')
title('The I-D Characteristic of a Zener Diode / Iz VS Vz')
xlabel('Diode Voltage (Vz - V)')
ylabel('Diode Current (Iz- A)')

Fig.16. Plot of Iz vs Vz of data taken from Multisim by circuit 5.

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 • From I-V characteristics of a Zener Diode, we observed that Zener in
forwarding bias is working as Diode with a knee voltage of 0.7V and
inverse bias is working as Zener with a breakdown voltage of -5V.

Step 6: Voltage Regulation using a reverse biased Zener Diode

Circuit 6a with 1K

Fig.17. Circuit Diagram for reverse biased Zener Diode for voltage regulation using an

ideal current source as a load and resistor of 1K.

Fig.18. DC sweep the Zener Voltage vs Zener Current on Multisim by circuit 6a from –
0mA to 5mA in steps of 0.05mA.

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Matlab Code:
load vrg1k.txt;
Iz=vrg1k(:,1);
Vz=vrg1k(:,2);
hold on;
grid on;
plot(Vz,Iz,'r-')
title('The Voltage regulation Zener diode 1k / Iz VS Vz')
xlabel('Diode Voltage (Vz - V)')
ylabel('Diode Current (Iz- A)')

Fig.19. Plot of Iz vs Vz of data taken from Multisim by circuit 6a.

Circuit 6b with 5K

Fig.20. Circuit Diagram for reverse biased Zener Diode for voltage regulation using an

ideal current source as a load and resistor of 5K.

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Fig.21. DC sweep the Zener Voltage vs Zener Current on Multisim by circuit 6b from -

0mA to 5mA in steps of 0.05mA.

Matlab Code:
load vrg5k.txt;
Iz=vrg5k(:,1);
Vz=vrg5k(:,2);
hold on;
grid on;
plot(Vz,Iz,'r-')
title('The Voltage regulation Zener diode 5k / Iz VS Vz')
xlabel('Diode Voltage (Vz - V)')
ylabel('Diode Current (Iz- A)')

Fig.22. Plot of Iz vs Vz of data taken from Multisim by circuit 6b.

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 • From both figures of I-V characteristics of a Zener Diode, we observed
that Zener achieved a maximum current of 5mA in each case even if
there were a resistance of 1K or 5K.

Procedure in Laboratory:

Data/ Observations

The following data of output signal for voltage and current of diode or load of
each figure was experimentally determined from different instruments such as
oscilloscope and programs such as Labview, to each circuit, as shown below.
In each circuit, we used a resistance of 1K or 1.5K between the power and diode
for protection of our diode.
Step 1: The I-V characteristics of a Diode

Circuit 1

Fig.23. Circuit Diagram for Diode Characterization

1. We built I-V characteristics of a Diode circuit of Figure 23 on our

protoboard.
2. We connected the power supply Vs with our circuit to make a DC sweep
from VI Power Supply Voltage Sweep/ DMM by Labview. This sweep
was from 0 to 15 V in 0.10 V increments. Also, we connected out DMM
to diode.
3. We saved data as .txt file of Vs for power supply, Vd for DMM and Id.

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 Fig.24. VI sweep power supply from 0 to 15 V in 0.1V to Vs and Vd.

• From figure 24 of Vs – Vdiode characteristics of Diode, we observed

that Diode voltage keep the same voltage than power supply for values
below Vs=0.4V, Vs=Vd. While values of Vs greater than 2V, Diode
voltage will keep in 0.6V.

Fig.25. Plot of Id vs Vd of data taken from Labview by figure 23.

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 • From I-V characteristics of a Diode, we observed that diode in
forwarding bias region gotten a knee point voltage of 0.65 V.

• % Error VD for circuit 1:

𝑉𝑠 = 15𝑉, 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝐷 = 0.75𝑉 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐷𝑀𝑀

𝑉𝑠 − 𝑉𝐷
𝐼𝐷 = = 0.0095𝐴
1.5𝐾

𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝐷 = 0.65 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑚

𝑉𝐷 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 − 𝑉𝐷 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 0.65 − 0.75

%= ∗ 100 = ∗ 100 = 𝟏𝟓%
𝑉𝐷 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 0.65

Step 2: Half Wave Rectifer Circuit

Circuit 2

1. We built Half wave rectifier circuit of Figure 6 on our protoboard and set
function generator as figure 6.
2. We connected the Oscilloscope from channel 1 to voltage source and from
channel 2 to output voltage of diode
3. We set the Oscilloscope to DC, 10X, vertical scale of 2v/div.
4. We saved waveform from VI- Save Oscilloscope image.

Fig.26. Oscilloscope image of the Half wave rectifier circuit

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Step 3: Full Wave Rectifier Circuit

Circuit 3

1. We built Full wave rectifier circuit of Figure 8 on our protoboard and

connected a transformer of 12Vrms.
2. We connected the Oscilloscope from channel 1 to output voltage at node 1
and from channel 2 to ground voltage at node 4.
3. We set the Oscilloscope to DC, 10X, vertical scale of 2v/div.
4. We saved waveform from VI- Save Oscilloscope image.

Fig.27. Oscilloscope image of the Full wave rectifier circuit

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Step 4: DC Power Supply with filter capacitor for circuit 3

Circuit 4b

1. We built Full wave rectifier circuit with a capacitor of Figure 12 on our

protoboard and connected a transformer of 12Vrms.
2. We connected the Oscilloscope from channel 1 to output voltage at node 1
and from channel 2 to ground voltage at node 4.
3. We set the Oscilloscope to DC, 10X, vertical scale of 2v/div.
4. We saved waveform from VI- Save Oscilloscope image.

Fig.28. Oscilloscope image of the Full wave rectifier circuit with capacitor.
Step 5: Characterization of a Zener Diode.

Circuit 5

1. We built characterization of a Zener Diode circuit of Figure 14 on our

protoboard and connected a power supply to do the sweep from -10V to
10V.
2. We connected the Oscilloscope from channel 1 to output voltage at node 1
and from channel 2 to ground voltage at node 4.
3. We set the Oscilloscope to DC, 10X, vertical scale of 2v/div.
4. We saved waveform from VI- Save Oscilloscope image.

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 Fig.29. Plot of Iz vs Vz of data taken from Labview by circuit 14.

From here, we noticed that diode voltage was 0.6V and Zener Voltage was -6V called
breakdown.
Step 6: Voltage Regulation using a reverse biased Zener Diode

Circuit 6a

1. We built voltage regulation of a reverse biased Zener Diode circuit of Figure

17 on our protoboard and connected a power supply to do the sweep from
0.7V to 4V in 0.1V steps in parallel with the resistor of 560 ohms, and
with multimeter recorded our output voltage.
2. We connected the Oscilloscope from channel 1 to output voltage at node 1
and from channel 2 to ground voltage at node 4.
3. We saved data of the output voltage using LABVIEW VI Power Supply

Voltage Sweep/ DMM.

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 Fig.30. VI sweep power supply from 0.7V to 4V in 0.1V to VRE and
Vouput.

Fig.31. Plot of Idoad or Re vs Voutput of data taken from Labview by circuit 14.

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Conclusion

Overall, the experiment achieved to acquire, compare, verify the waveform of

output voltage, Zener diode voltage simulated and measured from Multisim,

Oscilloscope and Labview. By knowing the I-V diode behavior of each circuit , we

applied concepts as forward bias and inverse bias for Diode and Zener. To know about

rectifiers, we designed some circuits like half wave rectifiers, full wave rectifiers, DC

Power Supplies and Voltage reulators. This experiment is performed a converter of AC

signal to DC signal and observed some ripples with were decreased through increasing

of the capacitive value. As a result, the waveform of oscilloscope showed great

similarities in the simulated and in the measured. The most import in each circuit were,

we could be assuming that the material semiconductor used to diode was Silicon due to

its knee voltage of 0.7 V.

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