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Diode modelling
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In electronics, diode modeling refers to the mathematical models used to approximate the actual behavior of real diodes to enable calculations and circuit analysis. A diode's I-V curve is nonlinear (it is well described by the Shockley diode law). This nonlinearity complicates calculations in circuits involving diodes, so simpler models are often required.
This article discusses the modeling of p-n junction diodes, but the techniques may be generalized to other diodes.
Shockley diode equation relates the diode current of a p-n junction diode to the diode voltage .
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Encyclopedia
In electronics, diode modeling refers to the mathematical models used to approximate the actual behavior of real diodes to enable calculations and circuit analysis. A diode's I-V curve is nonlinear (it is well described by the Shockley diode law). This nonlinearity complicates calculations in circuits involving diodes, so simpler models are often required.
This article discusses the modeling of p-n junction diodes, but the techniques may be generalized to other diodes.
Large-signal modeling
Shockley diode model
The Shockley diode equation relates the diode current of a p-n junction diode to the diode voltage . This relationship is the diode I-V characteristic:
- ,
where is the saturation current or scale current of the diode (the magnitude of the current that flows for negative in excess of a few , typically 10-12 A). The scale current is proportional to the diode area. Continuing with the symbols: is the thermal voltage, and is known as the diode ideality factor (for silicon diodes is approximately 1 to 2).
When the formula can be simplified to:
- .
Diode-resistor circuit example
To illustrate the complications in using this law, consider the problem of finding the voltage across the diode in Figure 1.
Because the current flowing through the diode is the same as the current throughout the entire circuit, we can lay down another equation. By Kirchhoff's laws, which boil down to simply Ohm's law in this case, the current flowing in the circuit is
- .
These two equations determine the diode current and the diode voltage. To solve these two equations, we could substitute the current from the second equation into the first equation, and then try to rearrange the resulting equation to get in terms of . A difficulty with this method is that the diode law is nonlinear. Nonetheless, a formula expressing directly in terms of without involving can be obtained using the Lambert -function, which is the inverse function of , that is, . This solution is discussed next.
Explicit solution
An explicit expression for the diode current can be obtained in terms of the Lambert W-function (also called the Omega function). A guide to these manipulations follows. A new variable is introduced as
- .
Following the substitution , rearrangement of the diode law in terms of w becomes
- ,
which using the Lambert -function becomes
- .
With the approximations (valid for the most common values of the parameters) and , this solution becomes
- .
Once the current is determined, the diode voltage can be found using either of the other equations.
Iterative solution
The diode voltage can be found in terms of for any particular set of values by an iterative method using a calculator or computer The diode law is rearranged by dividing by , and adding 1. The diode law becomes
- .
By taking natural logarithms of both sides the exponential is removed, and the equation becomes
- .
For any , this equation determines . However, also must satisfy the Kirchhoff's law equation, given above. This expression is substituted for to obtain
- ,
or
- .
The voltage of the source is a known given value, but is on both sides of the equation, which forces an iterative solution: a starting value for is guessed and put into the right side of the equation. Carrying out the various operations on the right side, we come up with a new value for . This new value now is substituted on the right side, and so forth. If this iteration converges the values of become closer and closer together as the process continues, and we can stop iteration when the accuracy is sufficient. Once is found, can be found from the Kirchhoff's law equation.
Sometimes an iterative procedure depends critically on the first guess. In this example, almost any first guess will do, say . Sometimes an iterative procedure does not converge at all: in this problem an iteration based on the exponential function does not converge, and that is why the equations were rearranged to use a logarithm. Finding a convergent iterative formulation is an art, and every problem is different.
Graphical solution
Graphical analysis is a simple way to derive a numerical solution to the transcendental equations describing the diode. As with most graphical methods, it has the advantage of easy visualization. By plotting the I-V curves, it is possible to obtain an approximate solution to any arbitrary degree of accuracy. This process is the graphical equivalent of the two previous approaches, which are more amenable to computer implementation.
This method plots the two current-voltage equations on a graph and the point of intersection of the two curves satisfies both equations, giving the value of the current flowing through the circuit and the voltage across the diode. The following figure illustrates such method.
Piecewise linear model
In practice, the graphical method is complicated and long and is impractical for complex circuits. Another method of modeling a diode is called piecewise linear (PWL) modelling. In mathematics, this means taking a function and breaking it down into several linear segments. The example below shows how a curve can be approximated by three linear segments, forming a three-segment PWL model:
The same method is used to approximate the diode characteristic curve into linear segments. This enables us to substitute the real diode for an ideal diode, a voltage source and a resistor. The figure below shows a real diode I-V curve being approximated by a two segment piecewise linear model. Typically the sloped line segment would be chosen tangent to the diode curve at the Q-point. Then the slope of this line is given by the reciprocal of the small-signal resistance of the diode at the Q-point.
Mathematically idealized diode
Firstly, let us consider a mathematically idealized diode. In such an ideal diode, if the diode is reverse biased, the current flowing through it is zero. This ideal diode starts conducting at 0 V and for any positive voltage an infinite current flows and the diode acts like a short circuit. The I-V characteristics of an ideal diode are shown below:
Ideal diode in series with voltage source
Now let us consider the case when we add a voltage source in series with the diode in the form shown below:
When forward biased, the ideal diode is simply a short circuit and when reverse biased, an open circuit.
If the anode of the diode is connected to 0 V, the voltage at the cathode will be at Vt and so the potential at the cathode will be greater than the potential at the anode and the diode will be reverse biased. In order to get the diode to conduct, the voltage at the anode will need to be taken to Vt. This circuit approximates the cut-in voltage present in real diodes. The combined I-V characteristic of this circuit is shown below:
Diode with voltage source and current-limiting resistor
The last thing needed is a resistor to limit the current, as shown below:
The I-V characteristic of the final circuit looks like this:
The real diode now can be replaced with the combined ideal diode, voltage source and resistor and the circuit then is modeled using just linear elements. If the sloped-line segment is tangent to the real diode curve at the Q-point, this approximate circuit has the same small-signal circuit at the Q-point as the real diode.
Small-signal modeling
Resistance
Using the Shockley equation, the small-signal diode resistance of the diode can be derived about some operating point (Q-point) where the DC bias current is and the Q-point applied voltage is . To begin, the diode small-signal conductance is found, that is, the change in current in the diode caused by a small change in voltage across the diode, divided by this voltage change, namely:
- .
The latter approximation assumes that the bias current is large enough so that the factor of 1 in the parentheses of the Shockley diode equation can be ignored. This approximation is accurate even at rather small voltages, because the thermal voltage at 300K, so tends to be large, meaning that the exponential is very large.
Noting that the small-signal resistance is the reciprocal of the small-signal conductance just found, the diode resistance is independent of the ac current, but depends on the dc current, and is given as
- .
Capacitance
The charge in the diode carrying current is known to be
,
where is the forward transit time of charge carriers: The first term in the charge is the charge in transit across the diode when the current flows. The second term is the charge stored in the junction itself when it is viewed as a simple capacitor; that is, as a pair of electrodes with opposite charges on them. It is the charge stored on the diode by virtue of simply having a voltage across it, regardless of any current it conducts.
In a similar fashion as before, the diode capacitance is the change in diode charge with diode voltage:
- ,
where is the junction capacitance and the first term is called the diffusion capacitance, because it is related to the current diffusing through the junction.
See also
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