Eduard Costa

LAB BOOK 29 APRIL

1. BASICS

1.1. Breadboard

Breadboard connections have been checked. Also, the measurement of a resistor has been done and the
colour code has been verified. We have just been trying different points in the breadboard to check if
the circuit is closed or not.

1.2. Voltage divider

In the first place, we have selected the voltage and current desired in the power supply. The voltage
can directly be measured by connecting the multimeter to the channels, but the current measurement
requires to put a resistor (because the multimeter is not providing a resistance in the current-measuring
setting).

Now we have set a circuit with a resistor, and we are measuring the voltage in the resistor to see if we
get the 5V we should (Photo 1). We get the desired result.

We have tried to connect the amperemeter in series in the circuit, but we do not manage to get a
current measurement. Maybe it is a problem of fixing it in the power supply. That was not a problem.
We set the PARA option OFF, we do not know what it was doing. The current in the power supply just
sets a current limitation. The current will be given by the voltage we give and the resistor we put. So,
the 50mA does not have to be measured, we only need to make sure the voltage is good.

In photo 2, we have connected the 1kOhm resistor with the 5V supply. Using Ohm’s law, we have
measured the expected 5mA.

1.3. The oscilloscope

The maximum frequency is 25MHz and the minimum is 1Hz. The minimum value of the amplitude is
1.4mVrms (root mean squared) or 4mVpp and the maximum is 20Vpp (peak to peak) or 7.07Vrms. We
have noticed that the oscilloscope cannot show less than 10Hz.

For the sinus wave function with 1kHz, we get a value between 0,998kHz and 1,002 kHz, so a 0,1%
error.

In the XY mode we can see different shapes when varying the relative phase between the signals.

The rise time can be measured more precisely with lower bandwidth. At BW 20MHz and 10 cycles we
have 16,8 +- 0,5 ns. For BW 60 MHz, we get 9 +- 2 ns. If we do for one cycle it is 7,4 ns.

The BW is 60 MHz, so the oscilloscope rise time is 5,83ns.

1.4

The minimum duty cycle is 20%

Invertion of the voltage is done with the short-circuit and we will get a cancel in the central zone and
only see the difference in the way up and down.

When there is a resistor at the end, it damps completely the signal, not allowing for a return pulse.
Eduard Costa

Is there a difference between cable and resistor and only resistor?

With the 20m-long cable, we measure the capacitance. The impedance of the cable is exactly 50 ohm
because when we put the terminance resistor of 50 ohm, we get no reflection in the cable, which only
happens when both of them are equal (take a look at the equations, the professor did not remember the
exact maths).

We are getting a good result for the capacitance but not quite for the inductance. We are not sure if we
should use 20 or 40 meters for the calculation and also we are not sure if the capacitor and the
inductance are in parallel. Inductance hinders current flow because magnetic field has to be built. The
creation of the magnetic field requires energy from the current. One we get an equilibrium the current
can flow without any hindering. Because we are assuming a loss-less cable, the difference between the
computed cable

DOUBT 1: How many meters should we use for the calculation and why?
DOUBT 2: Why are we getting a lower value than expected? We are expecting either 5 or 10
microFarads, but we are getting 3, and we are sad.

FOR THE LAST EXPERIMENT: A cable has a certain inductance, so when we have an electronic
circuit, and we want it to get the current fast, we do not get it because the magnetic field in the
inductances have to generate. So, putting a capacitor in parallel will allow us to give instantaneously
current to the electronic circuit until the source can power the circuit by itself.
Eduard Costa

LAB BOOK 13th MAY

2. DIODES

Interesting videos:
- How do semiconductors work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2S7kN12RDQ
- Band gap and semiconductor current carriers https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=N8MuD_xu6L4
- How does a diode work? The PN junction https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=btOIDQeMrMg

2.0. Summary of the seen videos

A semiconductor is a material in between conductors and insulators when we talk about

capacity to conduct electrical current. We use Si or GaAs. These materials can get easily
enough thermal energy to get electrons from the valence band to the conduction band, getting
free electrons in the conduction band and holes in the valence band. This is an undoped
intrinsic material and it has not enough free charge carriers to be good conductor. For this
reason, they are doped with pentavalent atoms or trivalent atoms to get more free electrons or
holes respectively. These are called extrinsic semiconductors (p-doped when they have more
holes than electrons and n-doped when it is the other way around).

We can generate current in an intrinsic semiconductor applying a voltage an making the electrons in
the conduction move (electron current). In the valence band, the move of electrons to nearby holes
creates a hole current.

Now, we put together a p-type and an n-type material: we get a PN junction. Free electrons from n
region diffuse to the p region, leaving a positive layer near the junction of the former. We also have a
negatively charged layer in the p-region, where the electrons arrived. This is the depletion region, that
stabilises when the electric field (barrier potential) it generates counteracts the diffusion. If we wanted
conduction, we would need to apply voltage greater than the barrier potential. The diffusion is caused
by the overlap between the conduction bands of the p and n regions, but they separate when charges
are moved, eventually reaching equilibrium.

Diodes can allow electricity when forward biased and prevent it when reverse biased. For

2.1.

2.3.1.1-2-3-4-5. In the first exercise, we see the plot of the intensity as a function of the voltage. We
have set the current maximum value at most 0.02A (200mA).

2.3.1.6-7-8. An oscilloscope does not measure current. We have to connect a resistor, measure the
voltage drop in it and then calculate the intensity through it. We had to set the attenuation right. The
two cables that go to the oscilloscope go to the ground, so we were putting both components to a
common ground, so we were shortcutting the diode.

2.3.1.9.
For the LED, the longest leg or pin is the negative one. At 1.6V it starts glowing, which is more than
the other ones.

2.3.2.
The Ziener voltage is 8.2V.
Eduard Costa

To fulfil the first condition, the ratio R/RL must be ≥ (10 -9.2)/9.2 = 0.087 (A). At the same time,
R/RL ≤ (10-8.2)/8.2 = 0.219 (B), otherwise the Zener voltage will not be reached. The ratio between
two neighbouring values of the E6 series is ∼0.68?, which satisfies both inequalities. To fulfil the
second condition, R ≥ (10V – 8.2V)/0.025A ⇒ R ≥ 72Ω. Both requirements are met if R = 100Ω and
RL = 150Ω. The maximum power loss at R and RL is 0.14 W? and 0.17 W? respectively; the resistors
are specified for a maximum power loss of 0.25 W?.

Not enough current was flowing through the Ziener diode.

3.6.2.

The forward voltage for both of them are 0.656, similar to the value of 0.7 at 25ºC.

3 June

The diodes start conducting at 0.7V

The calculations done in class (photograph) are just approximations. There are currents that move a bit
differently from what we have in the whiteboard, but it still helps us calculate what values we expect
in the different places in the circuit.

How do we find out if it is

The signal is coupled in to the base of the transistor. The amplified signal goes to the collector. The
remaining pin gives the name to the scheme, so it is an emitter scheme.

In a collector scheme, the signal is coupled in to the base and it is coupled out to the emitter. Then it is
a collector scheme.

3.6.5.5. At some point we measure the temperature dependence of the voltage between the collector
and the emitter. We measure a strong dependency, a change of about 1V when we press it with the
fingers.

3.6.5.6. However, we are changing the circuit afterwards so that the temperature dependency
disappears.

For infinite frequency the impedance goes to zero, as if the capacitor was not there. If the frequency is
very low, the impedance will grow a lot so the signal will not pass through the wire. The DC voltage
will not pass but the AC will do. So that is why we call it AC Capactitor. The same works for C2,
being the signal symmetrical around ground.

Explanation on the circuit we have just done. For the transistor to work, the base must be 0.7V higher
than the emitter but also the collector needs to be even higher than that, because the electrons have to
go in the direction of the collector. We had a problem where the collector was not high enough or the
base-emitter was not meeting the requirement. Also, even if these values are correct, we need a
specific voltage between base and emitter so that the output (which would be the y axis in the
characteristic curve of a diode) is not neither too small nor too large.