2/6/2019 Diode - Wikipedia

Diode
A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current
primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally
zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in
the other. A diode vacuum tube or thermionic diode is a vacuum tube
with two electrodes, a heated cathode and a plate, in which electrons can
flow in only one direction, from cathode to plate. A semiconductor
diode, the most common type today, is a crystalline piece of
semiconductor material with a p–n junction connected to two electrical
terminals.[5] Semiconductor diodes were the first semiconductor electronic
Close-up view of a silicon diode.
devices. The discovery of asymmetric electrical conduction across the The anode is at the right side; the
contact between a crystalline mineral and a metal was made by German cathode is at the left side (where it is
physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1874. Today, most diodes are made of silicon, marked with a black band). The
but other materials such as gallium arsenide and germanium are used.[6] square silicon crystal can be seen
between the two leads.

Contents
Main functions
History
Vacuum tube diodes
Solid-state diodes
Etymology
Rectifiers

Vacuum tube diodes

Semiconductor diodes
Point-contact diodes
Junction diodes
p–n junction diode
Schottky diode
Current–voltage characteristic
Reverse bias
Forward bias
Shockley diode equation
Small-signal behavior
Reverse-recovery effect
Types of semiconductor diode
Graphic symbols
Numbering and coding schemes
EIA/JEDEC
JIS
Pro Electron

Related devices
Applications
Radio demodulation
Power conversion
Over-voltage protection
Logic gates
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Ionizing radiation detectors

Temperature measurements
Current steering
Waveform Clipper
Clamper
Abbreviations
See also
References
External links

Main functions
The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass
in one direction (called the diode's forward direction), while blocking it in
the opposite direction (the reverse direction). As such, the diode can be
viewed as an electronic version of a check valve. This unidirectional
behavior is called rectification, and is used to convert alternating current
(ac) to direct current (dc). Forms of rectifiers, diodes can be used for such
tasks as extracting modulation from radio signals in radio receivers.

However, diodes can have more complicated behavior than this simple on–
off action, because of their nonlinear current-voltage characteristics.[7]
Semiconductor diodes begin conducting electricity only if a certain
threshold voltage or cut-in voltage is present in the forward direction (a
state in which the diode is said to be forward-biased). The voltage drop
across a forward-biased diode varies only a little with the current, and is a Various semiconductor diodes.
function of temperature; this effect can be used as a temperature sensor or Bottom: A bridge rectifier. In most
as a voltage reference. Also, diodes' high resistance to current flowing in diodes, a white or black painted
the reverse direction suddenly drops to a low resistance when the reverse band identifies the cathode into
which electrons will flow when the
voltage across the diode reaches a value called the breakdown voltage.
diode is conducting. Electron flow is
the reverse of conventional current
A semiconductor diode's current–voltage characteristic can be tailored by
flow.[1][2][3][4]
selecting the semiconductor materials and the doping impurities
introduced into the materials during manufacture.[7] These techniques are
used to create special-purpose diodes that perform many different functions.[7] For example, diodes are used to
regulate voltage (Zener diodes), to protect circuits from high voltage surges (avalanche diodes), to electronically tune
radio and TV receivers (varactor diodes), to generate radio-frequency oscillations (tunnel diodes, Gunn diodes,
IMPATT diodes), and to produce light (light-emitting diodes). Tunnel, Gunn and IMPATT diodes exhibit negative
resistance, which is useful in microwave and switching circuits.

Diodes, both vacuum and semiconductor, can be used as shot-noise generators.

History
Thermionic (vacuum-tube) diodes and solid-state (semiconductor) diodes were developed separately, at
approximately the same time, in the early 1900s, as radio receiver detectors.[8] Until the 1950s, vacuum diodes were
used more frequently in radios because the early point-contact semiconductor diodes were less stable. In addition,
most receiving sets had vacuum tubes for amplification that could easily have the thermionic diodes included in the

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tube (for example the 12SQ7 double diode triode), and vacuum-tube
rectifiers and gas-filled rectifiers were capable of handling some high-
voltage/high-current rectification tasks better than the semiconductor
diodes (such as selenium rectifiers) that were available at that time.

Vacuum tube diodes

In 1873, Frederick Guthrie observed that a grounded, white hot metal ball
brought in close proximity to an electroscope would discharge a positively
charged electroscope, but not a negatively charged electroscope.[9][10]

In 1880, Thomas Edison observed unidirectional current between heated

and unheated elements in a bulb, later called Edison effect, and was
granted a patent on application of the phenomenon for use in a dc
voltmeter.[11][12]
Structure of a vacuum tube diode.
About 20 years later, John Ambrose Fleming (scientific adviser to the The filament itself may be the
Marconi Company and former Edison employee) realized that the Edison cathode, or more commonly (as
effect could be used as a radio detector. Fleming patented the first true shown here) used to heat a
separate metal tube which serves
thermionic diode, the Fleming valve, in Britain on November 16, 1904[13]
as the cathode.
(followed by U.S. Patent 803,684 (https://www.google.com/patents/US80
3684) in November 1905).

Throughout the vacuum tube era, valve diodes were used in almost all electronics such as radios, televisions, sound
systems and instrumentation. They slowly lost market share beginning in the late 1940s due to selenium rectifier
technology and then to semiconductor diodes during the 1960s. Today they are still used in a few high power
applications where their ability to withstand transient voltages and their robustness gives them an advantage over
semiconductor devices, and in musical instrument and audiophile applications.

Solid-state diodes
In 1874, German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun discovered the "unilateral conduction" across a contact between a
metal and a mineral.[14][15] Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose was the first to use a crystal for detecting radio
waves in 1894.[16] The crystal detector was developed into a practical device for wireless telegraphy by Greenleaf
Whittier Pickard, who invented a silicon crystal detector in 1903 and received a patent for it on November 20, 1906.[17]
Other experimenters tried a variety of other minerals as detectors. Semiconductor principles were unknown to the
developers of these early rectifiers. During the 1930s understanding of physics advanced and in the mid 1930s
researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories recognized the potential of the crystal detector for application in
microwave technology.[18] Researchers at Bell Labs, Western Electric, MIT, Purdue and in the UK intensively
developed point-contact diodes (crystal rectifiers or crystal diodes) during World War II for application in radar.[18]
After World War II, AT&T used these in their microwave towers that criss-crossed the United States, and many radar
sets use them even in the 21st century. In 1946, Sylvania began offering the 1N34 crystal diode.[19][20][21] During the
early 1950s, junction diodes were developed.

Etymology
At the time of their invention, asymmetrical conduction devices were known as rectifiers. In 1919, the year tetrodes
were invented, William Henry Eccles coined the term diode from the Greek roots di (from δί), meaning 'two', and ode
(from ὁδός), meaning 'path'. The word diode, however, as well as triode, tetrode, pentode, hexode, were already in use
as terms of multiplex telegraphy.[22]

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