Experiment: 5
Date:
FAMILIARIZATION, IDENTIFICATION OF ACTIVE
COMPONENTS AND TESTING USING
MULTIMETER
OBJECTIVES:
1. Identify and familiarize the basic active components like
diodes, LED, Zener diode.
2. Familiarize given BJT in terms of its types (pnp/npn) and identify the terminals.
3. Test diodes and transistors using a multimeter.
COMPONENTS REQUIRED:
Sl. No: COMPONENTS & EQUIPMENTS QUANTITY
1. Diode (Si, Ge) 1 each
2. Zener Diode 1 each
3. LED (unicolour, bicolour) 1 each
4. NPN Transistor 1 each
5. PNP Transistor 1 each
6. Multimeter 1
THEORY:
Active components: Dependent on power supply:
Active components produce energy in the form of voltage or current. These
components require external source to their operation.
Eg: Diode, Transistor.
DIODE:
A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts
primarily in one direction; it has low (ideally zero) resistance to the flow
of current in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the
other. 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. Most diodes are made with semiconductor materials
such as silicon, germanium, or selenium.
They have two leads or terminals: cathode (k) and an anode (A). The
positive terminal is the anode, and the negative terminal is the cathode. 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 current
in the opposite direction (the reverse direction). 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).
Diode Biasing:
Biasing, in general, refers to the application of DC voltage across the
terminals of device to establish certain operating condition for the device. It
simply means that external voltage is applied across the two terminals of the
diode. Diode biasing can be done in two different ways
• Forward biasing
• Reverse biasing
Of course the third condition is also possible when no bias is applied to the
diode. That condition is simply called – no bias.
Forward Biasing:
When the positive terminal of the battery is connected to the p-type material
and the negative terminal of the battery is connected to the n-type material,
such a connection is called forward bias. There is flow of current when the
diode is forward biased.
Reverse Biasing:
When the positive terminal of the battery is connected to n-type material and
the negative terminal of the battery is connected to p-type material, such
a connection is called reverse bias. There is no flow of current when the
diode is reverse biased.
Diode Biasing
Forward biasing Reverse biasing
current flows no current
Light emitting diode:
Zener Diode
A Zener diode is a diode which allows current to flow in the forward direction in the
same manner as an ideal diode, but also permits it to flow in the reverse
direction when the voltage is above a certain value known as the breakdown
voltage, "Zener knee voltage", "Zener voltage", "avalanche point", or "peak
inverse voltage".
The device consists of a reverse biased, highly doped, p-n junction diode
operating in the breakdown region. Conventional diodes and rectifiers never
operate in the breakdown region, but the Zener diode makes a virtue of it and
can safely be operated at this point.
BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistor):
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical
power. It is composed of semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an
external circuit. The essential usefulness of a transistor comes from its ability to use a small signal
applied between one pair of its terminals to control a much larger signal at another pair of
terminals. This property is called gain. It can produce a stronger output signal, a voltage or
current, which is proportional to a weaker input signal; that is, it can act as an amplifier.
Alternatively, the transistor can be used to turn current on or off in a circuit as an electrically
controlled switch, where the amount of current is determined by other circuit elements
A bipolar transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used for amplification. A bipolar
transistor has terminals labelled base, collector, and emitter. A small current at the base terminal
(that is, flowing between the base and the emitter) can control or switch a much larger current
between the collector and emitter terminals.
Bipolar Transistor or BJT, comes in two basic forms. An NPN (Negative-Positive-Negative) type
and a PNP (Positive-Negative-Positive) type, with the most commonly used transistor type being
the NPN Transistor. A PNP transistor has a layer of N-type semiconductor between two layers of
P-type material. An NPN transistor has a layer of P-type material between two layers of N-type
material. In P-type material, electric charges are carried mainly in the form
of electron deficiencies called holes. In N-type material, the charge carriers are primarily electrons.
Transistor terminal Identification
PROCEDURE:
1. Identify the cathode and anode of given diode.
2. Identify the cathode and anode of given LED.
3. Draw the standard symbols of diode, LED, Zener diode and BJT.
4. Identify the terminals (emitter, base, collector) of the transistor and verify it with
multimeter.
4
OBSERVATIONS:
1. Diode Testing:
Multimeter reading
Sl. No. Component Name FB RB
2. Transistor Testing
Sl. Component Digital Multimeter value Type
No Name Emitter Base Junction Collector Base Junction (NPN or
+ - - + + - - + PNP)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
3. Symbols:
[Link]: Component Symbol
1 Diode
5
Zener Diode
2
LED
3
4. Transistor – NPN
5. Transistor – PNP
RESULT: