What Is Light Emitting Diode
What Is Light Emitting Diode
What Is Light Emitting Diode
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are the most widely used semiconductor
diodes among all the different types of semiconductor diodes available
today.
Light emitting diodes emit either visible light or invisible infrared
light when forward biased.
The LEDs which emit invisible infrared light are used for remote controls.
Layers of LED
1. p-type semiconductor,
2. n-type semiconductor
3. depletion layer.
N-type semiconductor
If the applied voltage is greater than the barrier potential of the depletion layer, the
electric current starts flowing.
When free electrons reach the junction or depletion region, some of the free
electrons recombine with the holes in the positive ions.
We know that positive ions have less number of electrons than protons.
Therefore, they are ready to accept electrons. Thus, free electrons recombine
with holes in the depletion region.
In the similar way, holes from p-side recombine with electrons in the
depletion region.
The free electrons in the conduction band releases energy in the form of light
before they recombine with holes in the valence band.
In silicon and germanium diodes, most of the energy is released in the form
of heat and emitted light is too small.
When the valence electron left the parent atom, they leave an empty space in
the valence shell at which valence electron left. This empty space in the
valence shell is called a hole.
The energy level of all the valence electrons is almost same. Grouping the
range of energy levels of all the valence electrons is called valence band.
In the similar way, energy level of all the free electrons is almost same.
Grouping the range of energy levels of all the free electrons is called
conduction band.
The energy level of free electrons in the conduction band is high compared
to the energy level of valence electrons or holes in the valence band.
Therefore, free electrons in the conduction band need to lose energy in order
to recombine with the holes in the valence band.
The free electrons in the conduction band do not stay for long period. After a
short period, the free electrons lose energy in the form of light and
recombine with the holes in the valence band. Each recombination of charge
carrier will emit some light energy.
The energy lose of free electrons or the intensity of emitted light is depends
on the forbidden gap or energy gap between conduction band and valence
band.
The semiconductor device with large forbidden gap emits high intensity
light whereas the semiconductor device with small forbidden gap emits low
intensity light.
In other words, the brightness of the emitted light is depends on the material
used for constructing LED and forward current flow through the LED.
In LEDs, the energy gap between conduction band and valence band is very
large so the free electrons in LEDs have greater energy than the free
electrons in silicon diodes. Hence, the free electrons fall to a large distance.
As a result, high energy photons are released. These high energy photons
have high frequency which is visible to human eye.
LED construction
Biasing of LED
To avoid this we need to place a resistor (Rs) in series with the LED. The
resistor (Rs ) must be placed in between voltage source (Vs) and LED.
The resistor placed between LED and voltage source is called current
limiting resistor. This resistor restricts extra current which may destroy the
LED. Thus, current limiting resistor protects LED from damage.
The current flowing through the LED is mathematically written as
Where,
IF = Forward current
4. Smaller size.
Disadvantages of LED
1. LEDs need more power to operate than normal p-n junction diodes.
2. Luminous efficiency of LEDs is low.
Applications of LED
3. Picture phones
4. Traffic signals
5. Digital computers
6. Multimeters
7. Microprocessors
8. Digital watches
10.Camera flashes
11.Aviation lighting
What is light?
Before going into how LASER works, let’s first take a brief look at light
self.
Since ancient times man has obtained light from various sources like
sunrays, candles and lamps.
In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb. In the light
bulb, an electric current is passed through a filament inside the bulb.
When sufficient current is passed through the filament, it gets heated up and
emits light. The light emitted by the filament is the result of electrical energy
converted into heat energy which in turn changes into light energy.
Unlike the light bulb in which electrical energy first converts into heat
energy, the electrical energy can also be directly converted into light energy.
Light is a type of energy that can be released by an atom.
Atoms are the basic building blocks of matter. Every object in the universe is
made up of atoms. Atoms are made up of small particles such as electrons,
protons and neutrons.
The attractive force between the protons and neutrons makes them stick
together to form nucleus.
Neutrons have no charge. Hence, the overall charge of the nucleus is
positive.
The electrons in the lower energy level need some additional energy to jump
into the higher energy level. This additional energy can be supplied by the
outside source. When electrons orbiting the nucleus gains energy from
outside source they jump into higher orbit or higher energy level.
The electrons in the higher energy level will not stay for long period. After a
short period, the electrons fall back to lower energy level.
The electrons which jump from higher energy level to lower energy level
will releases energy in the form of a photon or light. In some materials, this
energy lose is released mostly in the form of heat. The electron which loses
greater energy will release a greater energy photon.
Photodiode
Introduction
A photodiode is a p-n junction device that consumes light energy to generate electric
current.
It is also sometimes referred as photo-detector, photo-sensor, or light detector.
Photodiode symbol
The symbol of photodiode is similar to the normal p-n junction diode except that it
contains arrows striking the diode. The arrows striking the diode represent light or
photons.
The external reverse voltage applied to the p-n junction diode will supply energy to the
minority carriers but not increase the population of minority carriers.
However, a small number of minority carriers are generated due to external reverse bias
voltage. The minority carriers generated at n-side or p-side will recombine in the same
material before they cross the junction.
As a result, no electric current flows due to these charge carriers. For example, the
minority carriers generated in the p-type material experience a repulsive force from the
external voltage and try to move towards n-side.
However, before crossing the junction, the free electrons recombine with the holes
within the same material. As a result, no electric current flows.
To overcome this problem, we need to apply external energy directly to the depletion
region to generate more charge carriers.
A special type of diode called photodiode is designed to generate more number of charge
carriers in depletion region. In photodiodes, we use light or photons as the external
energy to generate charge carriers in depletion region.
PN junction photodiode
PN junction photodiodes are the first form of photodiodes.
When external light energy is supplied to the p-n junction photodiode, the valence
electrons in the depletion region gains energy.
If the light energy applied to the photodiode is greater the band-gap of semiconductor
material, the valence electrons gain enough energy and break bonding with the
parent atom.
The valence electron which breaks bonding with the parent atom will become free
electron. Free electrons moves freely from one place to another place by carrying the
electric current.
When the valence electron leave the valence shell an empty space is created in the
valence shell at which valence electron left. This empty space in the valence shell is
called a hole. Thus, both free electrons and holes are generated as pairs. The mechanism
of generating electron-hole pair by using light energy is known as the inner photoelectric
effect.
The minority carriers in the depletion region experience force due to the depletion region
electric field and the external electric field.
For example, free electrons in the depletion region experience repulsive and attractive
force from the negative and positive ions present at the edge of depletion region at p-side
and n-side.
As a result, free electrons move towards the n region. When the free electrons reaches n
region, they are attracted towards the positive terminals of the battery. In the similar way,
holes move in opposite direction.
The strong depletion region electric field and the external electric field increase the drift
velocity of the free electrons. Because of this high drift velocity, the minority carriers
(free electrons and holes) generated in the depletion region will cross the p-n junction
before they recombine with atoms. As a result, the minority carrier current increases.
When no light is applied to the reverse bias photodiode, it carries a small reverse current
due to external voltage. This small electric current under the absence of light is called
dark current. It is denoted by I λ.
In photodiodes, most of the electric current is carried by the charge carriers generated in
the depletion region because the charge carriers in depletion region has high drift velocity
and low recombination rate whereas the charge carriers in n-side or p-side has low drift
velocity and high recombination rate.
The electric current generated in the photodiode due to the application of light is called
photocurrent.
The total current through the photodiode is the sum of the dark current and the
photocurrent. The dark current must be reduced to increase the sensitivity of the device.
The electric current flowing through a photodiode is directly proportional to the incident
number of photons.
Advantages of Photodiode:
3. Long lifetime
Limitations of photodiode
4. High gain
6. Low cost
7. Small size
Photodiode applications
2. Smoke detectors
3. Space applications
4. Photodiodes are used for optical communications.
I = IL − ID − ISH
where
The current through these elements is governed by the voltage across them:
Vj = V + IRS
where
where
By Ohm's law, the current diverted through the shunt resistor is:
where
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