International Conference on Engineering Education July 2125, 2003, Valencia, Spain.

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Simulation of a Varactor Diode. A Final Exercise for Laboratory of Mathematics
Authors:
Damin Ginestar, Departamento de Matemtica Aplicada, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, dginesta@mat.upv.es
Jos Luis Hueso, Departamento de Matemtica Aplicada, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, jlhueso@mat.upv.es
Abstract - Laboratory of Mathematics is a subject of the first year of Telecommunication Engineering at the Universidad
Politcnica de Valencia. This subject is the first contact of the students with numerical methods for solving mathematical
problems using computers. Theory and implementation of elementary methods for linear, non-linear and differential
equations are treated in this course. To show the utility of these methods in the engineering field we propose to analyse the
behaviour of a simple electronic circuit under different working conditions. This problem requires the combination of
different numerical methods to obtain its solution and is connected to the knowledge acquired by the students in other
subjects of their career. This problem also can be the first programming project for the students and the developed programs
may be used as a laboratory to study the behaviour of the circuit and as an introduction to the fascinating world of non-
linear dynamical systems.
Index Terms - Graphical user interfaces, non-linear dynamical systems, numerical methods, programming.
INTRODUCTION
Kepler and Newton already knew that under certain conditions, simple physical systems as the Earth-Moon system showed a
complex behaviour. For this system, the irregular behaviour is caused by the perturbation introduced by the gravitational
force of the Sun.
Poincar observed that most of the dynamical systems did not behave regularly nor present periodicity. In principle,
complex behaviour is a typical characteristic of dynamical systems with many degrees of freedom, such as fluids.
Nevertheless, since the discovery of strange attractors in simple systems as the Lorenzs model [1], which is a simplified
meteorological system, a great interest has risen for the search of complex behaviour in systems with a small number of
degrees of freedom. Non-linear oscillators, electronic circuits, economical models and population models are examples of
this kind of systems. These systems are known as chaotic systems, and their study has become a very popular discipline in
the last years.
In this paper, as a brief introduction to the large number of techniques developed to analyse the chaotic systems, we
study the behaviour of a simple non-linear electronic circuit under several operating conditions. This study may be helpful to
introduce the students in the use of a combination of numerical techniques to solve engineering problems, showing the utility
of the different methods presented along the course Laboratory of Mathematics. The implementation of the numerical
methods has been done in the MATLAB programming environment [2], which is a friendly tool that combines numerical and
graphic capabilities and is widely used by the engineering community. The programs in this environment make use of high
level mathematical operations and the programming language of the environment is easy to learn by the students.
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
We will study the behaviour of a simple electronic circuit that can be understood by the students of the first years of
engineering studies. This analysis can be used to motivate the study of different numerical methods useful for its simulation.
Figure 1, shows the electronic circuit [3, 4] constituted by an alternating current (AC) generator, a resistor, an inductance and
a varactor diode. All these components are placed disposed in series with an amperimeter, supposed to be ideal.
The AC generator is modelled by means of the equation
) t f 2 sin( V V
1 0 G
= .
Ohms Law gives account for the tension drop in the resistor
R I V
R
= ,
where I is the current through the resistor and R is the resistance.
Faradays Law gives the tension drop in the inductance
International Conference on Engineering Education July 2125, 2003, Valencia, Spain.
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dt
dI
L V
L
= .
Finally, a varactor diode is a semiconductor device that behaves like a capacitor whose capacity depends on the applied
voltage, V, according to the expression [3]
( )

V 1
C
) V ( C
0
+
= , (1)
where C
0,
and are constants depending on the chosen diode. Furthermore, we have to take into account that for a
capacitor, the following relation holds:
) V ( C V Q
C C
= ,
where Q is the charge stored in the capacitor, and V
c
is the potential difference between the plates of the capacitor.
By using the relations exposed above, the potential drop in the inductance can be written as
RI V ) t f 2 sin( V
dt
dI
L
C 1 0
= .
So, the time evolution of the current measured by the amperimeter can be described by the following equations
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

|
j
j
)

|
|
\
[
+ =
=
=

C
0
C
C
1
0
V
1
C
Q
V
I
L
R
L
V
) t f 2 ( sen
L
V
dt
dI
I
dt
dQ
(2)
We will assume that at the initial time, there is no current through the circuit and that the varactor diode is uncharged,
that is, I(0) = 0 and Q(0) = 0.
NUMERICAL RESOLUTION
To simulate the circuit behaviour, we have to solve problem (2). This problem is essentially an initial value problem
associated with a system of non-linear algebraic-differential equations whose variables are the charge in the capacitor, Q, and
the current through the amperimeter, I. To obtain the time evolution of these variables, it is necessary to combine numerical
methods to solve initial values problems associated with differential equations, and methods to solve non-linear algebraic
equations.
To solve these problems, we propose to develop several m-file functions and also to use MATLAB functions provided
by the manufacturer. Particularly, to solve the non-linear equation we have implemented the fixed point method, Newtons
method and the Secant method [5] and we also use the function FZERO of MATLAB [2]. To solve the initial value problem,
we have implemented Eulers method, Heuns method and 4
th
order Runge-Kutta method and we also use the MATLAB
ODE23 and ODE45 solvers.
The implementation of simple numerical methods as m-files allows showing to the students the performance of the
different methods studied in the theory sessions in a real application, and compare their performance with more elaborated
methods, which are implemented in the MATLAB built-in functions.
All these methods have been integrated in a MATLAB graphical user interface (GUI) [6]. This GUI allows setting some
parameters of the circuit as the reference capacitance of the varactor diode, C
0
and the potential of the AC generator, V
0
.
With respect to the numerical solution, the GUI allows to select the method used to solve the algebraic equation, the solver of
the differential equation and the integration time step. The developed interface can be the final result of a programming
project built in different stages during the practical sessions of Laboratory of Mathematics.
During the computations, the solution is plot in the phase plane (Q,I). Typically, the solutions are oscillatory and can be
described using a certain number of harmonics. Hence, it is convenient to perform a Fourier analysis of the solution. In this
way, the GUI includes a graphic where the magnitude of the Fourier transform of Q(t) is represented against the frequency in
semilogarithmic scale. This allows identifying the number of harmonics present in the solution as the main peaks of the
graph. A typical view of the developed GUI is shown in Figure 2.
For the simulations showed in the numerical studies the other parameters of the circuit are set to the values shown in
Table I.
International Conference on Engineering Education July 2125, 2003, Valencia, Spain.
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NUMERICAL RESULTS
In this section, we will study some characteristics of the numerical solutions obtained for different values of the
reference capacitance of the varactor diode C
0
. First, we will analyse the circuit in the linear regime and we study the
transition to the chaotic regime. This can be easily performed using the constructed GUI and can help the students to
understand the behaviour of the oscillating circuit under different operating conditions.
Linear regime
For a first analysis, we set the amplitude of the tension of the generator, V
0
= 2V, and the capacitance of the varactor
diode to C
0
= 5 10
10
F. To solve the algebraic equation we select the fixed point method and the differential equations are
solved with the Euler method , using an integration time step of h = 10
8
s. In these conditions we obtain the solution shown in
Figure 2.
The circuit presents a periodic behaviour with only one dominant frequency, which indicates that it is working in linear
regime. This can be corroborated by means of the Fourier analysis of the solution that presents only a dominant peak, which
is also shown in figure 2.
Non-linear regime
Let us consider now a value for the nominal capacity of the varactor diode C
0
= 1.35 10
11
F and keep unchanged the other
parameters of the circuit. If we try to compute the solution with the same numerical methods used before, we observe that it
shows divergence. This is due to the fact that the time step used is too large for the numerical integration of the differential
equations using Eulers method. Hence, it will be necessary to use a numerical method with higher truncation error, such as
Heuns method or the 4
th
order Runge-Kutta method. Figure 3 shows the solution obtained with the last method.
It is observed that the solution for this case presents a cycle with three loops as an attractor. This indicates that the
solution has more than one dominant frequency. Particularly, from the frequency analysis we learn that there are three
dominant frequencies, corresponding to the fundamental harmonic obtained in the linear case and to the next two super
harmonics. The presence of super harmonics is a typical feature of non-linear dynamical systems.
If we decrease the nominal capacity C
0
of the varactor diode, the number of harmonics contained in the solution
increases leading the circuit to a chaotic behaviour. Other characteristic of the behaviour of the circuit can be easily studied
using the GUI
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we have presented a MATLAB graphical user interface to study the time evolution of a simple non-linear
electronic circuit. This interface integrates different MATLAB functions designed to solve an initial value problem associated
with a system of non-linear algebraic-differential equations. The output of these functions is used to produce the plot of the
trajectory followed by the variables of the circuit and its Fourier transform. In this way, we have an efficient and user-
friendly tool to study the behaviour of the circuit in different conditions.
The process of constructing this tool can be presented as different practical exercises for an introductory course on
numerical methods for engineers as it is the case of Laboratory of Mathematics.
REFERENCES
[1] Lorenz, E.N., Deterministic nonperiodic flow, J. Atmos. Sci., 20, 130, (1963).
[2] The Mathworks, The Student Edition of Matlab, Prentice-Hall, (1999).
[3] Linsay, P.S., Periodic Doubling and Chaotic Behavior in a Driven Anharmonic Oscillator, Phys. Rev. Letters, 47, 19, 1349-1352, (1981).
[4] Smith, D., Cmo generar Caos en casa, Investigacin y Ciencia, 186, 99-101, (1992).
[5] Hueso, J.L., Matemtica Aplicada. Prcticas con MATLAB, SPUPV, (1999).
[6] A. Cavallo, A., Setola, R., Vasca, R., Using Matlab, Simulink ans Control System Toolbox: A practical approach. Prentice-Hall (1996)
International Conference on Engineering Education July 2125, 2003, Valencia, Spain.
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FIGURES AND TABLES
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE CIRCUIT
AC generator frequency f
1
= 1.78 10
6
Hz
Resistance R = 180 Ohm
Inductance L = 10
4
H
Varactor diode parameters (1) = 0.6 V
= 0.44
FIGURE. 1
CIRCUIT SCHEME

International Conference on Engineering Education July 2125, 2003, Valencia, Spain.
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FIGURE. 2
CIRCUIT BEHAVIOUR IN LINEAR REGIME
International Conference on Engineering Education July 2125, 2003, Valencia, Spain.
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FIGURE. 3
CIRCUIT BEHAVIOUR IN NON-LINEAR REGIME