Microcontrollers Lab

HOME

PROJECTS

What are you looking for?

TUTORIALS

PROJECT IDEAS

PROJECT SERVICES

ORDER PCB

photodiode construction working

types and characteristics
Bilal Malik

1 Month Ago

ADVERTISE WITH US

No Comments

SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA

EMAIL
Enter your email address to
subscribe to this blog and receive
notifications of new posts by
PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Photodiode is basically a light detector semiconductor device, which converts the light
energy into current or voltage depends upon the mode of operation. It has built in
optical filter, lenses and may have a large or small area of surface, when light falls on this
surface, then this produce a current.when there is no any light falls on this surface then it
also gives a small amount of current. The current, which produce this device is directly
proportional to the light falls on the surface of the photodiode but as we increase the

email.
Join 623 other subscribers
Email Address
Subscribe

surface area then it response time to produce current becomes low. The schematic
symbol is shown in figure below:

FIND US ON FACEBOOK
Microcontrollers
11K likes

Like Page

Be the first of your friends to like this

RELATED POSTS
GSM Architecture
and working

EEPROM
interfacing with
microcontroller
PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Pag e Co ntents [hide]

1 Construction of Photo diode
2 Working Principle of Photodiode
3 Operational Modes of Photodiode
4 V-I Characteristics of Photodiode
5 Types of Photodiodes
6 Applications of Photodiode

Construction of Photo diode

Photodiode is a PN junction diode, which is formed by the junction P-type semiconductor
material such as boron and N-type semiconductor material such as phosphorous. Its
construction is shown is figure

Servo Motor
construction
working and
control
EasyEDA brings
PCB design and
PCB order to the
browser
Receive sms gsm
module using pic
microcontroller
Getting Started
with EasyEDA for
circuit simulation
and PCB design
Internet of things
IOT

Hitachi HD44780
LCD module

According to the figure above it is formed by the diffusion of lightly doped p type impurity
into the heavily doped n type impurity and the area between the p type impurity and n type
impurity is called depletion region. The contact pads are deployed at n type area called
cathode and p type area called anode. In this figure some portion of the front area is
called active area which is coated with anti-refection material to reduce the reflection of
PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

SUBSCRIBE ME ON
YOUTUBE

light and rest of the area is called non-active area which is coated with thick layer of

Bilal Malik

silicon dioxide(Sio2). The responsivity and speed of photodiode to convert the light into

YouTube

577

current can controlled by the controlling the thickness area of this non-active area. The
photo diode is operated in reverse bias mode means negative voltage is applied at anode
and positive voltage is applied at cathode

CATEGORIES
8051 microcontroller (5)
Arduino (33)
Arm microcontroller (1)
AVR microcontroller (14)
electronics projects (8)
embedded systems (9)
ESP8266 (1)
General Articles (30)
gsm (10)
ICs (2)
Inverters (12)
PCB designing (2)

Working Principle of Photodiode

pic microcontroller (35)

Photodiode is made of silicon semiconductor material which heave the energy gap 1.12 eV

Power (7)

at room temperature. This gap is actually between valance band and conduction band and

Power electronics (16)

at zero room temperature, the valance band is completely filled with the negative or

power supplies (4)

positive ions, similarly, the conduction band is completely vacant means there is no any

PROJECT IDEAS (13)

negative or positive ions. As we increase the temperature, the electrons in valance band

protection (7)

become excited and move from valance band to conduction and these electrons are called

Proteus tutorial (1)

free electron. These free electrons are free to conduct the current. When the p type and n

Solar system (11)

PIC microcontrollers (45)

Technical Articles (1)

PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

type material formed a junction then a concentration gradient becomes. Due to this

transformer (5)

concentration gradient, the diffusion of holes from p type material region and electron

Tutorials (4)

from n type material region develop a voltage across the junction and due to this inter
diffusion depletion region is also formed. The voltage across this depletion region
produced electric field. When we connect the photodiode in reverse bias mode then the
width of this depletion region is increased slowly, eventually this region has breakdown
and flow of current start from anode to cathode. This current depends upon the incident
of light at the surface.

Operational Modes of Photodiode

The photodiode operates in mode of operation.
1. Photovoltaic Mode
2. Photoconductive Mode.
3. Avalanche Diode Mode
Photovoltaic Mode: This mode is also known as zero bias mode and this mode is
preferred in that applications, where we are using this photodiode at low level frequency
as well as ultra-low level light. This mode provides very low level current variation and
nonlinear behavior in voltage production.
Photoconductive Mode: In this mode the photodiode is used in reverse mode. When
photodiode is used in this mode then the length of depletion region is increased but the
capacitance of the junction and response time decreased. In this mode current increased
lineally as increased the incident of light and it is very fast but it displays an electronic
noise.
PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Avalanche Diode Mode: This mode is used in high reverse biased condition and
photodiode works in avalanche breakdown region. In this mode the internal gain and
responsivity of the device has increased.

V-I Characteristics of Photodiode

It is always operated in reverse bias mode. The V-I characteristic is shown in figure in
which reverse voltages are plotted horizontally in volts and reverse current is plotted
vertically in microamperes. According to the figure the reverse current is almost
independent from the reverse voltage. When the illumination is zero then the reverse
current is approximately zero but there is only a small amount of current is present and
this current is called dark current. As increase the illumination, the reverse current is also
increase lineally. We can see that at illumination 1000 lux the reverse current is 100
microamperes, at illumination 1500 lux the reverse current is 200 microamperes, at
illumination 2000 lux the reverse current is 300 microamperes etc. thats mean the reverse
current is increase linearly. We can see this linearly increasing current in figure.

Types of Photodiodes
PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Mainly, the photodiode is divided into four types.

1. PN junction
2. Avalanche
3. PIN Photodiode
4. Schottky Photodiode
PN Junction Photodiode: It is the first and simple form it that had been used at the
beginning, after this so many technologies have developed but currently this type of diode
is not mostly used. It is only used at low frequency and for low sensitive application.
Avalanche Photodiode: This type photodiode is used in that areas, where the light has
low intensity. The avalanche photodiode provides high level of gain but it also produces
high level of noise, therefore, this type is not applicable for all applications.
PIN Photodiode: This is actually p-i-n junction photodiode, although, this is not a first
form but currently this type is widely used in so many applications. This PIN junction
collects the photons of light more efficiently than the pn junction photodiode. This type of
photodiode also offers the lower capacitance than the other types.
Schottky Photodiode: We can analyze, with the name of this type of photodiode, that, it
belongs to schottky diode which is used for high frequency switching. This type of diode
has high speed capability. It offers lower capacitance and high bandwidth of
communication system.

Applications of Photodiode
1. They are used in photoconductor, photomultiplier tubes and charged coupled devices
PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

to generate the output signal which depends upon the light illumination
2. they are used in electronics device such as smoke detector, compact disk players
and infrared remote controls which are used for on the television, LCD and other
devices.
3. they are used in science and industry for accurate measurement of light intensity
and shows more linear behavior than photoconductor.
4. They are widely used in medical equipments for computing the tomography.
5. PIN photodiodes are more sensitive and faster than the PN photodiodes therefore
these are used for light regulation and optical communication
6. These are also used in cameras, safety equipment, position sensors, bar code
sensors, automotive devices and surveying instruments.
We highly recommend EasyEDA for circuit design and low cost PCB order
EasyEDA: A Powerful Free Circuit Simulation & PCB Design Tool
Register now to use it for free. Lots of open source hardware projects and
Step by step tutorials

FACEBOOK

RELATED POSTS

PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Hitachi HD44780
LCD module

Servo Motor
construction
working and control

Bilal Malik

Bilal Malik

July 21,

October

Bilal Malik

11, 2016

2015

WIRELESS SENSOR
NETWORKS (WSN)
& APPLICATIONS
August

29, 2015

Electromechanical
Relays interfacing
with
microcontrollers

Getting Started with

EasyEDA for circuit
simulation and PCB
design

EasyEDA brings
PCB design and
PCB order to the
browser

Bilal Malik

Bilal Malik

Bilal Malik

2015

August 1,

April 19,

2016

PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

2016

June 6,

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bilal Malik

More from this Author

I have been providing project services to students and industry

from last 4 years . Looking for a PhD opportunity in Electrical
and computer engineering, Hire me for your industrial and
research project. Send me your project details. My email
address: bilalmalikuet@gmail.com

ADD COMMENT

Comment Text*

Name*

PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Email*

Website

SUBMIT COMMENT
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.

Microcontrollers Lab Copyright 2016.

PDF generated automatically by the HTML to PDF API of PDFmyURL

Sitemap

Privacy Policy

Project services

Contact us