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Q.Draw a circuit diagram showing the biasing of a photo-diode and explain its working. Also draw its I-V characteristics.

Chhattisgarh CgbseCGBSE Intermediate Board 2019Subjective· 3mImportance★★★★★
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Figure — Two panels. (1) Photodiode reverse-bias circuit
Figure — Two panels. (1) Photodiode reverse-bias circuit

A photodiode is operated reverse-biased so that light-generated carriers dominate the (otherwise tiny) reverse saturation current, making the reverse current a sensitive, nearly linear measure of light intensity.

Circuit / biasing: A photodiode is a p–n junction diode, enclosed so that light can fall on the junction, and it is connected in the circuit with reverse bias: the p-side connected to the negative terminal and the n-side to the positive terminal of the battery, in series with a microammeter/load resistor to measure the photocurrent.

Working: In reverse bias, normally only a very small reverse saturation current flows (due to thermally generated minority carriers). When light of energy hν≥Egh\nu \geq E_g (the band-gap energy) falls on the junction, it generates additional electron–hole pairs near the depletion region. The junction's electric field quickly sweeps these photo-generated carriers across the junction, adding to the reverse current. Since more incident photons generate more electron-hole pairs, the reverse photocurrent increases with the intensity of incident light, roughly linearly — this is what makes the photodiode useful as a light-intensity sensor, responding very fast (used for high-speed switching/detection).

I–V characteristics: The characteristic curves are plotted for reverse voltage on the x-axis and reverse current on the y-axis, for different illumination levels. They show: …

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