ELEN-325. Introduction to Electronic Circuits: A Design-Oriented Approach

An important mindset of practical engineers is to build systems from simple and reliable components while maximizing functionality and performance with a minimal number of basic devices. Diodes are among those building blocks that are frequently part of electrically circuits. They are simple two-terminal devices which conditionally pass current in one direction. Despite their simplistic nature, you can find them in diverse electrical systems where they play key roles in power conversion, temperature measurements, protection of circuits from excessive voltages, logic operations, and radiation detection. There are many other applications for diodes, especially for those with special properties such as laser diodes used in optical communication systems. In this chapter, you will learn about the basic properties of conventional diodes and how to exploit those properties to construct various circuits with different functions.