Diodes are an important class of electrical elements used in power supplies, logic circuits and many other varied uses.

• Why learn about diodes?
• Diodes are important electrical elements that can be used to process power and signals in ways not possible with purely linear circuits.
• What background should you have to study diodes?
• You need to know about basic electrical quantities (voltage and current) and have some familiarity with simpler elements like resistors and capacitors.
• What do you need to know about diodes?
• You need to know the general properties of diodes - how they relate voltage and current.
• You need to know how to use diodes in circuits.
• What do you need to get out of this unit?
• When you are finished with this unit you should be able to do the following.
• Explain what a diode is.
• Be able to use diodes in circuits, particularly circuits that convert AC signals to DC signals.
• What are you going to learn about?
• Here is a link to the basic lesson on diodes.
• Light Emitting Didoes (LEDs)
• Rectifying Circuits
• And, you should read the Note on behavior of rectifying circuits with input sinusoids with time-varying envelopes.
• What if you need more information?
• Learning about diodes means you are starting the study of electronics.  Pick up a good electronics book, or take an electronics course.
• Problems
• Problem Diode4P00 - A Guided Problem
• Problem Diode1P01 -
• Problem Diode1P02 -
• Problem Diode1P03 -
• Problem Diode1P04 -
• Problem Diode3P01 - An LED Problem
• Problem Diode4P01 -
• Problem Diode4P02 -
• Problem Diode4P03 -
• Problem Diode4P04 -
• Problem Diode4P05 -
• Problem Diode4P06 -

• Diodes - Introduction to Diodes

        Here are some links to experiments you can do that will help you learn about Diodes.