Varicap Varacap Variable Capacitance Diodes

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jewdai

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Can anyone give me a souce for the VI equations that describes the varicap diode?

Can Anyone give me a source that shows the equation of the capacitance across a varicap diode?

Im not interested in the curves, im looking for cold hard equations!
 
There are no equations.
The datasheet for a varicap diode lists the capacitance at certain voltages and shows a graph of how the capacitance changes and its non-linearity.

The graphs in the datasheets of little transistors and diodes also shows their capacitance change with the amount of reverse voltage.
 
There has to be something that semiconductor theory can predict.

I know how to calculate capacitance of regular PN junctions, but its not like they tell you the doping level of the material on the datasheet.

how does the theory for Varicaps differ, i know its like PNN+ or something like that. How would the NN+ junction be analyzed
 
The calculation has to do with calculating the depletion width between the two junctions of the material based on the reverse bias voltage. After that you use that as your distance and you assume the semiconductor is your dielectric and therefore


DielectricConstant*Area of Semiconductor junctions/DepletionWidth = Capacitance

the thing is how do you calculate the depletionwidth.. and i highly doubt they provide you with the area of the material.
 
as AudioGuru said, there are no equations. the depletion layer depth changes with voltage, a graph in the data sheet for transistors, varicap diodes and regular silicon diodes is what there is to work with. if you know the surface area of the B-C junction and know the depletion layer depth you can use the standard capacitance equations, but when you get a data sheet, these values are not listed, as they aren't important enough to be included. you could use the chart or measure it for yourself and calculate an equation for C vs V for a particular device. the actual junction capacitances can be different from device to device, even with the same part number.

even if you knew the surface area of the transistor and the depletion depth, it still would not guarantee that you know the actual surface area of the B-C junction itself, because the base regions mask is usually a shape other than rectangular. on some power transistors it is E or H shaped or a series of circular rings.
 
Frequently the junction of a varicap diode is "hyper-abrupt" whatever that is.
I have never made a varicap diode from scratch.
 


its not a transistor, its a DIODE!

there are equations that describe the depletion width in terms of the reverse bias voltage and the doping of the PN junction.

I mean, you can even see it on most of the varicap charts, they are e to some negative valued power which is a common function when describing characteristics of a diode.

I suppose no one knows the semiconductor theory for it.
 
It's just another diode, so you should be able to use the standard equations for a diode. Just plug in the numbers from your diode. Here are some examples:
 

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i mention transistors because the reverse biased C-B junction of a transistor can be used as a varactor. in fact their use as varactors was quite common back when all FM tuners were made with discrete devices, especially as AFC "diodes" in local oscillators.
 
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