Clipper CircuitsLet’s remove unwanted part of signals

1

Electronic Devices and Circuits www.getmyuni.com

Index

1. What are clipper circuits?

2. Types of clipper circuits.

3. Unbiased positive clipper.

4. Unbiased negative clipper.

5. Biased series positive clipper.

6. Biased series negative clipper.

2

www.getmyuni.com

What are clipper circuits?

• Clippers Circuits are used to remove the part of a signal that is above or below some defined reference level.

• One of the simple example of a clipper is the half-wave rectifier – that circuit basically cut off everything at the reference level of zero and let only the positive-going (or negative-going) portion of the input waveform through.

• Clipping circuits (also known as limiters, amplitude selectors, or slicers)

3

www.getmyuni.com

Types of Clippers Circuits

Unbiased Clipper Circuit

Unbiased Positive clipper

Unbiased Negative clipper

Biased clipper circuit

Biased positive clipper

Biased negative clipper

4

Clipper circuits

www.getmyuni.com

Note:In all the explanations we have considered the diode to be ideal.

5

www.getmyuni.com

Unbiased positive Clippers

• Positive clippers are used to clip positive portions of the input signal and allow the negative portions of the signal to pass through

• Figure below shows the input and output signal along with the positive clipper. The positive cycle is completely clipped off by the clipper.

6

www.getmyuni.com

Continued…

• Section (b) shows the same clipper configuration as it is shown in (a), but the diode is replaced with its equivalent circuit model. When the input signal goes positive, the cathode terminal of diode attains a higher potential than anode. This makes the diode reverse biased. The diode in reverse biased configuration can be modelled as an open switch. This is indicated in the figure. As the diode acts as an open switch, no current flows through the load and hence no output appears across the load. This is the reason why the positive cycle is completely clipped off.

7

www.getmyuni.com

Unbiased Negative clippers

• Negative clippers are used to clip Negative portions of the input signal and allow the positive portions of the signal to pass through

• Figure shows the input and output signal along with the negative clipper. The negative cycle is completely clipped off by the clipper.

8

www.getmyuni.com

Continued…

• Section (b) shows the same clipper configuration as it is shown in (a), but the diode is replaced with its equivalent circuit model. When the input signal goes positive, the anode terminal of diode attains a higher potential than cathode. This makes the diode forward biased. The diode in reverse biased configuration can be modelled as an open switch. This is indicated in the figure. As the diode acts as an closed switch, no current flows through the load and hence no output appears across the load. This is the reason why the negative cycle is completely clipped off.

9

www.getmyuni.com

Biased series positive clipper

• As shown earlier, we saw that the clipping of the signal takes place as soon as the input signal goes positive. If we want to change/adjust the clipping level of AC voltage, then external biasing voltage must be used. The figure given below shows a biased (series) clipper.

10

www.getmyuni.com

Working

11

www.getmyuni.com

Biased Series negative Clipper

• As shown earlier, we saw that the clipping of the signal takes place as soon as the input signal goes negative. If we want to change/adjust the clipping level of AC voltage, then external biasing voltage must be used. The figure given below shows a biased (series) clipper.

12

www.getmyuni.com

Working

13

www.getmyuni.com