A varicap diode also known as varactor diode, variable capacitance diode, variable reactance diode or tuning diode. Varicap is a type of diode which has a variable capacitance that is a function of the voltage impressed on its terminals.
Varactor or varicap diodes are used mainly in radio frequency (RF) circuits to be able to provide a capacitance that can be varied by changing a voltage in an electronics circuit. This can be used for tuning circuits including radio frequency oscillators and filters.
They are commonly used in parametric amplifiers, parametric oscillators and voltage-controlled oscillators as part of phase-locked loops and frequency synthesizers.
Varicap Symbol
Varicap Operation
Varactors are operated reverse-biased so no current flows, but since the thickness of the depletion zone varies with the applied bias voltage, the capacitance of the diode can be made to vary. Generally, the depletion region thickness is proportional to the square root of the applied voltage; and capacitance is inversely proportional to the depletion region thickness. Thus, the capacitance is inversely proportional to the square root of applied voltage.
All diodes exhibit this phenomenon to some degree, but specially made varactor diodes exploit the effect to boost the capacitance and variability range achieved – most diode fabrication attempts to achieve the opposite.
Operation of a varicap
In the figure we can see an example of a crossection of a varactor with the depletion layer formed of a p-n-junction. But the depletion layer can also be made of a MOS-diode or a Schottky diode. This is very important in CMOS and MMIC technology.
