Clamper Circuit

A clamper circuit is also known as a clamping circuit is an electronic circuit that shifts the DC
level of a signal without changing the shape of its waveform. It moves the whole signal either
up or down about the reference level. Unlike the clipper circuit, it does not change or distort
the shape of the waveform. It simply adds or subtracts the DC level from the waveform to shift
the waveform up or below the 0V reference line.

Working of Clamper Circuit

The idea behind the clamper circuit is to add the DC component to shift the waveform above
the 0v line or subtract the DC component to shift the waveform below the –v line. This DC
component is introduced into the circuit by utilizing a capacitor (which is the main component
of a clamper circuit apart from diode and resistor). The capacitor store the charge in one half-
cycle and discharges in another half cycle where it adds to the input signal and shifts the DC
level of the whole signal.

Type of Clampers

The clamper circuit can be designed in the following types.

Positive Clamper
Negative Clamper

Positive Clamper

In a positive clamper circuit, the input waveform is shifted upward above the 0v reference line.
Here is the circuit diagram of a positive clamper circuit.

During the positive half cycle, the diode is reverse biased, therefore, therefore, the input signal
appears at the output as it is. At this point, the capacitor is not charged and there is no clamping.
Therefore, the output at this half cycle is not considered.

During the next negative half cycle, the diode becomes forward biased and it starts to conduct,
at this half cycle, the capacitor charges up to the peak input voltage VM with inverse polarity.

During the next positive half cycle, the diode is reverse biased and it does not conduct. Due to
this, the capacitor starts to discharge. The capacitor discharge adds to the input signal which
appears at the output as the summation of both voltages which reaches up to 2VM. This is how
the signal level is shifted above the 0v line.
Positive Clamper with Biasing

The positive clamper can be biased with another voltage source to further shift the input signal
waveform. The biasing can be either positive or negative voltage. Simply put, the positive
biasing further shifts up the waveform while the negative biasing lower down the waveform by
the amount of the biasing voltage.

Positive Biasing

During positive biasing a positive voltage source is added in series with the diode as shown in
the figure below.

During the positive half cycle, the diode is reverse biased for the input signal but forward biased
for the battery voltage. Therefore, the diode conducts until the input voltage exceeds the
battery. During the conduction, the capacitor is charged with the battery voltage VB. the diode
stops conduction once the input voltage exceeds.

During the negative half cycle, the diode is forward biased for both input and battery voltage.
Thus the diode conducts to charge the capacitor with both the input and battery voltage
VM+VB. During the next positive half cycle, the capacitor is discharged that adds to the input
signal waveform as explained in the positive clamper circuit.

Negative Biasing

The negative biased positive clamper has the same operation as a positive biased clamper
except the waveform is shifted down by the amount of the battery voltage VB.

During the positive half cycle, the diode is reverse biased due to both input voltage and the
battery voltage. The diode does not conduct and the capacitor does not charge.
During the negative half cycle, the diode is forward biased for input voltage but it is reversed
biased for battery voltage VB. Therefore, the diode does not conduct unless the input voltage
exceeds the battery voltage and when the diode conducts, the capacitor charges. Due to this,
the charging voltage of the capacitor is reduced to Vm – VB.

During the next positive cycle, the diode does not conduct, thus the capacitor is discharge and
the waveform is shifted upward by VM – VB (the capacitor voltage). The biasing voltage shifts
the waveform down by the amount of VB of a positive clamper.

Negative Clamper

The negative clamper shifts the whole input waveform downward. Here is the circuit diagram
of a negative clamper circuit.

During the positive half cycle, the diode is forward-biased. Therefore, it conducts and charges
the capacitor with inverse polarity up to the peak input voltage -VM. There is no output during
this half cycle.

During the negative half cycle, the diode is reverse biased and it does not conduct. Therefore,
the capacitor discharges which adds with the input waveform. The addition of both voltages
shifts the whole waveform furthermore up to -2VM. This is how the input signal is shifted
downward.

Negative Clamper with Biasing

The positive and negative biasing of negative clamper further shifts the waveform above or
down.

Positive Biasing

The positive biasing of the negative clamper adds a positive or upward shift by the amount of
biasing voltage to the negative clamped waveform. It shifts the waveform up to the positive
level due to positive basing.
During the positive half cycle, the diode is forward biased for input voltage but reverse biased
for battery voltage. The diode conducts when the input voltage exceeds the battery and then
the capacitor charges. Therefore, the amount of capacitor charge is reduced by the amount of
VB and the capacitor voltage results in -VM + VB.

During the negative half cycle, the diode does not conduct and the capacitor discharge. The
sum of input voltage and the capacitor appears at the output which has a shift of VB upward as
shown in the figure above.

Negative Biasing

The negative biasing of the negative clamper further shifts downward the input signal
waveform.

During the positive half cycle, the diode is forward biased for both the input signal and the
battery voltage. Thus the diode conducts and the capacitor charges with the sum of both
voltages.

During the negative half-cycle, the diodes reverse biases for input voltage but do conduct for
the battery voltage. When the input voltage exceeds the battery, the diode blocks the signal and
it appears at the output including the discharge voltage of the capacitor. As a result, the
waveform further shifts downward as shown in the figure.

Applications of Clamper Circuit

In simple words, the clamper circuit clamps the voltage to increases its amplitude, therefore, it
is mostly used as a voltage multiplier. Here are some applications of the clamper circuit.

It is used as a voltage multiplier.

It is used for improving the reverse recovery time.
It is used for removing the distortion in the signal.
It is also used as test equipment.