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In electronics, the Zener effect (employed most notably in the appropriately named Zener diode) is a type of electrical breakdown, discovered by Clarence Melvin Zener. It occurs in a reverse biased p-n diode when the electric field enables tunneling of electrons from the valence to the conduction band of a semiconductor , leading to numerous ...
For example, a diode with a Zener breakdown voltage of 3.2 V exhibits a voltage drop of very nearly 3.2 V across a wide range of reverse currents. The Zener diode is therefore well suited for applications such as the generation of a reference voltage (e.g. for an amplifier stage), or as a voltage stabilizer for low-current applications. [2]
The Zener effect is primarily exhibited by reverse-biased diodes and bipolar transistor base-emitter junctions that breakdown below about 7 volts. The breakdown is due to internal field emission, since the junctions are thin, and the electric field is high. Zener-type breakdown is shot noise.
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Zener effect, a type of electrical breakdown which is employed in a Zener diode; Zener pinning, the influence of a dispersion of fine particles on the movement of low- and high angle grain boundaries through a polycrystalline material; Clarence Zener, the American physicist after whom the diode, effect, and pinning are named; Karl Zener, the ...
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When the absorber is in the primary circuit, e.g. a Zener diode (or LED) with voltage V z connected "backwards" across the primary windings, the current waveshape is a triangle with the time t open determined by the formula I p = I peak,m - V z ×T open /L p, here I peak,m being the primary current at the time the switch opens. When the ...
In the Zener diode, the concept of PIV is not applicable. A Zener diode contains a heavily doped p–n junction allowing electrons to tunnel from the valence band of the p-type material to the conduction band of the n-type material, such that the reverse voltage is "clamped" to a known value (called the Zener voltage), and avalanche does not ...