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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]
In an avalanche, one carrier collides with other atoms and knocks free new carriers. The result is that for each carrier that starts across a barrier, several carriers synchronously arrive. The result is a wide-bandwidth high-power source. Conventional diodes can be used in breakdown. The avalanche breakdown also has multistate noise.
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 ...
Various semiconductor diodes. Left: A four-diode bridge rectifier. Next to it is a 1N4148 signal diode. On the far right is a Zener diode. In most diodes, a white or black painted band identifies the cathode into which electrons will flow when the diode is conducting. Electron flow is the reverse of conventional current flow. [2] [3] [4]
For simplicity, diodes may sometimes be assumed to have no voltage drop or resistance when forward-biased and infinite resistance when reverse-biased. But real diodes are better approximated by the Shockley diode equation, which has an more complicated exponential current–voltage relationship called the diode law.
Zener can refer to: . Zener diode, a type of electronic diode; 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
These diodes can indefinitely sustain a moderate level of current during breakdown. The voltage at which the breakdown occurs is called the breakdown voltage . There is a hysteresis effect; once avalanche breakdown has occurred, the material will continue to conduct even if the voltage across it drops below the breakdown voltage.
Geometric diodes differ from all other forms of diodes because they do not rely on a depletion region or a potential barrier to create their diode behavior. Instead of a potential barrier, an asymmetry in the geometry of the material (that is on the order of the mean free path of the charge carrier) creates an asymmetry in forward vs reverse ...