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A Zener diode is a special type of diode designed to reliably allow current to flow "backwards" (inverted polarity) when a certain set reverse voltage, known as the Zener voltage, is reached. Zener diodes are manufactured with a great variety of Zener voltages and some are even variable.
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 ...
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.
Zener diode based noise source. A noise generator is a circuit that produces electrical noise (i.e., a random signal). Noise generators are used to test signals for measuring noise figure, frequency response, and other parameters.
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 ...
The transfer characteristic has exactly the same shape of the previous basic configuration, and the threshold values are the same as well. On the other hand, in the previous case, the output voltage was depending on the power supply, while now it is defined by the Zener diodes (which could also be replaced with a single double-anode Zener diode).
Clarence Melvin Zener (December 1, 1905 – July 2, 1993) was the American physicist who in 1934 [1] was the first to describe the property concerning the breakdown of electrical insulators. These findings were later exploited by Bell Labs in the development of the Zener diode , which was duly named after him. [ 2 ]
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 ...