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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 ...
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. Noise generators are also used for generating random numbers. [1]
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 ...
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 findings were later exploited by Bell Labs in the development of the Zener diode, which was duly named after him. [2] Zener was a theoretical physicist with a background in mathematics who conducted research in a wide range of subjects including: superconductivity , metallurgy , ferromagnetism , elasticity , fracture mechanics , diffusion ...
Two shunt diode clipper circuit. In the example circuit on the right, two zener diodes are used to clip the voltage V IN.The voltage in either direction is limited to the reverse breakdown voltage plus the forward voltage drop across one zener diode.
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 .