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Breakdown voltage is a parameter of a diode that defines the largest reverse voltage that can be applied without causing an exponential increase in the leakage current in the diode. Exceeding the breakdown voltage of a diode, per se, is not destructive; although, exceeding its current capacity will be. In fact, Zener diodes are essentially just ...
A diode's high resistance to current flowing in the reverse direction suddenly drops to a low resistance when the reverse voltage across the diode reaches a value called the breakdown voltage. This effect is used to regulate voltage ( Zener diodes ) or to protect circuits from high voltage surges ( avalanche diodes ).
The backward diode has the unusual property that the so-called reverse bias direction actually has more current flow than the so-called forward bias. The forward I–V characteristic is the same as that of an ordinary P–N diode. The breakdown starts when reverse voltage is applied. In the case of Zener breakdown, it starts at a particular ...
English: Diode I-V diagram. Includes three main areas of operation: breakdown, reverse-biased, and forward-biased. Vbr denotes the breakdown voltage, and Vd denotes the voltage that is typically considered "on" (conducting current).
The I-V curve for a diode showing avalanche and Zener breakdown.. 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.
Shockley derives an equation for the voltage across a p-n junction in a long article published in 1949. [2] Later he gives a corresponding equation for current as a function of voltage under additional assumptions, which is the equation we call the Shockley ideal diode equation. [3]
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]
For two-terminal devices (such as diodes and DIACs), this is sufficient to fully characterize the device. The curve tracer can display all of the interesting parameters such as the diode's forward voltage, reverse leakage current, reverse breakdown voltage, and so on. For triggerable devices such as DIACs, the forward and reverse trigger ...