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In electronics, leakage is the gradual transfer of electrical energy across a boundary normally viewed as insulating, such as the spontaneous discharge of a charged capacitor, magnetic coupling of a transformer with other components, or flow of current across a transistor in the "off" state or a reverse-polarized diode.
Reverse leakage current in a semiconductor device is the current when the device is reverse biased.. Under reverse bias, an ideal semiconductor device should not conduct any current, however, due to attraction of dissimilar charges, the positive side of the voltage source draws free electrons (majority carriers in the n-region) away from the P-N junction.
Diode I-V diagram. 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.
The device behaves as two diodes connected in series. A small leakage current flows. This is the reverse blocking mode. If the reverse voltage is increased, then at critical breakdown level, called the reverse breakdown voltage (V BR), an avalanche occurs at J1 and J3 and the reverse current increases rapidly. SCRs are available with reverse ...
Compared with signal diodes, rectifier diodes generally have higher current ratings, can have much higher reverse voltage ratings, but have higher leakage current and greater junction capacitance. [16] The following table lists part numbers in the 1N400x, 1N540x, and other popular general-purpose silicon rectifier diode families.
This allows the diode to operate at higher signal frequencies, at the expense of a higher forward voltage drop. Gold-doped diodes are faster than other p–n diodes (but not as fast as Schottky diodes). They also have less reverse-current leakage than Schottky diodes (but not as good as other p–n diodes). [43] [44] A typical example is the 1N914.
An LED begins to emit light when more than 2 or 3 volts is applied in the forward direction. The reverse bias region uses a different vertical scale from the forward bias region to show that the leakage current is nearly constant with voltage until breakdown occurs. In forward bias, the current starts small but increases exponentially with voltage.
When forward-biased, the voltage across the end terminals of the diode should be zero, no matter the current that flows through it (on-state). When reverse-biased, the leakage current should be zero, no matter the voltage (off-state). The transition (or commutation) between the on-state and the off-state should be instantaneous.