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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 ...
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]
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 ...
Schematic V-A characteristics of avalanche or Zener diode with a breakdown voltage of 17 V. (Note: with breakdown voltage over ca. 6 V, avalanche diodes are used instead of Zener diodes; also the voltage scale is different on the forward-biased positive side than the reverse-biased negative side.) Date: 15 January 2007: Source: Own work: Author ...
This configuration is known as a constant-current diode, as it behaves much like a dual to the constant voltage diode (Zener diode) used in simple voltage sources. Due to the large variability in saturation current of JFETs, it is common to also include a source resistor (shown in the adjacent image) which allows the current to be tuned down to ...
A simple diode clipper can be made with a diode and a resistor. This will remove either the positive, or the negative half of the waveform depending on the direction the diode is connected. The simple circuit clips at zero voltage (or to be more precise, at the small forward voltage of the forward biased diode) but the clipping voltage can be ...
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