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    3 Zener Diode

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    Gurudev
    The Zener diode allows current to flow in the reverse direction when a breakdown voltage is reached. It has three operating regions: forward, leakage, and breakdown. In the breakdown region, the voltage remains nearly constant regardless of current, making the Zener diode useful for voltage regulation. A series resistor is required to limit the current. Zener diodes can regulate load voltages by maintaining a constant voltage equal to the Zener voltage. The load current and Zener current can be calculated using Kirchhoff's laws. The Thevenin voltage must exceed the Zener voltage for regulation to occur. Zener diodes find application in voltage regulators due to their constant voltage characteristic in the breakdown region.

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    3 Zener Diode

    Uploaded by

    Gurudev
    63 views16 pages
    The Zener diode allows current to flow in the reverse direction when a breakdown voltage is reached. It has three operating regions: forward, leakage, and breakdown. In the breakdown region, the voltage remains nearly constant regardless of current, making the Zener diode useful for voltage regulation. A series resistor is required to limit the current. Zener diodes can regulate load voltages by maintaining a constant voltage equal to the Zener voltage. The load current and Zener current can be calculated using Kirchhoff's laws. The Thevenin voltage must exceed the Zener voltage for regulation to occur. Zener diodes find application in voltage regulators due to their constant voltage characteristic in the breakdown region.

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    The Zener diode allows current to flow in the reverse direction when a breakdown voltage is reached. It has three operating regions: forward, leakage, and breakdown. In the breakdown region, the voltage remains nearly constant regardless of current, making the Zener diode useful for voltage regulation. A series resistor is required to limit the current. Zener diodes can regulate load voltages by maintaining a constant voltage equal to the Zener voltage. The load current and Zener current can be calculated using Kirchhoff's laws. The Thevenin voltage must exceed the Zener voltage for regulation to occur. Zener diodes find application in voltage regulators due to their constant voltage characteristic in the breakdown region.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    63 views16 pages

    3 Zener Diode

    Uploaded by

    Gurudev
    The Zener diode allows current to flow in the reverse direction when a breakdown voltage is reached. It has three operating regions: forward, leakage, and breakdown. In the breakdown region, the voltage remains nearly constant regardless of current, making the Zener diode useful for voltage regulation. A series resistor is required to limit the current. Zener diodes can regulate load voltages by maintaining a constant voltage equal to the Zener voltage. The load current and Zener current can be calculated using Kirchhoff's laws. The Thevenin voltage must exceed the Zener voltage for regulation to occur. Zener diodes find application in voltage regulators due to their constant voltage characteristic in the breakdown region.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 16

    Zener Diode

    Introduction
    • The Zener diode has heavy doping for its P-N materials to
    form a uni-junction device.
    • The depletion region formed in the diode is very thin and the
    electric field is consequently very high.
    • Zener diode is designed to operate under reverse bias in the
    breakdown region – Zener Breakdown
    • Unlike diode breakdown (Avalanche breakdown), Zener
    breakdown is recoverable.
    • Used as a voltage regulator

    Zener diode -Symbol


    V I characteristics

    Zener diodes can operate in any of three regions:


    Forward, Leakage, Breakdown.
    Leakage
    region Forward Region

    Breakdown region

    Voltage-current relations in Zener diode

    Forward region
    It starts conducting around 0.7 V, just like an ordinary silicon diode.
    V I characteristics
    • In the leakage region (between zero and breakdown), it has only a small
    reverse current.
    • The breakdown has a very sharp knee, followed by an almost vertical
    increase in current.
    • Voltage is almost constant, approximately equal to Vz over most of the
    breakdown region.
    • Vz - Zener voltage refers to the reverse breakdown voltage
    • IZM – Max. amount of current the diode can handle without being destroyed
    • I – Current level at which the V rating of diode is measured
    ZT Z
    Avalanche breakdown - Diode
    • The avalanche breakdown occurs when a high reverse voltage
    is applied across the diode.
    • Increase in applied reverse voltage, the electric field across the
    junction increases.
    • This electric field exerts a force on the electrons at the
    junction and frees them from covalent bonds.
    • These free electrons start moving with high velocity across the
    junction and collide with the other atoms, thus creating more
    free electrons. This results in a rapid increase in reverse
    current.
    • Avalanche breakdown is irrecoverable in diode
    Zener breakdown
    • With a Zener diode heavily doped, the depletion layer
    becomes very narrow.
    • The electric field across the depletion layer is very intense.
    • The electric field intensity increases the kinetic energy of the
    free charge carriers. Thereby the carriers starts tunneling from
    one region to another at lower voltage levels.
    • These energetic charge carriers collide with the atoms of the p-
    type and n-type material and produce the electron-hole pairs.
    • Controlled current flow as the depletion region is narrow and
    so permanent damage is avoided
    Difference

    7
    Zener resistance.

    • As long as the reverse current is less than IZM, the diode is


    operating within its safe range.
    • If the current is greater than IZM, the diode will be destroyed.
    • To prevent excessive reverse current, a current-limiting
    resistor must be used.
    • In the breakdown region, the reverse voltage across a diode
    equals the breakdown voltage plus the additional voltage
    across the bulk resistance.
    • In the reverse region, the bulk resistance is referred to as the
    Zener resistance.
    Zener parameters
    Maximum Power
    The power dissipation of a Zener diode equals the product of its voltage and
    current:

    Maximum Current
    Data sheets often include the maximum current IZM a Zener diode can handle
    without exceeding its power rating. If this value is not listed, the maximum
    current can be found as follows:
    Zener Regulator
    • Zener diode in reverse biased condition is called as a voltage-regulator
    diode, as it maintains a constant output voltage when the current changes.
    • In Reverse-biased Zener diode, to get breakdown operation, the source
    voltage VS must be greater than the Zener breakdown voltage Vz .
    • A series resistor R s is always used to limit the zener current to less than its
    maximum current rating. Otherwise, the zener diode will burn out.

    Current thru the limiting resistor is


    Problem
    The zener diode has a breakdown voltage of 10 V. supply
    voltage varies from 20V to 40V. What are the minimum and
    maximum Zener currents with Rs=820 Ohm?

    The minimum current occurs when the source voltage is minimum.


    voltage across the resistor is 20 V - 10 V =10 V.
    For the maximum current , voltage should be maximum, voltage across the
    resistor is 40V-10V=30V
    Loaded Zener Regulator
    • Zener diode operating in the breakdown region can hold the load voltage
    VL constant irrespective of source Voltage Vs.
    • Even if the source voltage changes or the load resistance varies, the load
    voltage will remain fixed and equal to the Zener voltage.
    • Voltage across load VL that exists when the Zener diode is disconnected
    from the circuit is called Thevenin’s Voltage VTH.
    • Thevenin voltage must to be greater than the Zener voltage; otherwise,
    breakdown cannot occur
    Loaded Zener Regulator
    Load Current
    Load voltage VL equals the Zener voltage VZ as the load resistor is in parallel
    with the Zener diode.

    Using Ohm’s law, the load current

    With Kirchhoff’s current law

    Zener Current

    Current thru the limiting resistor is


    Problem
    Is the Zener diode operating in the breakdown region? Calculate Zener
    current ?

    Loaded Zener diode will operate in breakdown region if the Thevenin’s Voltage is greater
    than the Zener voltage

    Thevenin voltage 14.2V is greater than the Zener voltage 10V, Hence the Zener diode is operating in the
    Breakdown region

    𝑉 𝐿 =10 𝑉

    10
    𝐼 𝐿= =10 𝑚𝐴 𝑰 𝒁 =𝟐𝟗 . 𝟔 −𝟏𝟎=𝟏𝟗 . 𝟔𝒎𝑨
    1000
    Problem
    For the given circuit ,find :(i) the output voltage (ii) the voltage drop across
    series resistance (iii) the current through Zener diode.
    Solution:
    Calculate the Thevenin voltage

    Since voltage across Zener diode is greater than VZ = 50 V, the Zener is in the “ON” state.
    It can be represented by a battery of 50 V
    Thank you

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