Zener Diode

and
its Characteristics
 Introduction
➢ A Zener diode is a silicon semiconductor device that permits current to
flow in either a forward (or) reverse direction.
➢ The diode consists of a special heavily doped p-n junction to form a uni-
junction device, designed to conduct in the reverse direction when a
certain specified voltage is reached.

Symbol
➢ The depletion region formed in this 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 and used as a voltage regulator
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 V I Characteristics
Zener diodes can operate in any of three regions:
Forward, Leakage, Breakdown region

Fig.1 shows the VI graph of a zener diode

Forward region
It starts conducting around 0.7 V, just like an ordinary silicon diode.
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 VI Characteristics
➢ In the leakage region (between zero and breakdown), it has only a small
reverse current.

➢ In a zener diode, the breakdown has a very sharp knee, followed by an

almost vertical increase in current.
Note : The voltage is almost constant, approximately equal to Vz over most of
the breakdown region.
Vz : The Zener voltage refers to the reverse breakdown voltage
IZMax : max. amount of current the diode can handle without being destroyed
IZmin : the current level at which the VZ rating of diode is measured 4
 Zener resistance
➢ As long as the reverse current is less than IZMax , the diode is operating
within its safe range.
➢ If the current is greater than IZMax , 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.

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Zener and Avalanche breakdown

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 Zener breakdown
Zener effect (or) Zener breakdown
➢ When a diode is heavily doped, the depletion layer becomes very narrow.
Because of this, 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 start jumping from one region to another.
➢ These energetic charge carriers collide with the atoms of the p-type and n-
type material and produce the electron-hole .

• Breakdown voltage is less than 4 V - zener effect occurs.

• Breakdown voltage is greater than 6 V- avalanche effect
• Breakdown voltage is between 4 to 6 V - both effects are present. 7
 Avalanche breakdown
➢ The avalanche breakdown occurs when a high reverse voltage is applied
across the diode.
➢ As we increase the 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 current.

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Difference between Avalanche and Zener Breakdown

Lecture 1 9
 Temperature effect
➢ When the ambient temperature changes, the zener voltage will
change slightly.
➢ The temperature coefficient is negative for breakdown voltages less
than 4 V (Zener effect).
➢ The temperature coefficient is positive for breakdown voltages
greater than 6 V (Avalanche effect).
➢ Zener diodes with breakdown voltages between 4 and 6 V in which
the temperature coefficient equals zero.

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 Zener Regulator
➢ A zener diode is called as a voltage-regulator diode, maintains a constant
output voltage when the current changes.
➢ In the Reverse-biased zener diode, to get breakdown operation, the
source voltage VS must be greater than the zener breakdown voltage Vz .
➢ A series resistor Rs is always used to limit the zener current to less than
its maximum current rating. Otherwise, the zener diode will burn out.
➢ Therefore, the current through the resistor is:

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 Problem
The zener diode has a breakdown voltage of 10 V. What are the minimum and
maximum zener currents?

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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

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 Loaded Zener Regulator
➢ The zener diode operates in the breakdown region and holds the load voltage
constant. 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.
➢ This Thevenin voltage has to be greater than the zener voltage;
otherwise, breakdown cannot occur

Series Current
Current through the series resistor is given by

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 Loaded Zener Regulator
Load Current
Ideally, the load voltage equals the zener voltage because the load resistor is in
parallel with the zener diode. Using Ohm’s law, calculate the load current

IL
Is

• With Kirchhoff’s current law: Zener Current

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

• Since this Thevenin voltage is greater than the zener voltage, the zener
diode is operating in the breakdown region
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 Problem (cont)
Note the voltage on both ends of the series resistor.

Subtract the voltages, 18-10=8 V is across the series resistor.

Then Ohm’s law gives:

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 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:

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 Problem
For the given circuit ,find : (i) the output voltage (ii) the voltage drop across series
resistance (iii) the current through zener diode.

Calculate the Thevenin's voltage

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 Problem (cont)
• 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

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