EEE102L: Basic Electrical and Electronics

Engineering
Module – 6: Semiconductor Devices and Applications

Dr. Aarthy.M
Assistant professor senior,
Dept. of Micro & Nano Electronics, SENSE
VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, 632014

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 Zener Diode

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 The Zener Diode
• Zener diodes are specially designed to operate in the breakdown
region without failure

• Zener diodes are sometimes referred to as breakdown diodes

• Zener diodes are the backbone of voltage regulators and circuits that
keep the load voltage almost constant despite large changes in line
voltage and load resistance

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 VI characteristics of Zener diode

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 Forward Bias Region

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 Leakage Region

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 Breakdown Region

• If you continue increasing the

reverse voltage, you will
eventually reach the so-called
Zener voltage VZ of the diode

• As long as the reverse

current is less than IZ(Max), the
diode operates within its safe
range

• If the current exceeds IZ(Max),

04/25/2023 theVITdiode will be destroyed 7
Dr.Aarthy.M, Asst.Prof.Sr., SENSE,
 Zener Voltage Regulator
• The Zener diode maintains a constant output voltage in the breakdown
region, even though the current through it varies
• A Zener diode is sometimes called a Voltage-regulator diode

• The voltage source VS is connected across the diode

• To keep the diode in its breakdown condition, the source voltage
VS must be greater than the Zener breakdown voltage VZ
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• The stabilized output voltage V is taken from across the Zener diode
 Breakdown Operation
• Thevenin voltage is the voltage that exists when the Zener diode
is disconnected from the circuit

• Because of the voltage divider, we can write:

• When this voltage exceeds the Zener voltage, breakdown occurs

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 Series Current
• The voltage across the series resistor equals the difference
between the source voltage and the Zener voltage

• According to the Ohm’s law, the current through the series resistor is:

• The series current remains the same whether the load resistor
is04/25/2023
connected or not Dr.Aarthy.M, Asst.Prof.Sr., SENSE, VIT 10
 Load Voltage and Load Current

• As the load resistor is in parallel with the Zener diode, the load voltage is
the same as the Zener voltage

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 Zener Current

• The total current is equal to the sum of Zener and load currents, which is
the same as the current through the series resistor

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 Numerical problem
• For the circuit shown in Fig below, find the maximum and
minimum values of zener diode current.

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 Numerical problem

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 Numerical problem

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