Breakdown in Diode & Zener

Diode as Voltage Regulator

Subir Kr. Maity

School of Electronics Engineering
Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT)
 Breakdown in Diode

• When applied reverse voltage across P-N

junction diode is sufficiently hi g h t he n
suddenly a large amount of reverse current
flows. In this situation diode is no longer in OFF
state.
Types of Breakdown:
(i) Avalanche Breakdown
(ii) Zener Breakdown

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Avalanche Breakdown
• Thermally generated carriers initiate breakdown.
• At sufficient high reverse voltage, electric field across junction is also high.
• Thermally generated carriers gain high energy from the high field region and
became “hot carriers” whose energy much higher than thermal energy.
• Those hot carriers collide with nearest covalent bond and break them. As a result,
new set of carriers are generated. Those newly generated carriers again gain
energy from high electric field and they collide with some covalent bond and new
carriers are generated. Within a short time span, a large amount of carriers are
generated and large current flows through junction.
• The carrier generation phenomenon in Avalanche breakdown process called
Avalanche Multiplication.
• Avalanche Breakdown occurs in lightly doped P-N junction at sufficient high
reverse voltage (>100V or more).
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Zener Breakdown
• It occurs in heavily (degenerately) doped P-N junction.
• Due to heavy doping, the bonding energy of covalent bond is reduced
and by applying a small amount of electric field those covalent bonds
can be broken.
• There is no role of thermally generated carriers in Zener breakdown.
• Unlike Avalanche breakdown, no “carrier multiplication” takes place.
• Zener breakdown occurs at low reverse voltage (typically below 12V) .
• Application: Zener diode uses Zener breakdown and when
breakdown takes place, voltage across diode remains almost constant.
• This property can be used to design “Voltage Regulators”.

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Zener Diode as Voltage Regulator
• Zener breakdown takes place in zener
diode. When breakdown happens,
voltage across Zener diode (Vz) became
constant (almost).
• This property can be used to design a
simple voltage regulator.
I=(Vi-Vz)/R
I=Iz+IL
V0=IL x RL
* Vi>Vz otherwise no breakdown takes place and
regulator will not work. Also, when breakdown takes
place, the min. amount of current flows through
diode is called knee current. Also, power dissipation
of zener diode: Pdiss=Vz x Iz.

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Zener Diode as Voltage Regulator
• Case-1: When Input voltage (Vi) changes keeping
load resistance constant
Regulators are connected at the output of rectifier.
Due to the variation in main (AC) supply voltage,
o/p of rectifier also varies. Regulators are used to
provide constant output.
When Vin increases, current (I) flowing through
resistance R also increases. Now, to maintain
constant o/p, load current (IL) must be constant. I↑=(Vi↑-Vz)/R
Since I=I Z +I L , current flowing through zener (I Z )
increases and extra current bypasses through
Zener diode keeping IL and V0 constant.
I↑=Iz↑+IL
V0=IL x RL=constant
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Zener Diode as a Voltage Regulator
• Case-2: When Load resistance (RL) changes
keeping input voltage constant
Due to the variation in load value connected at
the output of regulator, output may vary.
Voltage regulator also maintain constant
output even when load resistance varies.
When R L increases, load current (I L ) flowing
through resistance RL decreases. Since Vin is
constant therefore I is constant and I=Iz+IL, so,
extra current bypasses through Zener diode I=(Vi-Vz)/R=const
keeping V 0 constant. Similarly, when load
resistance value reduces, IL increases thereby
reducing zener current IZ. I=Iz↓+IL ↑ or I=Iz ↑ +IL ↓
V0=IL x RL=constant
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 Problem Practice
For the voltage regulator circuit using Zener diode shown in Fig.
below, the current flowing through the zener diode is 5mA≤ Iz ≤
50mA. Find the range of load current (I L ) and range of load
resistance (RL) to be connected at the output.

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Thank You

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