Zener effect

The I-V curve for a diode showing avalanche and Zener breakdown.

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 free minority carriers which suddenly increase the reverse current.[1]

  1. ^ "PN junction breakdown characteristics". Circuits Today. August 25, 2009. Retrieved August 16, 2011.

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