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1 PN JN Diode Zener Diode 5-5-25 Notes

The document explains the functioning of a PN junction diode, detailing its formation, characteristics, and behavior under different biasing conditions (zero, forward, and reverse bias). It highlights the diode's non-linear I-V relationship, the role of the depletion region, and the effects of applying voltage, including rectification and the avalanche effect. Additionally, it contrasts drift current and diffusion current, outlining their definitions, causes, and differences.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
15 views25 pages

1 PN JN Diode Zener Diode 5-5-25 Notes

The document explains the functioning of a PN junction diode, detailing its formation, characteristics, and behavior under different biasing conditions (zero, forward, and reverse bias). It highlights the diode's non-linear I-V relationship, the role of the depletion region, and the effects of applying voltage, including rectification and the avalanche effect. Additionally, it contrasts drift current and diffusion current, outlining their definitions, causes, and differences.

Uploaded by

ibk2007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 25

School of Electrical Engineering (SELECT)

Basic Engineering

PN Junction Diode

A PN-junction diode is formed when a p-type semiconductor is fused to an n-type


semiconductor creating a potential barrier voltage across the diode junction

The PN junction diode consists of a p-region and n-region separated by a depletion region
where charge is stored. The effect described in the previous tutorial is achieved without any
external voltage being applied to the actual PN junction resulting in the junction being in a state
of equilibrium.

However, if we were to make electrical connections at the ends of both the N-type and the P-
type materials and then connect them to a battery source, an additional energy source now
exists to overcome the potential barrier.

The effect of adding this additional energy source results in the free electrons being able to
cross the depletion region from one side to the other. The behaviour of the PN junction with
regards to the potential barrier’s width produces an asymmetrical conducting two terminal
device, better known as the PN Junction Diode.

A PN Junction Diode is one of the simplest semiconductor devices around, and which has the
electrical characteristic of passing current through itself in one direction only. However, unlike
a resistor, a diode does not behave linearly with respect to the applied voltage. Instead it has an
exponential current-voltage ( I-V ) relationship and therefore we can not described its operation
by simply using an equation such as Ohm’s law.

Page 1 of 25
If a suitable positive voltage (forward bias) is applied between the two ends of the PN junction,
it can supply free electrons and holes with the extra energy they require to cross the junction
as the width of the depletion layer around the PN junction is decreased.

By applying a negative voltage (reverse bias) results in the free charges being pulled away from
the junction resulting in the depletion layer width being increased. This has the effect of
increasing or decreasing the effective resistance of the junction itself allowing or blocking the
flow of current through the diodes pn-junction.

Then the depletion layer widens with an increase in the application of a reverse voltage and
narrows with an increase in the application of a forward voltage. This is due to the differences
in the electrical properties on the two sides of the PN junction resulting in physical changes
taking place. One of the results produces rectification as seen in the PN junction diodes static
I-V (current-voltage) characteristics. Rectification is shown by an asymmetrical current flow
when the polarity of bias voltage is altered as shown below.

Junction Diode Symbol and Static I-V Characteristics

Page 2 of 25
But before we can use the PN junction as a practical device or as a rectifying device we need
to firstly bias the junction, that is connect a voltage potential across it. On the voltage axis
above, “Reverse Bias” refers to an external voltage potential which increases the potential
barrier. An external voltage which decreases the potential barrier is said to act in the “Forward
Bias” direction.

There are two operating regions and three possible “biasing” conditions for the
standard Junction Diode and these are:

• 1. Zero Bias – No external voltage potential is applied to the PN junction diode.

• 2. Reverse Bias – The voltage potential is connected negative, (-ve) to the P-type
material and positive, (+ve) to the N-type material across the diode which has the effect
of Increasing the PN junction diode’s width.

• 3. Forward Bias – The voltage potential is connected positive, (+ve) to the P-type
material and negative, (-ve) to the N-type material across the diode which has the effect
of Decreasing the PN junction diodes width.

Zero Biased Junction Diode

Page 3 of 25
When a diode is connected in a Zero Bias condition, no external potential energy is applied to
the PN junction. However if the diodes terminals are shorted together, a few holes (majority
carriers) in the P-type material with enough energy to overcome the potential barrier will move
across the junction against this barrier potential. This is known as the “Forward Current” and
is referenced as IF

Likewise, holes generated in the N-type material (minority carriers), find this situation
favourable and move across the junction in the opposite direction. This is known as the
“Reverse Current” and is referenced as IR. This transfer of electrons and holes back and forth
across the PN junction is known as diffusion, as shown below.

The potential barrier that now exists discourages the diffusion of any more majority carriers
across the junction. However, the potential barrier helps minority carriers (few free electrons
in the P-region and few holes in the N-region) to drift across the junction.

Then an “Equilibrium” or balance will be established when the majority carriers are equal and
both moving in opposite directions, so that the net result is zero current flowing in the circuit.
When this occurs the junction is said to be in a state of “Dynamic Equilibrium“.

The minority carriers are constantly generated due to thermal energy so this state of equilibrium
can be broken by raising the temperature of the PN junction causing an increase in the

Page 4 of 25
generation of minority carriers, thereby resulting in an increase in leakage current but an
electric current cannot flow since no circuit has been connected to the PN junction.

Reverse Biased PN Junction Diode

When a diode is connected in a Reverse Bias condition, a positive voltage is applied to the N-
type material and a negative voltage is applied to the P-type material.

The positive voltage applied to the N-type material attracts electrons towards the positive
electrode and away from the junction, while the holes in the P-type end are also attracted away
from the junction towards the negative electrode.

The net result is that the depletion layer grows wider due to a lack of electrons and holes and
presents a high impedance path, almost an insulator and a high potential barrier is created across
the junction thus preventing current from flowing through the semiconductor material.

Increase in the Depletion Layer due to Reverse Bias

This condition represents a high resistance value to the PN junction and practically zero current
flows through the junction diode with an increase in bias voltage. However, a very
small reverse leakage current does flow through the junction which can normally be
measured in micro-amperes, ( μA ).

One final point, if the reverse bias voltage Vr applied to the diode is increased to a sufficiently
high enough value, it will cause the diode’s PN junction to overheat and fail due to the

Page 5 of 25
avalanche effect around the junction. This may cause the diode to become shorted and will
result in the flow of maximum circuit current, and this shown as a step downward slope in the
reverse static characteristics curve below.

Reverse Characteristics Curve for a Junction Diode

Sometimes this avalanche effect has practical applications in voltage stabilising circuits where
a series limiting resistor is used with the diode to limit this reverse breakdown current to a
preset maximum value thereby producing a fixed voltage output across the diode. These types
of diodes are commonly known as Zener Diodes and are discussed later.

Forward Biased PN Junction Diode

When a diode is connected in a Forward Bias condition, a negative voltage is applied to the
N-type material and a positive voltage is applied to the P-type material. If this external voltage
becomes greater than the value of the potential barrier, approx. 0.7 volts for silicon and 0.3
volts for germanium, the potential barriers opposition will be overcome and current will start
to flow.

This is because the negative voltage pushes or repels electrons towards the junction giving
them the energy to cross over and combine with the holes being pushed in the opposite direction
towards the junction by the positive voltage. This results in a characteristics curve of zero
current flowing up to this voltage point, called the “knee” on the static curves and then a high
current flow through the diode with little increase in the external voltage as shown below.

Forward Characteristics Curve for a Junction Diode

Page 6 of 25
The application of a forward biasing voltage on the junction diode results in the depletion layer
becoming very thin and narrow which represents a low impedance path through the junction
thereby allowing high currents to flow. The point at which this sudden increase in current takes
place is represented on the static I-V characteristics curve above as the “knee” point.

Reduction in the Depletion Layer due to Forward Bias

Page 7 of 25
This condition represents the low resistance path through the PN junction allowing very large
currents to flow through the diode with only a small increase in bias voltage. The actual
potential difference across the junction or diode is kept constant by the action of the depletion
layer at approximately 0.3v for germanium and approximately 0.7v for silicon junction diodes.

Since the diode can conduct “infinite” current above this knee point as it effectively becomes
a short circuit, therefore resistors are used in series with the diode to limit its current flow.
Exceeding its maximum forward current specification causes the device to dissipate more
power in the form of heat than it was designed for resulting in a very quick failure of the device.

Summary

The PN junction region of a Junction Diode has the following important characteristics:

• Semiconductors contain two types of mobile charge carriers, “Holes” and “Electrons”.

• The holes are positively charged while the electrons negatively charged.

• A semiconductor may be doped with donor impurities such as Antimony (N-type


doping), so that it contains mobile charges which are primarily electrons.

• A semiconductor may be doped with acceptor impurities such as Boron (P-type doping),
so that it contains mobile charges which are mainly holes.

• The junction region itself has no charge carriers and is known as the depletion region.

• The junction (depletion) region has a physical thickness that varies with the applied
voltage.

Page 8 of 25
• When a diode is Zero Biased no external energy source is applied and a
natural Potential Barrier is developed across a depletion layer which is approximately
0.5 to 0.7v for silicon diodes and approximately 0.3 of a volt for germanium diodes.

• When a junction diode is Forward Biased the thickness of the depletion region reduces
and the diode acts like a short circuit allowing full circuit current to flow.

• When a junction diode is Reverse Biased the thickness of the depletion region
increases and the diode acts like an open circuit blocking any current flow, (only a very
small leakage current will flow).

We have also seen above that the diode is two terminal non-linear device whose I-V
characteristic are polarity dependent as depending upon the polarity of the applied
voltage, VD the diode is either Forward Biased, VD > 0 or Reverse Biased, VD < 0. Either way
we can model these current-voltage characteristics for both an ideal diode and for a real silicon
diode as shown:

Ideal and Real Characteristics

Drift Current and Diffusion Current : Their Differences

n a semiconductor, the majority and minority charge carriers will exit in p-type or n-type.
Because both the types of semiconductors will present over a single crystal at the center so
that PN-junction can be formed. When the doping of this junction diode is done non-uniformly
then charge carriers movement will be an exit from high to low concentration which leads to
the recombination of carriers as well as to the diffusion process. There is an additional method

Page 9 of 25
is also occurs based on the applied electric field namely drift current. This article discusses the
main differences between drift current and diffusion current.

What are the Drift Current and Diffusion Current?

In a semiconductor material, the drift, as well as diffusion currents, will occur. Semiconductors
are fabricated with two kinds of materials namely p-type as well as n-type. There are several
kinds of switching devices available in the market like transistors, diodes, etc. These are
designed by placing one material among other materials so that the material’s conducting
property can be modified.

What is a Drift Current?

Drift current can be defined as the charge carrier’s moves in a semiconductor because of the
electric field. There are two kinds of charge carriers in a semiconductor like holes and electrons.
Once the voltage is applied to a semiconductor, then electrons move toward the +Ve terminal
of a battery whereas the holes travel toward the –Ve terminal of a battery.

Here, holes are positively charged carriers whereas the electrons are negatively charged
carriers. Therefore, the electrons attract by the +Ve terminal of a battery whereas the holes
attract by the -Ve terminal of a battery.

Drift-current-&-diffusion-current

Page 10 of 25
Drift current arises from the movement of carriers in response to an applied electric field.
Positive carriers (holes) move in the same direction as the electric field while negative carriers
(electrons) move in the opposite direction. The net motion of charged particles generates a drift
current that is in the same direction as the applied electric field.

The drift velocity increases with increasing electric field and contributes to the mobility μ of
the carriers. The drift current follows Ohm’s law and is mainly influenced by the external field
and charge carrier concentration.

What is Diffusion Current?

The diffusion current can be defined as the flow of charge carriers within a semiconductor
travels from a higher concentration region to a lower concentration region. A higher
concentration region is nothing but where the number of electrons present in the semiconductor.
Similarly, a lower concentration region is where the less number of electrons present in the
semiconductor. The process of diffusion mainly occurs when a semiconductor is doped non-
uniformly.

In an N-type semiconductor, when it is doped non-uniformly then a higher concentration region


can be formed at the left side whereas the lower concentration region can be formed at the right
side. The electrons in the higher concentration region are more in the semiconductor so they
will experience a repulsive force from each other.

The movement of charge carriers from higher concentration to lower concentration generates
diffusion current. This occurs when a semiconductor is doped non-uniformly then there is a
non-uniform distribution of carriers or a concentration gradient. Nature’s way of attaining
equilibrium in this case is through diffusion of particles (carriers) and this gives rise to a
diffusion current. This process does not require an external electric field and is primarily
dependent on the repulsive forces between carriers of the same charge that are highly

Page 11 of 25
concentrated in an area. The repulsive forces will drive the diffusion of carriers leading to a
change in concentrations and eventually a uniform distribution. The initial carrier
concentrations also determine the direction of the diffusion current—the current moves to the
direction where there is initially a higher concentration of electrons or a lower concentration of
holes. Quite simply, the current moves in the same direction as the movement of holes and
opposite to that of electrons.

The diffusion current is proportional to the concentration gradient or how nonuniformly the
carriers were initially distributed. Since the carriers are diffusing from areas of higher
concentration to areas of lower concentration, +q is assigned for electrons and -q is assigned
for holes in the equation for the current density.

Summary of Drift Current & Diffusion Current

Drift current is electric current due to the motion of charge carriers under the influence of an
external electric field while diffusion current is electric current due to the diffusion of carriers
leading to a change in carrier concentration. With electrons as carriers, the current density can
be expressed by the drift-diffusion equation:

where q is the electron charge, μn is the mobility of the carriers through the semiconductor
crystal, n is the electron concentration and Dn is the diffusion coefficient. If a strong electric
field is applied, then drift current dominates the overall current density. If no field is applied,
then the current is due to the carrier concentration gradient.

Page 12 of 25
Difference between Drift Current and Diffusion Currents

The difference between drift current and diffusion current includes the following.

Drift Current Diffusion Current

The movement of charge carriers is


because of the applied electric field is The diffusion current can be occurred because of
known as drift current. the diffusion in charge carriers.

It requires electrical energy for the process Some amount of external energy is enough for the
of drift current. process of diffusion current.

This current obeys Ohm’s Law. This current obeys Fick’s Law.

The direction of charge carriers in the For charge carriers, the densities of diffusion are
semiconductor is reverse to each other. reverse in symbol to each other.

The direction of the drift current, as well as The direction of this current can be decided by the
the electric field, will be the same. concentration of the carrier slope.

It depends on the permittivity It is independent of permittivity

The direction of this current mainly depends The direction of this current mainly depends on the
on the polarity of the applied electric field. charge within the concentrations of carrier

1) What is drift current in diode?

The charge carriers start moving because of the applied electric field.

2) What is carrier drift?

When an electric field is applied to a semiconductor, charges carriers start moving to generate
electric current.

3) What is the drift voltage?

The percentage of o/p voltage occurs over a period of time.

4) What does the diffusion coefficient mean?

Page 13 of 25
The amount of a substance that diffuses from one section to another through every unit of the
cross-section for each unit of time as the gradient of volume-concentration is unity.

Thus, this is all about the difference between drift and diffusion current in a semiconductor.
When the doping is done, then these currents will occur within the semiconductor. Once both
the currents occur, these are accountable for the generation electric current within the circuit.

Diode Equation

Overview

1. I0 is directly related to recombination, and thus, inversely related to material quality.

2. Non-ideal diodes include an "n" term in the denominator of the exponent. N is the
ideality factor, ranging from 1-2, that increases with decreasing current.

Ideal Diodes

The diode equation gives an expression for the current through a diode as a function of voltage.
The Ideal Diode Law, expressed as:

where:
I = the net current flowing through the diode;
I0 = "dark saturation current", the diode leakage current density in the absence of light;
V = applied voltage across the terminals of the diode;
q = absolute value of electron charge;
k = Boltzmann's constant; and
T = absolute temperature (K).

The "dark saturation current" (I0) is an extremely important parameter which differentiates one
diode from another. I0 is a measure of the recombination in a device. A diode with a larger
recombination will have a larger I0. An excellent discussion of the recombination parameter is
in 1

Page 14 of 25
Note that:

• I0 increases as T increases; and

• I0 decreases as material quality increases.

At 300K, kT/q = 25.85 mV, the "thermal voltage".

Non-Ideal Diodes

For actual diodes, the expression becomes:

where:
n = ideality factor, a number between 1 and 2 which typically increases as the current decreases.

The diode equation is plotted on the interactive graph below. Change the saturation current and
watch the changing of IV curve. Note that although you can simply vary the temperature and
ideality factor the resulting IV curves are misleading. In the simulation it is implied that the
input parameters are independent but they are not. In real devices, the saturation current is
strongly dependent on the device temperature. Similarly, mechanisms that change the ideality
factor also impact the saturation current. Temperature effects are discussed in more detail on
the Effect of Temperature

Page 15 of 25
Changing the dark saturation current changes the turn on voltage of the diode. The ideality
factor changes the shape of the diode. The graph is misleading for ideality factor. It implies
that increasing the ideality factor would increase the turn on voltage. In reality this is not the
case as any physical effect that increases the ideality factor would substantially increase the
dark saturation current, I0, so that a device with a high ideality factor would typically have
a lower turn on voltage.

The diode law is illustrated for silicon on the following picture. Increasing the temperature
makes the diode to "turn ON" at lower voltages.

Page 16 of 25
The diode law for silicon - current changes with voltage and temperature. For a given current,
the curve shifts by approximately 2 mV/°C. The light blue curve shows the effect on the IV
curve if I0 does not change with temperature. In reality, I0 changes rapidly with temperature
resulting in the dark blue curve.

Page 17 of 25
Zener Diode
✓ A Zener diode is a semiconductor device that allows current to flow in the reverse
direction once it reaches a specific breakdown voltage called the Zener voltage.

✓ It is essentially a heavily doped diode designed to exploit the Zener effect, which
occurs when a high electric field is applied across a narrow depletion region in a p-
n junction.

Figure 1: Symbol of Zener Diode

Figure 2: Real time representation of Zener diode

Working Operation

➢ when the input voltage is lower than the Zener voltage, the diode remains in the normal
forward bias region and allows current to pass through it.

➢ In this case, the voltage across the load is equal to the input voltage minus the forward
voltage drop of the diode.

Page 18 of 25
➢ When the input voltage is greater than the Zener voltage , the diode enters the
breakdown region and acts as a low impedance path.

➢ As a result, the excess current flows through the diode, limiting the voltage across the
load to the Zener voltage.

Approximate equivalent circuits for the Zener diode

✓ Zener diodes find wide application as voltage regulators, maintaining a constant


output voltage despite variations in the input voltage or load conditions.

✓ The Zener diode is connected in parallel to the load and is reverse biased, allowing it
to regulate the voltage across the load.

✓ The Zener diode has three regions of operations.

The use of the Zener diode as a regulator has three conditions:

1. Fixed load and fixed supply voltage.

2. Fixed supply voltage and variable load.

3. Variable supply voltage and fixed load.

A. Fixed load and supply voltage

Page 19 of 25
• Determine the state of the Zener diode by removing it from the network
and calculating the voltage across the resulting open circuit.

𝑅
𝐿
Voltage across the Zener diode = 𝑉 = 𝑉𝑠 𝑅+𝑅
𝐿

i. If 𝑉 > 𝑉𝑍 , the Zener diode is on, and the appropriate equivalent model can
be substituted.
ii. If 𝑉 < 𝑉𝑍 , the diode is off, and the open-circuit equivalence is substituted.
• Substitute the appropriate equivalent circuit and solve for the desired
unknowns.

Since voltages across parallel elements must be the same. Zener region and can
be approximated as battery with VZ

Page 20 of 25
𝑉𝐿 = 𝑉𝑍

𝑉𝑅 𝑉𝑠 − 𝑉𝐿
𝑖𝑅 = =
𝑅 𝑅

𝑉𝐿
𝑖𝐿 =
𝑅𝐿

𝑖𝑧 = 𝑖𝑅 − 𝑖𝐿

1. For the Zener diode regulator,

I. Determine VL, VR, iZ and PZ.


II. If the load is changed to RL = 3 kΩ, repeat the above problem.

Answer:

𝑅 1.2
I. Voltage across the Zener diode = 𝑉𝑧 = 𝑉𝑠 𝑅+𝑅𝐿 = 16 1.2+1 = 8.73 𝑉 = 𝑉𝐿
𝐿

Since the voltage across the Zener i.e 8.73 V is smaller than 10 V and the diode is reverse,
then the Zener is OFF.

So, 𝑉𝑅 = 16 − 8.73 = 7.27 𝑉

Page 21 of 25
𝑖𝑧 = 0 𝐴

𝑃𝑧 = 0 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑡

𝑅 3
II. Voltage across the Zener diode = 𝑉𝑧 = 𝑉𝑠 𝑅+𝑅𝐿 = 16 1+3 = 12 𝑉
𝐿

Since the voltage across the Zener is more than 10 V then the Zener is operating in the
Zener region and can be approximated as battery with VZ:

So, 𝑉𝑧 = 10 𝑉

𝑉𝑅 = 16 − 10 = 6 𝑉

6
𝑖𝑅 = = 6𝑚𝐴
1𝐾Ω

10
𝑖𝐿 = = 3.33𝑚𝐴 ⇒ 𝑖𝑧 = 6 − 3.33 = 2.67𝑚𝐴
3𝐾Ω

Power dissipated by the zener diode = 𝑃𝑧 = 26.7 𝑚𝑊

B. Fixed input voltage, Variable load resistance:

Page 22 of 25
The load resistance RL determines the state of the Zener (ON or OFF).

✓ Too small a RL will result in a voltage VL across the load resistor less than VZ, and the
Zener device will be in the ON state.
✓ We need to find the range of load resistance that ensure the on state for the Zener
diode
a. To determine the minimum load resistance, RLmin:
If resistance is very small, it will result in a load voltage VL = VZ
𝑅𝐿 𝑉𝑧 𝑅
𝑉𝑧 = 𝑉𝑠 = 𝑉𝐿 ⇒ 𝑅𝐿_𝑚𝑖𝑛 =
𝑅 + 𝑅𝐿 𝑉𝑠 − 𝑉𝑧
So, if a 𝑹𝑳 > 𝑅𝐿_𝑚𝑖𝑛 ⇒ 𝑍𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑂𝑁
𝑉𝑧
𝑖𝐿_𝑀𝑎𝑥 =
𝑅𝐿_𝑚𝑖𝑛
b. To determine the maximum load resistance, RLmax:
Zener current is limited to the maximum Zener current from the data sheet or
from the question given.

𝑉𝑅 = 𝑉𝑠 − 𝑉𝑧

𝑉𝑅
𝑖𝑅 =
𝑅

𝑖𝑧 = 𝑖𝑅 − 𝑖𝐿

𝑖𝐿_𝑀𝑖𝑛 = 𝑖𝑅 − 𝑖𝑍_𝑀𝑎𝑥

𝑉𝑧
𝑅𝐿_𝑀𝑎𝑥 =
𝑖𝐿_𝑚𝑖𝑛

2. For the network as shown in Figure

Page 23 of 25
a. Determine the range of load resistance and load current that will result in
voltage across RL being maintained at 10 V.
b. Determine the maximum wattage rating of the diode.

𝑉𝑧 𝑅 1000 × 10
𝑅𝐿_𝑚𝑖𝑛 = = = 250Ω
𝑉𝑠 − 𝑉𝑧 50 − 10

𝑉𝑅 = 𝑉𝑠 − 𝑉𝑧 = 40 𝑉

40
𝑖𝑅 = = 40 𝑚𝐴
1𝐾Ω

𝑖𝐿_𝑀𝑖𝑛 = 𝑖𝑅 − 𝑖𝑍𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 40 − 32 = 8 𝑚𝐴

𝑉𝑧
𝑅𝐿_𝑀𝑎𝑥 = = 1.25𝐾Ω
𝑖𝐿_𝑚𝑖𝑛

So, the resistance range is 250Ω − 1.25 KΩ

Maximum waatage rating of zener diode = 𝑃𝑧 = 𝑉𝑧 𝑖𝑍𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 320 𝑚𝑊

C. Variable input voltage, Fixed load resistance:

For fixed values of RL, the input voltage must be sufficiently large to turn
the Zener diode on.
The minimum turn-on voltage is determined by
𝑅𝐿 𝑅 + 𝑅𝐿
𝑉𝑧 = 𝑉𝑠 = 𝑉𝐿 ⇒ 𝑉𝑠_𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 𝑉𝑧
𝑅 + 𝑅𝐿 𝑅𝐿
The maximum value of input voltage is limited by the maximum Zener current.

∴ 𝑖𝑅_𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 𝑖𝐿 + 𝑖𝑍_𝑀𝑎𝑥

Page 24 of 25
𝑉𝐿
∵ 𝑖𝐿 = = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 ; 𝑖𝑍𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑜𝑑𝑒
𝑅𝐿

∴ 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒(𝑉𝑠_𝑚𝑎𝑥 ) = 𝑖𝑅_𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑅 + 𝑉𝑍

3. Determine the range of values of source voltage that will maintain the Zener diode
in the ON state.

Ans:
𝑅 + 𝑅𝐿 20(1200 + 220)
𝑉𝑠_𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 𝑉𝑧 = = 23.67 𝑉
𝑅𝐿 1200
𝑉𝐿 20
𝑖𝐿 = = = 16.67 𝑚𝐴
𝑅𝐿 1.2𝐾Ω

∴ 𝑖𝑅_𝑀𝑎𝑥 = 76.67 𝑚𝐴

𝑉𝑠_𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑖𝑅_𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑅 + 𝑉𝑍 = ((76.67 𝑚𝐴) × (220)) + 20 = 36.87 𝑉

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