Zener Breakdown
Zener breakdown in heavily doped diode is due to:
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About This Question
- Subject
- physics
- Chapter
- semiconductor electronics
- Topic
- zener breakdown
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Year
- 2025
Solution
Correct Answer:
Quantum tunneling across narrow depletion
Zener breakdown occurs in heavily doped p-n junctions which have very narrow depletion layers.
- Because the layer is so thin, even a relatively small reverse voltage creates a very high electric field (∼106 V/m).
- This field is strong enough to pull electrons directly out of their covalent bonds in the valence band and transfer them to the conduction band.
- This process is called internal field emission or field ionization (a quantum tunneling effect).
This hard difficulty physics question is from the chapter semiconductor electronics, covering the topic of zener breakdown. It appeared in the 2025 exam.
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