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130:. Zener breakdown occurs in heavily doped junctions (p-type semiconductor moderately doped and n-type heavily doped), which produces a narrow depletion region. The avalanche breakdown occurs in lightly doped junctions, which produce a wider depletion region. Temperature increase in the junction increases the contribution of the Zener effect to breakdown, and decreases the contribution of the avalanche effect.
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below 5 volts are caused by the Zener effect, whereas breakdowns occurring above 5 volts are caused by the avalanche effect. Breakdowns occurring at voltages close to 5V are usually caused by some combination of the two effects. Zener breakdown is found to occur at electric field intensity of about
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in the transition region being accelerated, by the electric field, to energies sufficient for freeing electron-hole pairs via collisions with bound electrons. The Zener and the avalanche effect may occur simultaneously or independently of one another. In general, diode junction breakdowns occurring
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widens which leads to a high-strength electric field across the junction. Sufficiently strong electric fields enable tunneling of electrons across the depletion region of a
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189:"Zener and avalanche breakdown in As-implanted low-voltage Si n-p junctions"
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of electrons from the valence to the conduction band of a
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Under a high reverse-bias voltage, the p-n junction's
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114:. Avalanche breakdown involves minority carrier
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151:"PN junction breakdown characteristics"
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175:"Zener and Avalanche Breakdown/Diodes"
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193:IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
187:Fair, R.B.; Wivell, H.W. (May 1976).
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49:Clarence Melvin Zener
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241:Electrical breakdown
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100:Zener diode
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