UNIVERSITY KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF AVIATION TECHNOLOGY

BASIC ELECTRONICS
LAB REPORT 4

ZENER DIODE

NAME: R.VISHNU
ID: 53213218142
CLASS:2BAV
Introduction

A Zener diode is a particular type of diode that, unlike a normal one, allows
current to flow not only from its anode to its cathode, but also in the
reverse direction, when the Zener voltage is reached.
Zener diodes have a highly doped p-n junction. Normal diodes will also
break down with a reverse voltage but the voltage and sharpness of the
knee are not as well defined as for a Zener diode. Also normal diodes are
not designed to operate in the breakdown region, but Zener diodes can
reliably operate in this region.
The device was named after Clarence Melvin Zener, who discovered the
Zener effect. Zener reverse breakdown is due to electron quantum
tunnelling caused by a high-strength electric field. However, many diodes
described as "Zener" diodes rely instead on avalanche breakdown. Both
breakdown types are used in Zener diodes with the Zener effect
predominating under 5.6 V and avalanche breakdown above.
Zener diodes are widely used in electronic equipment of all kinds and are
one of the basic building blocks of electronic circuits. They are used to
generate low power stabilized supply rails from a higher voltage and to
provide reference voltages for circuits, especially stabilized power supplies.
They are also used to protect circuits from overvoltage, especially
electrostatic discharge (ESD).
Procedure

1- The circuit was wired as shown above.

2-Set switch A up, for no added load.
3-Use a digital multimeter (DMM), on the DC 20V scale, to measure the
Zener regulated output voltage.
4-Record your circuit information and the Zener regulated voltage.
5-Set switch A down to use lamp 1 as a load for the simple Zener diode
regulator.
6-Record your data for the Zener diode regulator with load.
7-Use the equation to calculate the regulation:
(V(no load) – V(full load)/ V(full load)) * 100%
9-Enter your result from the regulation calculation.
Results

1-By using the digital multimeter on the DC 20V scale to measure the
output voltage, we got: 3.91 VOLTS.
2-No load voltage , V(NL)=4 VOLTS.
3-Lamp 1 load voltage : V(L)=3.99 VOLTS.
4-By using the following , we calculate regulation :
Regulation = (V(no load) – V(full load) /V(full load))* 100%
= (4-3.91/3.91) * 100 %
= 2.3 %
5-Zener with 1 lamp : regulation = 2.3 per cent.
Discussion
However, the Zener Diode or “Breakdown Diode”, as they are sometimes
referred too, are basically the same as the standard PN junction diode but
they are specially designed to have a low and specified Reverse Breakdown
Voltage which takes advantage of any reverse voltage applied to it.

The Zener diode behaves just like a normal general-purpose diode

consisting of a silicon PN junction and when biased in the forward direction,
that is Anode positive with respect to its Cathode, it behaves just like a
normal signal diode passing the rated current.

However, unlike a conventional diode that blocks any flow of current

through itself when reverse biased, that is the Cathode becomes more
positive than the Anode, as soon as the reverse voltage reaches a pre-
determined value, the zener diode begins to conduct in the reverse
direction.

This is because when the reverse voltage applied across the zener diode
exceeds the rated voltage of the device a process called Avalanche
Breakdown occurs in the semiconductor depletion layer and a current
starts to flow through the diode to limit this increase in voltage.

The current now flowing through the zener diode increases dramatically to
the maximum circuit value (which is usually limited by a series resistor) and
once achieved, this reverse saturation current remains fairly constant over
a wide range of reverse voltages. The voltage point at which the voltage
across the zener diode becomes stable is called the “zener voltage”, ( Vz )
and for zener diodes this voltage can range from less than one volt to a few
hundred volts.
Conclusion

In the forward bias direction, a Zener diode conducts electricity just like a
regular silicon or germanium rectifier diode. In the reversed bias direction
instead of blocking all voltage levels, the Zener diode blocks voltage up to a
specific Zener knee voltage after which it allows current to flow.
The selective voltage blocking allows the Zener to act as a voltage
regulator.

Many systems such as radios, hi-fi systems, TV, computers, and so on need
regulated DC voltage in order to operate.
The AC rectifier and filter circuit, is a familiar full-wave rectifier. The 200
micro farad capacitor is used to reduce the level of ripple voltage.