1.

Zener effect occurs only if the diode is heavily doped, because when the depletion layer is thin, breakdown occurs at low reverse voltage and the field strength will be approximately 3 × 107 V/m. It causes an increase in the flow of free carriers and increase in the reverse current.

Answer»

Zener breakdown occurs only in heavily doped pn-junctions (doping concentrations for both p- and n-regions greater than 1018 cm3) and can take place only if the electric field in the depletion region of the reverse-biased junction is very high. It is found that the critical field at which tunneling becomes probable, i.e., at which Zener breakdown commences, is approximately 106 V/cm.



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