Question

The main cause of Zener breakdown is

• A. the base semiconductor being germanium.
• B. production of electron-hole pairs due to thermal excitation.
• C. low doping.
• D. high doping.

Answer 1

The correct option is D high doping.

Zener breakdown occurs in heavily doped p-n junctions. The heavy doping makes the depletion layer extremely thin. So that, carriers cannot accelerate enough to cause ionization. Thus, current will increase in reverse bias only due to reverse breakdown voltage.