tiagoft Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 Hello, allJust a question (I have not found an answer for this elsewhere...):The voltage of a silicon diode is 0.7V. This depends on many factors, including the geometry of the PN junction. My question is: there is a certain range of acceptable values for that geometry. Why the geometry that gives that 0.7V was chosen?Tiago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hero999 Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 Thye voltage is dependant on the temperature, current and materials. 0.7V wasn't chosen, it's due to the band gap of silicon. Germanium has a lower bandgap so the forward voltage is much lower 0.3V.Here's a link to an experiment you can do yourself.http://www.phys.csuchico.edu/~eayars/publications/bandgap.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolram11 Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 The forward-biased (junction) voltage for silicon diodes is 0.7V in most of the circuit analyses, but it can dip to as low as o.6V because of the construction of diodes is not perfect. As for germanium diodes, yes it's 0.3V when forward-biased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlhylton Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 The voltage drop is just based on the material used, not so much the other factors.Silicon= 0.7v dropGermanium= 0.3v drop-Davidwww.learningaboutelectronics.comwww.allthingsdiscussed.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.S.ARJUN Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 BECAUSE IT IS ITS CUT IN VOLTAGE .AFTER .7 V CURRENT STARTS FLOWING AND POTENTIAL BARRIER BREAKS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.