FAQ = "Frequently Asked Questions"
Contributors wanted! Enquire within.
-- April 20, 1996
The Unusual Diode FAQ - v3.2
The photo shows a very large 35 kV, 55 Amp rectifier, circa 1960. Not your average diode.
Maintained by Michael J. Chudobiak,
mjc@avtechpulse.com
at Avtech Electrosystems Ltd..
My PGP public encryption key is available
here. Please use it.
This page has been accessed 1570 times since Apr 03/96.
The home page of this FAQ is http://www.avtechpulse.com/faq.html
Welcome to the fun-filled, action-packed Wide World O' Diodes. This FAQ is intended as a helpful tool for finding unusual diodes, such as germanium diodes or step recovery diodes. If you have any comments, suggestions, additions, contributions, PLEASE email me. Especially appreciated would be sections on laser diodes and various microwave diodes.
This FAQ used to be posted to sci.electronics and sci.engr.semiconductors around the first of each month, but it's grown to large for my newsreader, so it's staying exclusively on the WWW. It is stored at on the World-Wide Web at http://www.avtechpulse.com/faq.html
This FAQ is maintained by Michael J. Chudobiak, mjc@avtechpulse.com at Avtech Electrosystems Ltd.. My PGP public encryption key is available here. Please use it.
Copyright 1996, Michael J. Chudobiak
VOLUNTEERS
I don't know everything about all diodes, so VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS would be greatly appreciated. If you see a type of diode that isn't included in here, and should be, feel free to write up a section for it, following the style of the existing sections. That is, include one or two paragraphs on what the diode is and how it works, and then list the manufacturers that actually make them. Please include their address, phone and fax numbers.
For instance, we could use sections on:
If you know any good books on diodes, let me know.
If you know something about diode manufacturer corporate history, and it isn't covered in the "What ever happened to ...." section, let me know. For instance, what happened to Mullard?
If you are a manufacturer of diodes, I'd love to have a copy of your data book. My address is at the end of this FAQ.
Anyways, this is a living document created in the public interest, so comments, ideas, and especially written contributions would be most appreciated.
Oh, if you have any good diode-related WWW links, especially to the manufacturers listed below, please let me know. Just email me at mjc@avtechpulse.com. My PGP public encryption key is available here. Please use it.
since v. 1.5
since v. 1.6
since v.1.7
since v.1.8
since v.2.0
since v.2.1
since v.2.2
since v.2.3
since v.3.0
Since v.3.0
The study of diodes isn't a hugely popular area, and manufacturers have been a little slow to put useful info on the Web, so this hot-list is a little sparse at the moment. Please let me know of any useful diode-related links!
Germanium diodes find some use since Ge has a much smaller bandgap energy than Si, producing lower forward voltages. However, this smaller bandgap also makes Ge less useful at higher temperatures due to a higher leakage current. Ge diodes have been largely replaced by Si Schottky diodes for applications below 200V, and GaAs Schottky diodes above 200V.
This company makes a line of low Vf, high current diodes. For instance, the G500R2 diode has Vf = 0.5V at I = 500 A.
They also produce an extensive line of pnp Germanium transistors, and Germanium and InGaAs photodetectors.
Central makes a line of point-contact (!) and gold-bonded Ge diodes, such as the 1N92 (Vr = 200V, Vf = 0.45, I = 150 mA). However, they are not recommended for new designs.
BKC lists about 30 standard gold-bonded Ge diodes, and can make others to order.
Cuprous-oxide-on-copper rectifiers were first used for the rectification of large currents in 1924. Selenium rectifiers were used extensively before Si power technology was sufficiently developed, due to its relatively simple manufacturing. Selenium was also used in solar cells and photoresistors. Selenium typically has a knee voltage of 0.5V, and copper oxide has a knee of 0.2V. Both have relatively linear forward I-V curves. Apparently the large-area sandwich structure of selenium rectifiers provides for excellent heat sinking capabilities. Also, they are supposed to be quite robust as far as tolerating excessive currents is concerned.
Edal manufactures a range of high-voltage silicon diodes, as well as selenium and copper oxide diodes.
Tunnel diodes exhibit a current "dip" in their forward I-V characteristics. That is, for a certain range of forward voltages the current actually falls, instead of increasing. This creates a negative differential resistance, making it useful in oscillators and switching circuits. The underlying quantum-mechanical tunneling effect is extremely fast. Leo Esaki, who developed the tunnel diode was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his efforts.
A backward diode is a diode with an extremely low breakdown voltage, causing it to conductor better in the reverse direction than in the forward direction. Backward diodes are similar in structure to tunnel diodes and may show negative resistance, in which case they are usually called tunnel diodes. Backward diodes are also known as "Uni Tunnel Diodes".
Here's what Gabriel Paubert
Some manufacturers:
The 1993 Microsemi data book claims that Microsemi is the only
manufacturer of tunnel diodes and backward diodes in the world.
They manufacturer JEDEC types 1N2927 - 1N2934.
Custom Components makes Germanium and GaAs tunnel diodes, as well
as Schottky diodes, which would seem to contradict Microsemi's
claim. (Update: GaAs has been discontinued, Jan 1996. They took
six weeks to reply to my request for a quotation, so I'm not
sure how enthusiastically they make tunnel diodes.)
When diodes are switched from forward bias to reverse bias, the diode still
conducts for a very short period, since some charge is left in the device.
Normal diodes remove this leftover charge very slowly, but SRDs are
optimized so that the charge is removed rapidly, and the reverse conduction
stops very abruptly. This abrupt change can be used to create very fast
switching pulses, or to generate harmonics of the switching signal.
HP pioneered the SRD, but has recently been discontinuing many
models. Their line of 15V - 75V, 60ps - 300ps SRDs is listed in
the HP Communications Components Designer's Catalog.
Constant current two-terminal devices can be made by shorting
the gate and the source of a JFET together. When the FET is forward
biased, this results in a nearly constant current for voltages
ranging from roughly 2V up to 300V (or the breakdown voltage of
the device in question). In reverse bias, this kind of
constant current device conducts as a junction diode (so one can
oppose two such devices in series to regulate AC current).
Siliconix makes two-lead FET current-limiting diodes
ranging from 0.24 mA (J500) through 4.7 mA (J511) in plastic
packages, and from 1.6 mA (CR160) through 4.7 mA (CR470) in
metal TO-18 packages.
National Semiconductor makes a
three-terminal adjustable
device, the LM134/LM234/LM334, that acts as a resistor-programmed
current source diode, analogous to the 'programmable Zener' TL431.
Adjustment range is 1.0 uA to 10 mA, and voltage compliance is
from 1V to 40V (or 30V for some versions). The current is
slightly temperature-dependent (this may be useful, or can
be eliminated with a diode added to the adjustment resistor).
Motorola used to make current-limiting diodes, MCL1300 series,
with 75V operating range and 0.5 mA to 4 mA current. I think they've
stopped offering these.
Renard makes many of the power rectifiers and regulators used in
automobiles made by GM, Ford, Chrysler and others. Probably a good
place to look for replacements.
ECG carries a wide range of semiconductors and ICs primarily
intended for replacement applications in TVs, etc.
The avalanche breakdown process in diodes is inherently noisy (or random).
Some diodes are designed to have a very well controlled avalanche breakdown
characteristic; these can be used as white noise generators. If you aren't
looking for something particularly fancy, a normal avalanche zener diode
(not a tunneling zener diode) will work quite well as a noise source when
biased in breakdown.
Personally, I wondered what noise diodes were used for.
This is what Marshall Jose, Marshall.Jose@jhuapl.edu told me:
Recall that a Wheatstone bridge involves a variable resistor in one leg,
and an unknown resistance in another leg. An excitation voltage is applied
to two opposite corners of the bridge, and voltage is measured across the
two orthogonal, opposite corners. The variable resistor is adjusted to
produce a null in the measured voltage.
In a noise bridge, the variable resistance is replaced by a variable
resistance and variable reactance in series. The excitation signal used is
broadband noise, and the null measurement is performed by a receiver. In
this way, reactance of an unknown (e.g., an antenna) can be measured at a
given frequency by tuning the receiver appropriately, and adjusting the
resistance and reactance alternately to obtain a null in the noise heard
from the receiver.
Typically, the noise source (the zener diode and succeeding amplifier) is
also switched on and off at an audio rate to make it easier to distinguish
the bridge's noise from thermal noise.
Most hams never bother with a noise bridge. Every so often, though, a ham
will put up an antenna which ought to work but doesn't, or doesn't work at
the proper frequency, and a noise bridge provides information on why it
doesn't work and how to fix it. Most importantly, it does so without
causing the inadvertent transmission of signals on prohibited frequencies.
The ARRL's Handbook or their Antenna Handbook discuss construction of noise
bridges.
This is what Bob Underwood, bobu@msm.com, told me:
And this is what Gabriel Paubert, paubert@iram.es, told me:
In some systems, like correlators used in radioastronomical
interferometers,
this is used to calibrate the systematic phase or time delays between
different
hardware paths. These are frequency dependent over the bandwidth of the
instrument but a single measurement is enough to measure it thanks to the
broadband properties of the noise sources.
I am not sure but it is likely that some commercial or military systems
who
require accurate phase control over significant bandwidth (phased array
radars ?) use similar techniques.
Here are some manufacturers:
Loral produces avalanche diodes that can be used to generate white
noise up to 500 kHz, with appropriate biasing.
EDI makes a very wide range of high-voltage diodes and assemblies,
from 2 kV, 2 A, to 200 kV, 100 mA. Applications include CRTs, X-ray
equipment, night-vision goggles, etc.
Edal manufactures a range of high-voltage silicon diodes, as well
as "solid state tube rectifiers" - mechanically compatible
replacements for tube rectifiers.
Gallium arsenide has a higher bandgap energy than silicon, so Schottky
diodes made with GaAs will have higher breakdown voltages, lower leakage
currents, and a larger temperature range than silicon Schottky barriers.
However, GaAs diodes will also have a higher forward voltage, which results
in a tradeoff. GaAs also has much higher electron mobilities than
silicon, which will somewhat offset the higher Vf. The Vf for GaAs Schottky
diodes becomes comparable to silicon for Vbr = 200 V, so silicon is used
mostly below 200V, and GaAs is being introduced for high-voltage devices.
Motorola claims to have fabricated GaAs Schottky diodes with
breakdown voltages as high as 800V. These devices are currently
being introduced in their "Switch MGR GaAs rectifier" series. For
info on this product line, call (602) 244-3550.
I am not sure of the address. I believe they also gave a paper
at one of the power electronics conferences a year ago.
Does someone have a full address + fax/phone for GAD?
Suppressor diodes are used in combination with gas arresters and varistors
to protect sensitive systems from overvoltages. They are a special kind of
zener diode designed to withstand high pulse powers. This ability is
achieved by a low thermal resistance and a large junction cross section.
Since the large cross section causes a high parasitic capacitance they
cannot be used to protect RF-systems. There are also bipolar suppressor
diodes available which bear two antiserial suppressor diodes on one chip.
This section was contributed largely by Kai Borgeest.
For more info, check out Microsemi's
Transient Voltage Suppressor application notes
Manufacturers:
SGS-Thomson, Viale Milanofiori, Strada 4, Palazzo A/4/A,
Microsemi-Watertown was formerly Unitrode Corp.
Semitron offers semiconductor
Transient Voltage suppressors, (thyristor) breakover diodes and
non-radioactive Gas Discharge Tubes.
Yuan Jiang, yjj@eng.umd.edu, says:
With the built-in current amplification, APDs are used for detecting low
optical signals in applications such as long-distance fiber communications,
spectrometry, laser radars and etc. The theory of APDs is well studied in
the classical paper by R. J. McIntyre (IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices,
vol. ED-13, p.164, 1966). Ge and Si APDs are reviewed by G. E. Stillman and
C. M. Wolfe (in Semiconductors and Semimetals, vol. 12, p. 291, 1977, R. K.
Willardson and A. C. Beer, eds. Academic Press, New York). InGaAsP/InP APDs
are reviewed by T. P. Pearsall and M. A. Pollack in vol. 22D (1985) of the
above series. In the same volume, F. Capasso reviews the impact ionization
processes in IV-V compound semiconductors.
Si, Ge and InGaAsP/InP APDs are commercially available. Beside the apparent
differences in their wavelength range of sensitivities, Si APDs have much
lower noises and dark currents and are the choice for detecting 1 micron or
shorter wavelength light. Although both InGaAsP/InP and Ge APDs can detect
light of 1.6 micron or shorter wavelength, InGaAsP APDs have lower dark
currents. Most manufacturers that make PIN or PN photodiodes also make APDs.
Some good basic info is also available here.
Si APDs:
Hamamatsu Corp. (USA), 360 Foothill Road,
Si APDs packaged with receiver circuits:
Ge APDs:
InGaAsP/InP APDs:
- contributed by Marshall Jose, Marshall.Jose@jhuapl.edu
PIN diodes are useful for switching and attenuating RF (radio frequency)
signals. Basically, between the P- and N-doped regions of the diode is an
undoped region referred to as "intrinsic" (hence the I in "PIN"). When a
forward DC bias is applied the diode, a large number of holes and electrons
are created in the I region, allowing forward conduction. If the bias is
suddenly removed, these charge carriers will take some time to recombine
and thus stop the conduction of current. This amount of time is quite a bit
longer than the time a normal PN diode takes to cease conduction.
All this means that while the PIN diode is conducting forward bias current,
it will conduct a high-frequency signal superimposed on the bias current,
too -- even a large signal which would cause a momentary reversal of diode
current! Furthermore, the high-frequency signal won't be much distorted.
The net effect of the diode at high frequencies is that of a variable
resistor, whose resistance decreases as the bias current increases.
(Note that the phrase "PIN diode" can also refer to a range of power diodes
with a very wide near-intrinsic region, which supports a high breakdown
voltage. These are not microwave diodes.)
Application notes:
AN922: Application of PIN Diodes
Application notes:
80200: PIN Diode Basics
Every pn junction will break down in reverse bias if enough voltage is
applied. A typical medium current discrete bipolar transistor has a
collector-base junction which is doped fairly lightly (on the collector
side) and will break down at a reasonably high voltage (perhaps 30V to 50V).
This type of breakdown is called avalanche breakdown. It happens when
thermally generated carriers in the depletion layer are accelerated by the
electric field therein. If the field is high enough, the carriers are
accelerated to high energies and they become capable of ionizing Si atoms
in the depletion layer. The charge carriers from these secondary
ionizations are in turn accelerated by the same electric field, and can
cause additional chain-reaction ionization. The process resembles an
avalanche (eg. on a snow covered mountain) hence the term. All junctions
will exhibit avalance breakdown with sufficient reverse bias.
The emitter-base junction on the other hand, is generally very heavily
doped. Before the field becomes high enough to cause avalanching, the
junction will breakdown by another mechanism, called band-to-band tunneling,
or Zener breakdown. In this case, the depletion layer is thin because of the
much heavier doping levels. As the reverse bias is applied, a situation
occurs where the conduction band on the n-side aligns and then drops below
the valence band on the p-side. The exact voltage at which this is achieved
depends upon the doping. When it happens, conditions are right for
electrons to tunnel through the barrier. They suddenly appear on the other
side of the junction, if the depletion layer is thin enough. This is called
direct tunneling. There is another type of tunneling called indirect
tunneling, or trap-assisted tunneling in which the electron tunnels into
an intermediate trap level (or series of levels) before making it all the
way throught the barrier. This one is less common in standard pn junction
devices.
A "Zener diode" is made to break down at a specific voltage with a sharp
reproducible characteristic. The diodes are designed to conduct the
breakdown current evenly, and nondestructively. The breakdown mechanism
may be avalanche breakdown or Zener breakdown, or a mixture of the two. If
the diode breaks down at voltages of about 5.6V at room temperature, the two
mechanisms are in equal measure. If the breakdown voltage is higher, the
avalanche process dominates, and if lower, the tunneling or Zener mechanism
dominates.
The temperature coefficient of the avalanche mechanism is positive, that is,
at higher temperature, the avalanche breakdown voltage increases. The
temperature coefficient of the tunneling breakdown is negative. At just the
right doping level, the breakdown is a mixture of the two types in just the
right proportion that the temperature coefficients cancel. This voltage is
around 6 V.
For more, info, check out Microsemi's
Zeners and Zero TC Reference Diodes application notes.
Practically everyone makes zener diodes, so I'll only list two:
Just from personal experience, Motorola diodes tend to have sharper
I-V knees than the competing generic diodes.
Julie Research Labs makes ultra-stable zener diodes, with very low
temperature coefficients. That typically means stabilities with
orders of magnitude of roughly 1 ppm/day, 1 ppm/celcius.
from Paul Woods (paulw@hpcvnq08.cv.hp.com) at HP:
Have you heard of electron-emitting diodes? They are not readily available,
in fact, I have only seen two or three references to them in physics
literature. The most notable reference was in Philips Technical Review in
1987. Two researchers had made a diode with a very thin, heavily doped
n-layer. When the diode was reverse-biased to the point of avalanche
breakdown, a small fraction of the avalache electrons actually shot through
the n-region and into a vacuum. They made this the e-beam source in a CRT
and it worked pretty well. I am surprised that it has not, to my knowledge,
made it out of the laboratory. It did have some unique requirements that
probably made it expensive to produce. For one thing, the doping profile
was very abrupt and required MBE which is slow and expensive. Also, to
improve emission efficiency they reduced the surface work function by
coating the emitting surface with Cs. I have heard that Cs is nasty to
work with.
Curious things, aren't they? Sounds like a good thesis for someone.
Perhaps they could be made practical using rapid thermal CVD instead of MBE.
Since nobody makes them commercially, here are some references instead:
Everybody's invited to visit the
Unofficial WWW Server for Blue-Green Diode Lasers!
No point writing something if you can just scam somebody's app note.
Click here
to read Microsemi's app note entitled,
401- Introduction to Schottky Rectifiers.
Everybody makes Schottky diodes.
Here's a link to the
NASA Lewis Research Center SiC (silicon carbide)
page. Silicon carbide is just great for high temperature applications -
up to 600 C, anyways. Silicon only goes up to 350 C or so.
Click here for
info on III-V compound-semiconductor devices and research.
Here's some nice intro material on Mercury
cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) photodiodes.
Here's what Fred Olschner, 72142.365@compuserve.com, told me about
the availability of other wide bandgap diodes:
Although wide bandgap semiconductors can usually only have ohmic
contacts,
they still can exhibit low leakage currents, as their resistivities can
be
very high: 10^12 ohm-cm for mercuric iodide and lead iodide.
These materials are generally used for room temperature solid state X-ray
detectors, because their low leakage currents can reduce the electronic
noise to low levels.
Semiconductors having bandgaps in the range 1.3 to 1.7 eV might be made
with
some non-linear I-V curves, however it is generally a hrad problem to get
the energy state density low enough. CdTe, for example, using some
special
contact materials can be made to have diode-like properties (p-i-n).
Other
more developed semiconductors like InP and GaAs can also be made pure
enough
to produce good diodes.
PIN silicon photodiodes are quantum detectors sensitive to light from UV
(200 nm) to near IR (1150 nm), gamma radiation, X-rays and charged
particles. Photodiodes operate by the absorption of photons or charged
particles which generates a flow of current in an external circuit.
Photodiodes can be used to detect the presence or absence of small
quantities of light and can be calibrated to measure the intensity of
light extremely accurately. They can also be used for optical position
sensing to measure displacement, angle, centering, surface uniformity and
distance. See X-ray diodes for explanation of different operating modes.
PIN Silicon X-ray diodes are detectors sensitive to X-rays,
gamma-radiation and charged particles (alpha- and beta-particles). X-ray
diodes operate by absorbing photons or charged particles. X-ray diodes
have many similarities to photodiodes, but they are optimized for X-rays
and have a suppressed sensitivity to light. X-ray diodes can be used with
wide range of energies (from a couple of keV's to approximately hundred
keV's).
X-ray diodes and photodiodes can be operated in current or charge (pulse)
modes. In current mode the output current is measured directly from the
detector. Current mode is used typically when event rates are very high.
In current mode applications the output current is proportional to the
intensity of the incident radiation with high accuracy. In pulse mode the
single hits are transformed into pulses and then recorded.
X-ray diodes and photodiodes have also two different modes of operation
depending on the bias voltage supplied to the detector. In
photoconductive mode the diode is operated with high bias voltage. This
mode is used for example in X-ray exposure and dose control applications.
In photovoltaic mode no bias voltage is supplied to the detector. This
mode is used in most applications including spectral measurement.
Light emission from silicon is quite a challenging prospect, since silicon
is an indirect bandgap material (i.e. when an electron crosses the bandgap
and emits a photon, it must change its energy level, obviously, as well
as its momentum. A direct bandgap material does not require a change in
momentum. This means that photons are much more likely to be emitted in a
direct bandgap material.)
However, people are founding ways around this problem. The following text is
from the UK's Defense
Research Agency web site:
The material which DRA invented four years ago emitted visible light
when ultraviolet light was shone on to it. The next step has been to
achieve electroluminescence - the emission of lights when an
electrical current is passed through the material.
The DRA scientists in Electronics Sector had already achieved
electroluminescence with a useful 0.1% efficiency using liquid
electrolyte as a contact to the porous silicon. But to make a silicon
opto-microelectronic circuit requires an all-solid device. This has
now been achieved with an electroluminescence efficiency comparable
to that obtained previously with the liquid contacts. The team is now
working on improving the all-solid device and demonstrating that it
can be integrated on to silicon circuitry.
I've been asked who makes the types of diodes listed below. If you know,
please email me at mjc@avtechpulse.com .
I'm not 100% sure about all of these changes, so please feel free to correct
me.
I've included Library of Congress catalog numbers on most books. That should
make them easier to find.
Good undergraduate-level texts on the physics of diodes:
Actually the entire Modular Series is worth owning. There
are books are bipolar transistors, FETs, quantum mechanics,
fabrication and manufacturing, and several other issues.
A good introduction to semiconductor physics, for electrical
engineers.
A good introduction to semiconductor physics, for physicists.
Contains more solid-state physics than other books, and hence covers
more exotic devices. Almost graduate level.
Graduate-level texts on diodes:
This provides the theory of unipolar devices, some of which include
diodes, such as Schottky and IMPATT diodes which depend on transit
times and non-quasistatic effects.
Graduate-level texts on Diode Switching:
A very thorough and specialized discussion of these diodes.
This is a graduate level text that provides closed form solutions
of switching responses under many different conditions.
A modern graduate-level text on diodes and transistors:
Definitely one of the more modern texts!
Some excellent and useful books on the physics of power diodes:
Out of print now, but full of all sorts of information on
power structures.
This book pick up where S. K. Ghandi left off. Good
discussion of the more modern and exotic power structures.
Zener Diodes:
Discusses many practical aspects of Zener diodes.
Good introduction to power diode applications and circuits:
This 300-page handbook contains a good introduction to
power diode applications, and is available (often free of
charge) from Motorola.
Other broader-range books that have been recommended to me:
This is the standard encyclopedic reference for all things
semiconductor. Not a good book to learn from, but very useful
for looking up things you used to know ...
If you CONTRIBUTED, your name could be here! Instant FAME! Unstoppable
career advancement!
The maintainer of this FAQ is Michael J. Chudobiak,
mjc@avtechpulse.com.
My PGP public encryption key is available
here. Please use it.
This is not an official document of Avtech Electrosystems Ltd, I post it
personally. Just to be clear, Avtech does not sell diodes, but we do sell
high-speed pulse generators, pulsed constant current sources, pulsed laser
diode drivers, and other test instruments.
Feel free to send me contributions. Please E-mail them to me in plain text
or HTML.
Yuan Jiang, yjj@eng.umd.edu, wrote the section on avalanche photodiodes.
Dr. Barry L. Ornitz, ornitz@emngw1.emn.com, pointed out that Custom
Components makes tunnel diodes.
Kai Borgeest, Borgeest@tu-harburg.d400.de, recommended the book on Zener
diodes, and contributed the section on transient suppressor diodes.
David Gillooly, mfield@ix.netcom.com, pointed out that GAD Semiconductor
makes GaAs power rectifiers.
John Scarpulla, tjohns2@tus.ssi1.com, recommended several useful textbooks,
and provided most of the zener diode section.
Marshall Jose, Marshall.Jose@jhuapl.edu contributed the section on PIN
diodes and the explanation of what noise diodes are for.
Dave Kirkby, davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk contributed the bit about APD
modulation.
Paul Woods, paulw@hpcvnq08.cv.hp.com, contributed the section on electron-
emitting diodes.
Bob Underwood, bobu@msm.com, added some comments to the noise diode
and transient suppressor sections.
John Whitmore, whit@hipress.phys.washington.edu expanded the current-limiting
diode section.
Gabriel Paubert, paubert@iram.es, added some comments to the noise diode
and backward diode sections.
Fred Olschner, 72142.365@compuserve.com, added a section on wide bandgap
diodes.
Jussi Koskinen, jvkoskin@snakemail.hut.fi, added the sections on
PIN silicon photodiodes and PIN silicon X-ray diodes.
Regards, at Avtech Electrosystems Ltd..
phone (714) 979-8220
fax (714) 557-5989
phone (908) 534-6151
fax (908) 534-5625
Phone: 408-737-8181
FAX: 408-733-7645
IV.4 - Step
Recovery Diodes (SRDs)?
Phone (508) 256-8101
Fax (508) 256-4113
Phone (617) 935-5150
Fax (617) 935-4939
Phone (617) 272-3000
Fax (617) 272-8861
Phone: 408-737-8181
FAX: 408-733-7645
IV.5 -
Current Limiting diodes?
Phone (408) 988-8000
Fax (408) 727-5414
P.O. Box 58090, Santa Clara, CA 95052-8090
Phone: (408) 721-5000
Phone (516) 435-1110
Fax (516) 435-1824
IV.6 -
Automotive diodes?
Phone (305) 592-1500
Fax (305) 593-9990
IV.7 -
Replacement diodes?
PO Box 3277, Williamsport, PA 17701
IV.8 -
Noise Diodes?
Phone (201) 261-8797
Fax (201) 261-8339
Phone (508) 256-8101
Fax (508) 256-4113
Phone: 603-883-2900
FAX: 603-882-8987
IV.9 - Very
High Voltage Diodes?
Phone (914) 965-4400, (800) 678-0828
Fax (914) 965-5531
Phone (203) 467-2591
Fax (203) 469-5928
IV.10 -
GaAs Schottky Power Diodes?
Jerusalem, Israel 23290, PO Box 23290
IV.11 -
Transient Suppressor Diodes?
Phone
Fax (617) 259-4421
20090 Assago (MI), Italy
Phone (617) 926-0404
Fax (617) 924-1235
(many distributors)
Phone: (803) 946-0690
Fax: (803) 626-3123
Melbourne Florida, 32901
Phone: 1-800-442-7747
Fax: (407) 724-3937
10 Melville Road, Melville, NY, 11747-3113
Fax: (516) 847-3236
Phone: (602) 921-9848
Fax: (602) 921-9561
IV.12 -
Avalanche Photodiodes (APD's)?
interesting note added by Dave Kirkby, davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk :
Phone: (805) 987-0146
Fax: (805) 484-9935
Vaudreuil, Quebec, J7V 8P7 Canada
Phone: (514) 424-3300
Fax: (514) 424-3411
1126-1, Ichino-cho, Hamamatsu City, 435, Japan
Phone: 053-434-3311
Fax: 053-434-5184
POB 6910, Bridgewater, NJ 08807-0910
Phone: (908) 231-0960
Fax: (908) 231-1218
2000 Sierra Point Parkway, Brisbane, CA 94005-1819
Phone: (415) 589-8300
Fax: (415) 583-4207
Phone: (617) 926-1167
Fax: (617) 926-9743
York Str., Box 3065, Shawsheen Volliage Station,
Andover, MA 01810-3065
phone (508) 475-5982
fax (508) 470-1512
(see addresses above)
IV.13 -
Microwave PIN Diodes?
Literature orders: 1-800-537-7715
Data book: Communications Components Designer's Catalog
AN929: Fast Switching PIN Diodes
phone: 617-935-5150
fax: 617-935-4939
phone: 617-926-0404
fax: 617-924-1235
Data book: PIN Diode Designers' Handbook and Catalog
P.O. Box 1697
Taylor, Michigan 48180
phone: 313-753-4581
1320 Grand Avenue, #16
San Marcos, CA 92069
order phone: 1-800-737-2787
info phone: 619-744-0750
fax: 619-744-1943
IV.14 -
Zener Diodes?
Phone (212) 633-6625
Fax (212) 691-3320
IV.15 -
Electron-Emitting Diodes?
IV.16
- Blue-Green Laser Diodes?
IV.17
- Schottky Diodes?
IV.18
- Exotic-Semiconductor Diodes?
IV.19 - PIN
silicon photodiodes?
Olarinluoma 9, FIN-02200 ESPOO, FINLAND
Tel: +358 0 420 9993, Fax: +358 0 420 9910, E-mail: info@dti.fi
URL: http://www.rotol.fi/sr/dt/detec.html
IV.20 - PIN
silicon X-ray diodes?
Olarinluoma 9, FIN-02200 ESPOO, FINLAND
Tel: +358 0 420 9993, Fax: +358 0 420 9910, E-mail: info@dti.fi
URL: http://www.rotol.fi/sr/dt/detec.html
IV.21 -
Silicon LEDs?
V. Info
wanted for these diodes ....
VI.
What ever happened to ....
VII.
What are some good books on diodes?
VIII.
Acknowledgements, and Who To Contact
Michael J. Chudobiak
http://www.avtechpulse.com
--- Avtech Electrosystems Ltd. ---------------------------- since 1975 ----
PO Box 265 ph: 1-800-265-6681 or 613-226-5772 Box 5120 Stn. F
Ogdensburg, NY fax: 1-800-561-1970 or 613-226-2802 Ottawa, Ontario
USA 13669-0265 email: info@avtechpulse.com Canada K2C 3H4
http://www.avtechpulse.com/
Nanosecond Waveform Generators for general purpose, R&D and OEM applications
Pulse Generators - Laser Diode Drivers - Sample and Hold - Pulse Transformers
Impulse Generators - Monocycle Generators - Pulse Amplifiers - Accessories
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(C) Copyright 1996, Michael J. Chudobiak