So i am a bit confused.
When i look at the knee of a zener diode while its reversed bias, i can see that as i push more current through it its zener voltage should be closer and closer to its rating. aka 5V zener with a test current of 500uA say as i approach 500uA i get closer to my 5V.
If i am barley turning on the zener aka current limiting so heavily that im putting say 1uA through it, its zener voltage will be something much less aka closer to the origin of the plot.
All that makes sense
Here is what i dont get.
If i dont current limit a zener and run it in reverse bias lets just say i put a 10V source on the cathode of a 5V Zener, i would get a ton of current flow.
However, what i see for the zener voltage is something far greater then the zener voltage. I see like 10V for example. Why is this the case given that as stated above, the more current i run into a zener to CLOSER it is to its actual zener voltage.
What am i missing?
Thanks
When i look at the knee of a zener diode while its reversed bias, i can see that as i push more current through it its zener voltage should be closer and closer to its rating. aka 5V zener with a test current of 500uA say as i approach 500uA i get closer to my 5V.
If i am barley turning on the zener aka current limiting so heavily that im putting say 1uA through it, its zener voltage will be something much less aka closer to the origin of the plot.
All that makes sense
Here is what i dont get.
If i dont current limit a zener and run it in reverse bias lets just say i put a 10V source on the cathode of a 5V Zener, i would get a ton of current flow.
However, what i see for the zener voltage is something far greater then the zener voltage. I see like 10V for example. Why is this the case given that as stated above, the more current i run into a zener to CLOSER it is to its actual zener voltage.
What am i missing?
Thanks