Your 15 V Zener and TVS Diodes are Avalanche Diodes

“Zener diodes” are very common components provided from 1.8V up to 200 V by suppliers. Avalanche diodes are specific diodes between 200V and 1000V characterized in avalanche clamping voltage mode. The connection in series of avalanche diodes allows designing high voltage diodes up to some tens of kilovolts. For most components avalanche is often understood as a catastrophic phenomenon of failure of the component. The goal of this presentation is to explain the Zener effect and the avalanche effect, the area of voltage where Zener clamping voltage may occur and the impact on the I(V) curves. In fact, most “Zener diode” or Transient Voltage Suppressor (TVS) work in avalanche mode.