The saturation current is a combination of the generation current caused by thermal generation of electron hole pairs within the depletion region of the diode and the diffusion current due to minority carriers in the n and pregions diffusing across the depletion region.
What does saturation current in a diode mean?
Saturation current. The saturation current or, more accurately, the reverse saturation current is that part of the reverse current in a semiconductor diode caused by diffusion of minority carriers from the neutral regions to the depletion region. This current is almost independent of the reverse voltage.
How do you find the saturation current of a diode?
2 Answers
- Measure current with fairly large reverse bias, to give you Is. ( for example, -20V for a 1N4148)
- Measure forward voltage with fairly large forward current (for example, 20mA for a 1N4148) and calculate the emission coefficient: n=VFVT⋅ln(I/IS)
