Question

State the reason why
an
ordinary diode suffers avalanche breakdown rather than
Zener breakdown?​

Answer 1

Ordinary diodes are lightly doped as compare to the Zener diode.

Avalanche break down occurs due to thermal collision caused by the increased reverse bias voltage, while the Zener breakdown occurs due to the strong electric field caused by the high doping (narrow depletion region).

Therefore, an ordinary diode can withstand large reverse bias voltage before the avalanche breakdown happens. If the diode is highly doped zener breakdown will occur at low reverse bias voltage,