The leakage current in a PN junction is of the order of _____
The leakage current in a PN junction is of the order of _____
Right Answer is:
μA
SOLUTION
The leakage current in a PN junction is of the order of µA.
Detailed Explanation
The reverse saturation current is of the order of nano amperes (nA) for silicon and microamperes (µA) for Germanium PN junctions.
The reverse saturation current for, Si devices is smaller than that of Ge because silicon has a large energy gap (a 1.1 eV) between the conduction and valence bands compare to the energy band gap of (0.7 eV). As a result of this, fewer minority carriers are thermally generated at any temperature in silicon than that of germanium. This is the reason why Si is mostly preferred over Ge.