Reverse Leakage Current

Reverse leakage current in a

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

device is the

current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

from that semiconductor device when the device is

reverse bias Reverse or reversing may refer to: Arts and media * ''Reverse'' (Eldritch album), 2001 * ''Reverse'' (2009 film), a Polish comedy-drama film * ''Reverse'' (2019 film), an Iranian crime-drama film * ''Reverse'' (Morandi album), 2005 * ''Reverse'' ...

ed. When a

device is

ed it should not conduct any

, however, due to an increased barrier potential, the free electrons on the p side are dragged to the battery's positive terminal, while holes on the n side are dragged to the battery's negative terminal. This produces a current of minority charge carriers and hence its magnitude is extremely small. For constant temperatures, the reverse current is almost constant although the applied reverse voltage is increased up to a certain limit. Hence, it is also called reverse saturation current. The term is particularly applicable to mostly semiconductor junctions, especially

diodes A diode is a two- terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode ...

and

thyristors A thyristor () is a solid-state semiconductor device with four layers of alternating P- and N-type materials used for high-power applications. It acts exclusively as a bistable switch (or a latch), conducting when the gate receives a current t ...

. Reverse leakage current is also known as "zero gate voltage drain current" with MOSFETs. The leakage current increased with temperature. As an example, the Fairchild Semiconductor FDV303N has a reverse leakage of up to 1 microamp at room temperature rising to 10 microamps with a junction temperature of 50 degrees Celsius. For all basic purposes, leakage currents are very small, and, thus, are normally negligible. Semiconductors {{Electronics-stub