Amplification based on the noise-induced negative differential resistance in a Zener diode

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to induce negative differential resistance in a Zener diode using noise feedback, enabling its use as an audio frequency voltage amplifier with characterized performance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to achieve negative differential resistance in Zener diodes via noise feedback, facilitating their use as amplifiers.

Findings

Successfully induced negative differential resistance in a Zener diode

Built and characterized an audio frequency voltage amplifier

Analyzed bandwidth, gain, power consumption, and noise spectral density

Abstract

A voltage biased Zener diode always exhibit positive differential resistance, thus cannot be used as an element to provide amplification of a signal. We show how to induce negative differential resistance in the reverse bias regime of a 12V Zener diode by noise feedback. We use this to build a voltage amplifier in the audio frequency range, which we characterize by providing bandwidth, gain, power consumption, gain compression and output noise spectral density.