[Boatanchors] Parallel Zeners

[Jacques Fortin]

Hello David,

About running zeners in parallel, in a word, no, you cannot.
This is already almost impossible to find two zeners dropping the same
voltage for the same current value going thru, even if they came from the
same production die.
If ever such a pair is found, nothing guarantees that the voltages will
track under all current values, meaning, the V-I curves will not track each
other.
The reason is that all the semiconductor devices are probabilistic in
nature: nothing (yet) can control the position of the holes and electrons
within the semiconductor structure, and we still cannot "replicate" any
given thing at the atomic level (in Star Trek, they can, but...).
Best thing is to use a power transistor to "boost" a single zener.

73, Jacques, VE2JFE in Montreal

If one carefully matches forward conduction impedance, can one parallel
zeners to achieve higher dissipation?