On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, Riad S. Wahby wrote:

>This may take more voltage than you want to use in your process, but you
>can engineer the base-emitter junction if you've got a friend in process
>engineering.

Aren't there dedicated avalanche diodes available with low breakdown
voltages, precisely for this reason? I think they're used in applications
where zeners could be, except for higher breakdown current.

>One other potential problem is long-term reliability, but that's a
>subject for another email.

Shouldn't be a problem, if you limit the breakdown current. If you're
after entropy, you'd likely want to use a constant current source anyway.

Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], tel:+358-50-5756111
student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front
openpgp: 050985C2/025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2

Reply via email to