Tunnel Diodes still need the normal forward voltage to start conducting, the voltage does go down afterwards though when the tunneling effect takes over.
Tunnel Diodes still need the normal forward voltage to start conducting, the voltage does go down afterwards though when the tunneling effect takes over.
Not quite correct. Tunnel diodes start conducting significantly at very low voltage. The volt-current curve goes through zero and is fairly linear up to the peak current (the start of the negative resistance region)which is typically in the low ma region at several 10's of mV. A normal diode only conducts in the µa region around the zero point.
It's only on the far side of the negative resistance region that they start to look like normal diodes.