Talk:DIAC

Measuring DIACs (and other thyristors)

How can I measure diac and thyristor?

The standard method is to use a curve tracer, a specific kind of electronic test equipment that looks like an oscilloscope but can apply a variable, bipolar voltage to the device under test and measures the resulting current. Curve tracers can also apply base (trigger) bias and display how that affects the resulting change in the V-I curves.

You can kludge up a minimalist curve tracer using an ordinary oscilloscope, an isolation transformer, and a load resistor.

Atlant 23:53, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

A DIAC is not "two Zeners"

I'm not a registered user, so I'm not going to edit the article, but I wanted to point out that this statement: "It is similar to two Shockley or Zener diodes connected in inverse parallel." is blatantly false. Zener diodes have a point where they become virtually straight lines on the VI curve, but lack the negative resistance zone that a DIAC has. A DIAC acts a lot more like a trigger tube - once the voltage reaches the "trigger" point, the effective voltage across it suddenly drops to a very low value, and current will flow appropriately. Only when the current falls off does the voltage drop go back up. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.248.228.78 (talk • contribs) .

Your point is correct. And you needn't feel shy about editing the article just because you haven't registered yet. But I'll make your suggested edits.

Atlant 16:39, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

can u simplify the explanation??

i am a fresher and wanted ta kno abt diac... the explanation is quite hard to understand..

a diac, its just a 2-way diode that will only conduct electricity (including AC, or oscillating current) when the breakdown voltage is exceeded. XU-engineer 18:49, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The DB3 and BR100 are three layer NPN devices that do not latch. Please see I-V plot for DB3