I wanted to check something I was working on, and it's an assignment so I don't want the answer, I just want to know if I am approaching it right.
I have an esaki diode. I have a curve (the s-curve that shows Voltage in vs. current. I am trying to figure out how to get 2 stable operating points, with a simple voltage source connected in series with a 250 ohm resistor. I know to calculate a load line, but for some reason I am not getting answers that make sense (I can't seem to get a lad line that intersects the curve that gets me two stable points unless my Vin is zero).
Any pointers? I am using the relation Vin = IdR + Vd, but I am not sure if that even applies here. I just want to see how to figure out how much voltage i need to bias the diode.
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
edited to add schematic
Best Answer
Generally you only get one stable operating point per load line, but in the case of an Esaki tunnel diode you can get two. Take a look at this page for some diagrams of what a load line with two operating points looks like: http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/es154/lectures/lecture_2/load_line/load_line.html . Basically, you need a line that intersects the I-V curve in two different places where the I-V curve has positive slope.
The relation $V_in = I_d R + V_d$ relates the I-V curve with the supply voltage and load resistance. This is the correct formula; there should be two pairs of $I_d$ and $V_d$ that fall on the I-V curve of the diode and will satisfy this relationship for a given $V_in$ and $R$, so long as the load line intersects the I-V curve in more than one place.