It's just the basic operating principle of a diode. An ideal diode would allow current to flow in one direction but block current flow in the other direction. This is based on how it's made, with a p-type region, an n-type region, and a depletion zone in between. Like the bottom diode in this picture:
When you apply a some voltage, in your case 0.9V then the p-type holes and the n-type electrons move into the depletion region because they are repelled by their respective battery terminal. With enough voltage (0.9V in your case) the free electrons in the depletion region get moving and current begins to flow like this:
Now in the ideal case if you were to reverse that battery the opposite will happen and you'll get no current flowing:
In the real world though you can only apply so much reverse voltage or push before you hit the breakdown voltage and current begins to flow freely in the reverse direction. Zener diodes take advantage of this fact and are constructed to breakdown at lower voltages such as your 3.3V.
Sources:
You can read more about how zeners are made here
Or see the article I got all the pictures from here
And we know, that when we connect both diodes to GND (logic 0) , the current flows from Vcc to the two diodes as both are forward biased , and there will be no current passing through the output terminal because all of the current is flown through the diodes for the greater potential difference.
You are already confused. Specifically, "there will be no current passing through the output" is not necessarily true. For this kind of logic gate, and indeed most kinds of logic gates, we define the truth values by voltages, not by currents. For example, what about this?
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
Here, we have your AND gate. Both inputs are connected to ground (low, false). The output is false, which means a low voltage. But we've connected the output to a pullup resistor (R2), and there's current flowing through the output, via the path indicated by the arrows.
Think about why the output is a low voltage. With the diodes connected to ground, current can flow through R1 or R2. What happens to a resistor has a current through it? There's a voltage across it, by Ohm's law:
$$ V = I R $$
How much current will flow? Exactly enough to make the voltage across the resistor equal to V1, less the voltage drop of the diodes.
In fact it doesn't matter what you connect to the output: current will flow until that output is at a low voltage (ground plus the voltage drop of the diode). If that's not true, then current will flow until it is, or you blow a fuse. Hopefully you are designing to not blow a fuse.
If however, neither of the diodes are connected to ground, then there's no path from the output to ground. Current will instead flow through R1. For the logic gate to work correctly, this needs to make the output voltage high, but here's where we run into a limitation of this kind of logic. Consider:
simulate this circuit
With the inputs high, the diodes aren't pulling the output to near 0V. Instead, there's a path for current shown by the arrows. But what's the output voltage? R1 and R2 form a voltage divider. The current through R1 and R2 is equal, and they are of equal resistance, also. Thus we can infer from Ohm's law that the voltage across them is equal, and since they are connected across V1, the total voltage drop across them must be 5V. So, the output voltage is 2.5V.
That's not exactly what you want in a logic gate. Ideally, the output is 5V no matter what you put on the output. For this logic gate, that's only true if we leave the output open, or replace R2 with a much bigger resistor. This is a pretty limiting constraint, which is why this isn't a popular topology for a logic gate.
here comes my question. When both of the input diodes are connected to GND, there is a flow of current through the two diodes but why not through the LED?
Here's a simpler case to illustrate that problem:
simulate this circuit
If it's not clear from that, try building it with just an LED, then just an ordinary silicon diode like 1N4148. What's the voltage across the diodes in these cases? Why is that?
Best Answer
In this highly simplified diode model, the diode acts as either an open circuit (when reverse biased) or a short circuit (when forward biased).
In your example, if all diodes were forward biased, then the output voltage would have to be 1 V, 2 V, and 3 V at the same time. This is a logical contradiction.
But it’s easy to resolve, because if the output is 3 V, then the 2nd and 3rd diodes are reverse biased, and the contradiction is eliminated.