Zasu

Amusing first name, as in movie actress ZaSu Pitts (born January 3, 1898, in Parsons, KS; died June 7, 1963, in Hollywood, CA). A gifted comedienne, ZaSu was perhaps the first stereotyped funny-women to succeed in a straight, dramatic role when she portrayed the character of Trina, the obsessed miser in Erich von Stroheim s 1924 masterpiece, Greed. Zasu got her name from two maiden aunts, EliZA and SUsie - get it?

(Okay, The CMP Media book division keeps telling me that I should have amusing entries in my encyclopedia, just like Harry Newton does in his Telecom Dictionary. They assure me it s the key to his success! (That s funny, I always thought it was his dirty jokes). So okay folks, here it is Zippy cuts loose!

Zener Diode

A semiconductor that acts as a normal rectifier until the voltage applied to it reaches a certain critical point, called the zener voltage or the avalanche voltage, whereupon the the zener diode becomes conducting. Zener diodes make great voltage regulators.

The basic parameters of a zener diode are:

• The zener voltage must be determined. The most common range of zener voltage is 3.3 volts to 75 volts, but other voltages are possible.

• A tolerance of the specified voltage must be stated. While the most popular tolerances are 5% and 10%, more precision tolerances as low as 0.05 % are available. A test current (Iz) must be specified with the voltage and tolerance.

• The zener diode s power handling capability...