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Avalanche effect

As explained in Hacking Cryptography

A phenomenon in which charge carriers gain enough energy in a semiconductor to create additional carriers and produce amplified current and noise.

The avalanche effect occurs when charge carriers in a semiconductor gain enough energy to create additional carriers, amplifying current and producing electrical noise. In reverse-biased diodes, this parasitic behavior can become a useful physical noise source for true random number generators (TRNGs). section 2.2.1

A diode-based TRNG typically follows this path:

  • Reverse-bias a suitable diode so ordinary current flow is restricted. section 2.2.1
  • Use avalanche-generated electrical noise as the physical entropy source. section 2.2.1
  • Amplify the noise and convert it with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for random-number sampling. section 2.2.1

Diode noise in a TRNG

A reverse-biased diode can exploit avalanche noise rather than treating the diode's parasitic behavior only as a circuit defect. The resulting signal is amplified and passed through an ADC; Zener diodes are identified as poor TRNGs despite their common use. section 2.2.1

How Hacking Cryptography covers it

How deep it goes
Explains diode bias, noise generation, amplification, and ADC sampling, but does not provide detailed circuit parameters or entropy analysis.
Examples
Uses reverse-biased diodes, Zener diodes, amplified noise, and ADC sampling as concrete implementation examples.
What it assumes
Assumes basic diode behavior and teaches forward bias, reverse bias, parasitic effects, and noise sampling.
What you can do after
Evaluate avalanche noise as a candidate physical source for a diode-based random-number generator.
How it connects
Connects avalanche effect with TRNGs, Zener diodes, ring oscillators, analog-to-digital converters, and electrical noise.
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This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Hacking Cryptography. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.