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In this paper, we use a quantum mechanical approach to make a good approximation of the magnitude of the diffusion current in a tunnel diode. At first we look at tunnel diode as a p-n junction with a potential barrier between the two ends of depletion region. We also suppose that an external voltage is applied on the device as biasing which can be forward or inverse. The exact form of the potential barrier will be given for a typical tunnel diode which is of a linear form. Then we will solve Schrödinger equation for this system and extract the solutions as well as the coefficient of transmittance and reflection for electrons. These processes are repeated for holes, too. The Airy functions appear in as the solutions. Finally, we will give a good and near exact estimation of the diffusion current for tunnel diode. A comparison is also made between our results and those are presented in electronic texts. It will be seen that there is a good accordance between our obtained I-V diagram with that of found in electronic texts.
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