Switching[edit]
Special types of varicap diode exhibiting an abrupt change in capacitance can often be found in consumer equipment such as television tuners, which are used to switch radio frequency signal paths. When in the high capacitance state, usually with low or no bias, they present a low impedance path to RF, whereas when reverse biased their capacitance abruptly decreases and their RF impedance increases. Although they are still slightly conductive to the RF path, the attenuation they introduce decreases the unwanted signal to an acceptably low level. They are often used in pairs to switch between two different RF sources such as the VHF and UHF bands in a television tuner by supplying them with complementary bias voltages. The fourth device from the left in the picture at the head of this page is one such device.