Non-RF Applications for the Surface Mount Schottky Diode Pairs -App Note

Schottky diodes, based on silicon or gallium arsenide substrates, are used in many receiver and transmitter circuits for mixing and detecting at frequencies up to 100 GHz. Today, advanced wafer and packaging processes allow Avago Technologies to manufacture low cost surface mount Schottky diodes in high volumes for commercial and consumer applications. Traditionally many of these diodes are used for mixing and power monitoring in RF applications such as mobile and cordless phones, satellite television receivers, RFID (radio frequency identification) systems and many others. However, an increasing number of these diodes are also used in digital and non-RF applications such as the speed-up of transistor, optocoupler and operational amplifier circuits, over-voltage protection, clipping, and clamping. The Schottky diode is a rectifying metal-semiconductor contact formed between a metal and an n-doped or p-doped semiconductor. When a metal-semiconductor junction is formed, free electrons flow across the junction from the semiconductor and fill the free-energy states in the metal. This flow of electrons builds a depletion potential across the junction. The difference in energy levels between semiconductor and metal is called a Schottky barrier.