The
Schottky diode (named after German physicist
Walter H. Schottky) is a
semiconductor diode with a low forward voltage drop. A typical application is discharge-protection for
solar cells connected to
lead-acid batteries. While standard silicon diodes have a forward voltage drop of about 0.6
volts, Schottky diodes have a drop of only about 0.2 volts.
A Schottky diode uses a metal-semiconductor junction as a Schottky barrier (instead of a semiconductor-semiconductor junction as in conventional diodes). This Schottky barrier results in both very fast switching times and low forward voltage drop.
External References
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License