Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBDs)
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A Schottky barrier diode (SBD) is a device in which a semiconductor and a metal such as molybdenum are bonded instead of a pn junction. In general, SBDs of n-type semiconductor and metal junctions are commercialized. It is suitable for high-speed switching applications, because of small forward voltage and short reverse recovery time[Note].
For the SBD there is a tradeoff between forward voltage (VF) and reverse current.
Depending on the metal used, in general, the breakdown voltage is about 20 to 150 V and the VF is about 0.4 to 0.7 V, which is lower than that of the pn junction diode.
SBDs with a new structure with low forward voltage but low reverse current have also been commercialized.
(Toshiba has achieved low VF and low reverse current characteristics by adopting a trench structure for SBD. )
Note: Since SBD is a unipolar device, it does not have reverse recovery time due to carrier recombination like pn junction diodes. However, the current waveform charging the capacity between the terminals of SBD is observed like the reverse recovery time of the p-n junction diode.
Therefore, it is described as reverse recovery time in this document.
Chapter II : Diodes
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