The Schottky Diode is another type of semiconductor diode which can be used in a variety of wave shaping, switching and rectification applications the same as any other junction diode. The main adavantage is that the forward voltage drop of a Schottky Diode is substantially less than the 0.7 volts of the conventional silicon pn-junction diode.
Schottky diodes have many useful applications from rectification, signal conditioning and switching, through to TTL and CMOS logic gates due mainly to their low power and fast switching speeds. TTL Schottky logic gates are identified by the letters LS appearing somewhere in their logic gate circuit code, e.g. 74LS00.
PN-junction diodes are formed by joining together a p-type and an n-type semiconductor material allowing it to be used as a rectifying device, and we have seen that when Forward Biased the depletion region is greatly reduced allowing current to flow through it in the forward direction, and when Reverse Biased the depletion region is increased blocking current flow.
The action of biasing the pn-junction using an external voltage to either forward or reverse bias it, decreases or increases respectively the resistance of the junction barrier. Thus the voltage-current relationship (characteristic curve) of a typical pn-junction diode is influenced by the resistance value of the junction. Remember that the pn-junction diode is a nonlinear device so its DC resistance will vary with both the biasing voltage and the current through it.
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