EEVblog 1746 – Schottky vs PN Diodes & Measurement Traps

Demonstrating the difference between Schottky diodes and PN junction silicon diodes, and how your multimeter can influence your measurement when troubleshooting.
Answering an interesting Twitter question.

https://x.com/blind_via/status/2052223991839170919
https://www.tti.com/content/ttiinc/en/resources/blog/infographics/schottky-diodes.html
https://engineering.purdue.edu/~ee606/downloads/ECE606_f12_Lecture17.pdf

Forum: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1746-schottky-vs-pn-diodes-measurement-traps/

00:00 – Twitter question
01:21 – Recreating the problem
03:08 – Why doesn’t it read zero volts? Let’s try a PN junction diode
04:21 – Schottky vs PN Junction diodes, they are NOT the same!
06:06 – What about a diode tester?
07:15 – Why doesn’t the Schottky diode work like a diode?
08:39 – It’s a multimeter measurement TRAP!
10:37 – A closer look at Schottky diodes
14:21 – Datasheet inspection, and advantages vs disadvantages of Schottky diodes
15:21 – Reverse leakage current, PN vs Schottky
17:16 – THREE orders of magnitude difference!
22:29 – Digital vs Analog multimeter, Analog WINS!

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