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AN1768
APPLICATION NOTE
ADMISSIBLE AVALANCHE POWER OF SCHOTTKY DIODES
October 2003 - Ed: 1
D. JOUVE
INTRODUCTION
The design of Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) is subjected to ever increasing cost and efficiency
constraints.
Onewaytorespondtotheseaggressivespecificationsistousecomponentsclosertotheirintrinsiclimits.
The increasing use of Schottky diodes in the avalanche area is a good example of this evolution.
To help the designer to optimize the choice of the Schottky diode in a rectification application,
STMicroelectronics is proposing a simple tool to determine if a given ST Schottky diode can withstand the
avalanche energy fixed by the application conditions.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
25
50
75
100
125
150
175
Tj (°C)
P
ARM p
(tp, 25°C) versusT
j
ARM
j
Fig. 2:
Avalanche power derating over tempera-
ture range.
1. DESIGN RULES
The first step for the designer is to estimate, in the
worst-case conditions, the following parameters:
n
Operating junction temperature: Tj
n
Pulse duration of the avalanche current: tp
n
Avalanche energy by pulse generated by the
converter in the Schottky diode: E
AP
STMicroelectronics guarantees for each Schottky
diode a reference avalanche power given at
tp=1μs and Tj=25°C: P
ARM
(1μs,25°C) (corre-
sponding to a rectangular current pulse ).
Table 1 gives P
ARM
(1μs,25°C) for some part
numbers.
Table 1:
P
ARM
(1μs, 25°C) values for some ST
Schottky diodes.
Part number
P
ARM
(1μs; 25°C)
per diode
2.7 kW
4 kW
6 kW
10.8 kW
STPS1545D (2x7.5A)
STPS2045CT (2x10A)
STPS3045CT (2x15A)
STPS20H100CT (2x10A)
Derating curves figure 2 and figure 3 give the ad-
missible avalanche power versus tp and Tj.
P
ARM
(1μs, 25°C) for each part number as well as
the derating curves are given in the respective
datasheet.
The designer must ensure that the guaranteed
avalanche energy E
ARM
(tp,Tj) is greater than the
avalanche energy in the application E
AP
.
P
ARM p
(1μs,
) versus tp
j
ARM
T
j
tp(μs)
10
1
1
0.01
0.1
0.1
0.001
0.01
100
1000
10
Fig. 3:
Avalanche power derating over pulse dura-
tion range