Electronic – Schottky diode part of a laser power supply enable circuit

analogdiodespower supplyschottky

Circuit from AN90

In this circuit from Jim Williams' AN90 the enable line pulls down the base of Q1 through Q2, through a Schottky diode (1n5712). Why is this Schottky diode there? I imagine it's a Schottky diode so it has a diode drop smaller than Q1's, so it's possible to turn off Q1… but why does it need to be there at all? It seems as if you could short over it and prevent Q1 from conducting just fine. It must be there for a reason! He even seems to omit it in an earlier figure (http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/application-note/an90f.pdf Fig. 2)

Best Answer

Q2 also pulls down the left side input voltage, which sets the laser current, through the right-facing 1N4148 diode. The Schottky diode keeps these two functions separate.

Without the Schottky, a low voltage output from A1 could pull the current control input low, limiting the input voltage to some value that depends on the laser's forward voltage. There would also be a positive feedback path which could lead to oscillation.