Automotive-grade Schottky — AEC-Q101 and the 175°C junction
The V15KM120C-M3/H: Qualified to AEC-Q101, the automotive discrete semiconductor standard, which imposes reliability screening and temperature cycling beyond commercial-grade parts. The -40°C to 175°C junction range covers under-hood and engine-bay environments where ambient temperatures exceed 125°C. The Schottky barrier construction with fast recovery speed (<500ns, >200mA Io) means the diode's reverse-recovery charge is negligible — the dominant switching loss is the forward conduction loss, not the recovery tail. This keeps the ringing and EMI signature low in high-frequency DC-DC converters and OR-ing circuits.
Forward drop, leakage, and the thermal budget
At 7.5 A forward current the typical forward drop is 830 mV — this sets the conduction loss floor. The 600 µA reverse leakage at 120 V rated reverse voltage is a check point for standby power budgets; leakage doubles with every 10°C rise above 25°C, so at 125°C junction the leakage current can dominate the off-state loss. Each diode in the common-cathode pair is rated for 4.2 A average rectified current. In a typical 15 A total output application (the '15A' in the description), the two diodes share the load, but the thermal coupling inside the FlatPAK package means the junction temperature of the hotter diode limits the total throughput.
FlatPAK 5x6 — board integration and thermal spreading
The 8-PowerTDFN package, marketed as FlatPAK (5x6), is a low-inductance surface-mount package with a large exposed pad on the bottom.