Forum Discussion
ken_white
Nov 02, 2014Explorer
The main problem with paralleling diodes is the forward voltage drop is quite different between devices unless purchased as a matched set.
This means they will not share the current equally between them and you will risk destroying them as one heats up more than the other which reduces its forward drop even more and eventually this thermal runaway condition causes a catastrophic failure.
You could put a small ohm value, high wattage, series resistor inline with each diode help balance the load sharing and thermal runaway, but this creates even more losses.
The diode solution basically just wastes energy and produces heat, which as Salvo has stated, is not a very practical solution.
This means they will not share the current equally between them and you will risk destroying them as one heats up more than the other which reduces its forward drop even more and eventually this thermal runaway condition causes a catastrophic failure.
You could put a small ohm value, high wattage, series resistor inline with each diode help balance the load sharing and thermal runaway, but this creates even more losses.
The diode solution basically just wastes energy and produces heat, which as Salvo has stated, is not a very practical solution.
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