[Amps] HV Diodes

[Manfred Mornhinweg]

Hardy,

> I believe the 1N4007 is actually manufactured as a PIN diode vs the PN 
> configuration of the others in the same family.

Yes, the 1N4007 is a PIN diode, as far as I can tell. What I'm not sure is where 
in the series the line is drawn. The 1N4001 and the next few are surely not PIN, 
but I suspect that from the 1N4005 up they are PIN diodes.

And it's a not very well guarded secret among homebrewers that the 1N4007 does 
pretty decent duty as an RF switching PIN diode! Sure, it's not as good as a PIN 
diode made for that purpose, but for its price it's pretty good! Among the evil 
things I have done is replacing a burned PIN diode in the output section of the 
Kenwood TM-241A by an 1N4007, when nothing better suited was on hand! It works 
to this day, switching 50 watts of VHF power, with no obvious degradation in the 
radio's performance. At 12V reverse voltage, the 1N4007 has about 5pF, not great 
for a VHF switch, but workable!

Manfred

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