Answer 8
Although the Schottky diode will allow the project to operate with lower battery voltages, the power consumption of the circuit at higher voltages will be higher with the Schottky diode than with the regular silicon diode.

For a given battery voltage, any power not dissipated in the diode gets dissipated in the microcontroller. Assuming the microcontroller is essentially a resistive load (true of most CMOS ICs), its power consumption goes up with the square of the voltage across it. So, the lower Vf on the Schottky diode leads to higher total power consumption.

Contributor: Dave Tweed

Published April 2003