Does anybody know how power diodes (rectifiers, zeners, TVSs) are fabricated? Do these use patterned lithography, or do people just fab big unfeatured wafers and dice them up? I wonder if chip edge damage contributes to leakage, or maybe the sheer combination of size and doping makes power diodes leaky.
The context is that I have a test/cal connector that I want to protect from overload, at least +-20 volts and preferably more. I can't add a lot of series resistance.
A polyfuse and clamp might work:
but I need fairly high-current, low leakage clamp diodes, and most official diodes are leaky, even typ values at room temp, much less max at 75C. It seems that transistors are better diodes than diodes.
Analog Devices just EOL'd the neat ADG465. Bummer.