Let us now dive a bit deeper into the details, why Silicon Germanium brings an advantage to the functionality of the rectifier. This graph shows the leakage current versus the case temperature of the device. The leakage current is responsible for reverse power losses, which need to be dissipated out of the package and into the PCB. For Schottky rectifiers, having a high leakage current, at a certain point, the power dissipation capability of package and PCB is exceeded by the power losses generated within the device. At this point, the Schottky rectifier goes into thermal runaway and is destroyed. The critical temperature beyond which Thermal Runaway happens depends on many factors, notably on the thermal impedance of the package and PCB. In contrast, the Silicon Germanium rectifier has such a low leakage current that the generated reverse power losses are much smaller than what can be dissipated into the PCB. Therefore, no thermal runaway happens up to 175°C, which is the specification limit set by the package. Thus, translating to a safe operation up to 175°C for the engineers using a Silicon Germanium rectifier in their design.