If your project is moving a lot of power around, and efficiency is key, an Adafruit LM73100 Ideal Diode breakout is a great way to keep your power budget tidy! As long as your power supply is 3 to 23V DC and up to 5A, use this in place of a diode to keep current flowing in only one direction. However, unlike a diode, you won't suffer a 1V+ forward drop which just gets lost as heat. Instead, the internal chip has two back-to-back FETs, with a typical Rdson of 30 mΩ. That means that even with 5A, you'll lose around 150mV. This makes it perfect for efficiency-sensitive setups like solar panels and LiPoly batteries.

Unlike our LM62200 dual ideal diode, this board acts as 'one' diode only - but it can handle much higher voltages and currents! There are also some niceties we added like solder-free operation thanks to on-board terminal blocks, and a green LED that will light when power is going in the right direction. You can also monitor the current draw by reading the analog voltage off of IMON, handy if you don't want a separate power monitoring kit.

To make it breadboard friendly, we've placed it on a small PCB with 9 x 0.1" breakout pads. We include a bit of header. Some light soldering is required to attach the header for breadboarding use. Or you can use direct wiring to the terminal blocks if you want to insert it directly into a circuit without a breadboard.

• Wide operating input voltage range: 2.7 V to 23 V
  • 28 V absolute maximum
  • Withstands negative voltages up to -15 V
• Integrated back-to-back FETs with low OnResistance: RON = 28.4 mΩ (typ)
• Ideal diode operation with true reverse current blocking
• Fast overvoltage protection
• 1.2-μs (typ) response time
• Fast-trip response to transient overcurrents during steady state
  500-ns (typ) response time
  Latch-off after fault
• Analog load current monitor output (IMON)
  Current range: 0.5 A to 5.5 A
  Accuracy: ±15% (max) (IOUT ≥ 1 A)
• Overtemperature protection
• Power Good indication (PG)