Diode as a regulator

You mean a schottky diode and yes a few diodes in series will make a zener diode obsolete for a few reasons. 1st you can keep adding more and more diodes to reach the voltage you require. 2nd they will have a much higher power rating than other diodes.

@thebugger-you are getting schottky diode mixed up with a shockley diodes. Schottky is kindof different the opposite of Shockley. Schottky has a low forward voltage and shockley has a higher forward voltage. Shockley is basically a DIAC but instead of AC, it is DC. Schottky diodes(you are thinking of) are good for rectification.

Schottky diodes typical forward voltage drop is between .15-.45V. A low Vf makes them excellent for small signal switching, and they are much faster for that than normal diodes. Not only good for rectification @Voltran, they work well in RF applications as well..

@thebugger-What are tunnel diodes for? I've haven't be able to mess around with them, before. I've heard that tunnel diodes are also good for high speeds, something like that.

Tunnel diodes are based on quantum tunneling and can work in the Ghz range. Even in the terrahertz range. I recently read an article about how some scientists made a THz oscillator by focusing the power on a high harmonic and they used tunnel diodes for that purpose. I though he was speaking of schottky diodes. I misread it sorry. Yes shockley diodes are very obsolete now and have almost no application in modern technology. They are basically a 4 layer diode PNPN so they have a 1.2-1.4V Vf so their switching speed is quite low. They are just two diodes in series. A shcottky diode is much much faster and tunneling diodes are not even in the same league with the schokley diode.

Wow :D still save with 12MVolt