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New 550 and 1100 volt POWER MOSFETs Improve Reliability of Power Converters

The
manufacturer says...
Chipcenter's
Nasser Kutkut, Ph.D., says...

Advanced Power Technology (APT) announces a new line of 550 and 1100 volt POWER MOS 7. FREDFETs (MOSFET with fast body diode) designed specifically to provide additional voltage safety margin for increased system reliability. In some power converter designs additional safety margin is needed between the breakdown voltage rating and the maximum operating voltage of the device in the system. This extra safety margin often increases system reliability by minimizing device failures due to single event burn-out (SEB). SEB can be a major cause of device failures which can be reduced significantly by increasing the voltage safety margin. This is a well known failure mechanism in space and airborne power conversion systems where high voltage power MOSFETs have been voltage derated up to 50% (maximum operating voltage equal to 50% of device breakdown voltage rating) or more to minimize this effect. Historically, terrestrial applications have ignored this failure mechanism due to the lower flux of cosmic rays at earth surfaces and designers have typically derated power MOSFETs to 80% of rated voltage to meet required reliability levels. However, as reliability demands on terrestrial power converters have become more stringent, failures due to SEB can become significant in many high power designs. In these designs it is not often desirable or easy to reduce the operating voltage of the system so a higher breakdown voltage rating for the device is the only alternative. However, the higher breakdown voltage means higher power losses due to higher on resistance of the MOSFET. Many power converters use 500 and 1000 volt MOSFETs. Additional voltage derating typically means going from 500 to 600 volts and from 1000 to 1200 volts which significantly increases the on resistance and conduction losses of the devices with corresponding lower efficiencies. By providing in-between voltages such as 550 and 1100 volts the increased power losses are reduced and often can provide the most cost effective and time efficient solution to a design. With higher demands on system reliability, SEB is a growing reliability concern and APT has developed this product line to significantly reduce SEB failures while minimizing the performance penalty of voltage derating. These high performance and reliable FREDFETs utilize APT's advanced proprietary POWER MOS 7. Technology. This technology has our patented metal on polysilicon gate structure, which lowers the internal chip gate resistance up to two orders of magnitude compared to industry standard polysilicon gate devices. This, combined with low gate charge and on-resistance, makes the 550 and 1100 volt FREDFETs the designers choice for high performance and uncompromising system reliability. The 550 and 1100 volt lines are available in TO-247, T-MAX., TO-264, 264-Max., and Isotop. (SOT-227) molded plastic packages. Product samples are available in a wide range of on-resistances and current ratings. Hermetic packaging, Hi-Rel screening options, unpackaged die and lot acceptance testing are also available. Pricing ranges from $5.62 to $59.46 in 1000 piece quantities. Product samples are available starting immediately.

Voltage derating of power devices, such as MOSFETs, is a common design practice used by designers to provide enough safety margin between the device's breakdown voltage and the maximum operating voltage. For example, a 500V maximum operating voltage would require a 600V MOSFET at a minimum. However, a higher voltage rated device entails higher RDS(on) resulting in higher conduction losses, a penalty that can't be avoided. Advanced Power Technology is attempting to minimize this penalty by introducing devices with in between voltage ratings such as 550V, instead of 600V, and 1100V, instead of 1200V. This will definitely allow designers to still meet their required voltage derating margins without sacrificing system performance and efficiency. The new series of power MOSFETs are available in a wide variety of standard leaded and bolt through packages.

Press Release


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