New Industry Products

Mid-Voltage MOSFETs Rated at 175 C deliver Higher Power Densities

March 17, 2015 by Jeff Shepard

Fairchild Corp. has announced an expanded line of extended temperature (ET) mid-voltage MOSFETs, which can operate at 175 degrees C. The higher operating temperatures enable up to 85 percent greater power density and three times more reliability than MOSFETs rated to the 150 degrees C industry standard. This new family of ET MOSFETs aligns with the IPC-9592 power conversion standard, which means the maximum junction temperature can be up to 150 degrees C, as opposed to 125 degrees C for standard 150 degrees C MOSFETs, to enable more design margin.

The family includes 19 new devices, available in both 5mm x 6mm and 3mm x 3mm standard packages, as well as the new TO-Leadless (TO-LL) package. The devices are offered in a wide range of voltage ratings, including 30V, 40V, 60V, 80V, 100V, 120V and 150V.Their combination of superior heat tolerance, greater power density and improved reliability make Fairchild’s ET MOSFET family suited for dc-dc converters, ac-dc power supplies and motor drives used in a variety of applications, including avionics, micro solar inverters, power tools and telecommunications.

“As the latest additions to Fairchild’s comprehensive line of ET MOSFETs, this new family gives designers greater ‘headroom’ for product designs that can, or must, cope with high temperatures without resorting to heat sinks or other approaches to dissipating heat that increase product cost and complexity,” said Suman Narayan, Vice-President, iFET Product Line at Fairchild. “These new devices continue the Fairchild tradition of offering designers solutions that provide significantly more design margin over competitive offerings.”

The ability to operate at 175 degrees C makes these new ET MOSFETs particularly suited for products that must operate in high ambient temperatures, such as solar power and power-over-Ethernet (POE) applications. Additionally, the substantially greater reliability of the devices is an advantage for products used in harsh environments, including avionics, railway and power tool applications.

Complementing the extended temperature range, the higher power density in very small packages is a key advantage as it gives manufacturers greater flexibility with their product designs. It allows designers to either decrease the form factors of their products – while maintaining the same power output – or to increase the power output without having to increase size.