Multi-market power management injects strong impetus into the growth of power MOSFET

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Multi-market power management injects strong impetus into the growth of power MOSFET [Copy link]

Power management, one of the earliest semiconductor products and technologies, is now once again an important element of the sustainable development of the global electronics industry. Power management semiconductors are responsible for distributing stable voltages and precise currents to different electronic subsystems, thereby minimizing power consumption, thereby maximizing battery life, conserving energy, reducing heat dissipation, and making energy-saving and efficient in the digital field possible. The more sophisticated the final electrical product, the more fine-tuned the power supply is needed.
　Power semiconductor technology has become increasingly widely adopted as the power demand of microprocessors continues to grow. Microprocessors have become faster, smaller, more powerful, and more sensitive to voltage fluctuations. This in turn has further led to the rapid proliferation and further complexity of power management products in the consumer electronics, automotive communications, information technology, and industrial market fields, and is now developing into a diversified and multi-market business.
　An important trend in the power management semiconductor industry is the growing market for DC-DC converters. The huge increase in microprocessor frequency has led to a reduction in operating voltage and an exponential increase in current demand. However, converter efficiency decreases significantly as the output voltage decreases, a phenomenon that has led to a shift from traditional centralized power architecture (CPA) to distributed power architecture (DPA) to meet today's power-hungry needs. Indeed, the growing popularity of DPAs due to advances in microprocessor technology is the most important driver of the growth of the DC-DC converter market, which has enabled advances in size, speed, and efficiency.
　In CPA, an AC-DC power supply takes an AC voltage as input and produces multiple DC output voltages to match the various DC voltage requirements on the circuit board without using any DC-DC converters. In DPA, the AC-DC power supply acts as a front end, taking an AC voltage as input (as in CPA), but only produces an intermediate DC output voltage (usually 48V or 24VDC). This intermediate DC voltage is then used as input to multiple DC-DC converters, each of which steps down the DC voltage to the required voltage on the circuit board.
　Essentially, the power management solution in DPA is to start with a higher voltage; distribute a smaller current to the load over a shorter distance to avoid voltage drops; and then use DC-DC converters to reduce the voltage and increase the current. The advantage of this approach is that since the large current only flows over a shorter distance, the losses are reduced, greatly improving the dynamic performance. As a result, safety is improved and voltage losses are lower. In addition, there is no accumulation of high currents, and the heat is spread evenly across the board, making it easier to cool. DPAs are widely adopted simply because CPAs cannot physically provide the lower voltages required on the board. DPAs allow point-of-load (POL) regulation, that is, the DC-DC converter can be placed as close to the load as possible and as far away from the AC-DC power source as possible. The farther the voltage is delivered to the load, the greater the voltage loss.
　Switch-mode DC-DC converters are growing rapidly throughout the electronics industry and are becoming a major product segment due to their cost advantages, ease of thermal management, and board space savings. MOSFETs are key components in DC-DC conversion, and different types are used in the power conversion process depending on the application. Philips SOT669 lossless package (LFPAK) MOSFET products are a DC-DC conversion solution designed to meet the demanding thermal and electrical requirements required by the high-density DC-DC converters currently in use, which are widely used in applications requiring high-frequency switching power supplies. By overcoming the limitations of the traditional SO8 package, LFPAK offers improved energy handling and thermal resistance advantages, with thermal resistance comparable to some other much larger packages such as D2PAK and DPAK.
　The two-piece leadframe in the LFPAK incorporates a metal mounting base, which provides a better thermal conduction path than SO8. Looking at the thermal comparison between LFPAK and SO8 when dissipating 1W and using the same heat sink, we can see that LFPAK dissipates heat more easily, maintaining the lowest possible operating temperature. In traditional power packages, the main thermal path is vertically downward, through the mounting base and into the PCB. However, LFPAK also dissipates a lot of heat upward through the top of the package, making its thermal resistance significantly lower than SO8.
　Although LFPAK was originally designed for use in DC-DC converter applications, the catalog of MOSFET devices using LFPAK packages has expanded to provide smaller, more efficient products optimized for many other applications such as laptops, desktops and servers. Through testing, we can see that in those applications using the latest low-side LFPAK products, there is a significant improvement in converter efficiency and a substantial leap in product performance. The latest LFPAK high-side/low-side solutions now have better performance than the best Power SO8 competing solutions.
　The combination of Philips low voltage discrete MOSFET and power analog IC products enables the market to develop towards high growth end-user areas such as computers, communications, consumer electronics and automotive electronics, which will continue to develop the trend towards low voltage with the added importance of providing power efficiently and economically. Indeed, Philips' automotive power MOSFET solutions are designed specifically for the complete load requirements in the harsh automotive environment; these loads include: resistive loads (such as lights, heaters, etc.), inductive loads (relays, solenoids), and motors (such as washing pumps, ABS pumps and window lifts).
　The GPA TrenchMOS series is designed for general switching applications, and the HPA TrenchMOS series complements it and is optimized for high power and high current applications. In the face of industry requirements and challenges, the positioning of Philips' automotive strategy is fully demonstrated in the TrenchPLUS product series. The TrenchPLUS concept is a power management solution that enhances the functionality of standard power MOSFETs by integrating additional components, specifically designed for automotive electrical module suppliers to meet the increasingly demanding cost and functional challenges from end customers. The advantages of this approach are improved protection strategies and reliability, enhanced performance, and reduced PCB space.
　In summary, the power management semiconductor market is now a multi-market, and power is becoming a key differentiator in electrical and electronic system design. Power management is critical to the next leap in system performance and efficiency required by high-growth areas such as computing, communications, and consumption.