Welcome to the Nexperia MOSFET and GaN FET Application Handbook, the second edition of our successful design guide. Written by engineers for engineers, this unique collection of technical materials and application notes provides essential and up-to-date information for anybody tasked with integrating MOSFETs and GaN FETs into real-world systems.

In the following pages we share expertise and learnings that Nexperia’s engineering teams have built up over many years of helping customers in a variety of sectors take their applications from initial concept, through prototyping and on into final production.

The knowledge contained in this guide could not be more relevant or timely. Never before has there been such pressure on engineers to create products and systems that not only deliver high levels of performance and functionality but do so within increasingly restrictive size and power constraints. What’s more, the requirement for cost-effective and efficient power conversion and electrification is only going to intensify as society looks to reduce energy costs, drive down greenhouse gas emissions and make the most of renewable resources while meeting the increased demands of a growing population and an explosion in the number of applications reliant on electricity.

From consumer products to automotive electronics, data centres to industrial automation, and communication infrastructure to medical equipment, no application area is untouched by the need for components that switch, convert and manage power and engineers who know how to deploy those components to optimal effect.

At the lower end of the power spectrum, IoT, consumer and other mobile electronic devices rely on high-efficiency configurations to support the best possible user experience in tandem with minimizing form factor and maximizing time between charge or battery replacement. Reliance on electronics for safety, comfort and infotainment combined with a shift to autonomous, connected vehicles and hybrid and fully electric powertrains makes power design a critical factor in the automotive sector. For data centres significant cost and environmental benefits can be realized by even small efficiency gains when extrapolated across millions of servers. In modern factory automation systems where output in kilowatts for motor drives is now common, effective use of power is the cornerstone of efficient and accurate motion control. And when it comes to communications infrastructure, 5G roll-out is set to generate major demand for technologies that deliver high-density, ultra-efficient, ultra-reliable power use.

What is clear is that, irrespective of the application, no longer can power be seen as an afterthought, something to be addressed only after the design and prototyping of a product or system’s core functionality. What’s more, with efficient and effective power management at or near the very top of the design agenda, not only is the role of the power engineer more relevant than ever before but other engineers are having to broaden their skillset to address power and efficiency challenges. Which means gaining an understanding of discrete semiconductor technologies such as power MOSFETs, small-signal MOSFETs and GaN FETs and knowing how best to use these devices to both meet demanding product specification and performance requirements and deliver the efficiencies expected by customers and legislators.

For mains- and battery-powered applications, advances in power MOSFET structures and packaging continue to drive forward system efficiency and performance. In addition to fast and efficient switching for power supplies, many power MOSFETs are now designed with particular applications in mind. Such application-specific MOSFETS (ASFETs) may include, for example, optimised parameters to address soft-start, live insertion, short-circuit resilience, avalanche ruggedness and advanced thermal management.

Today’s low-current, small-signal MOSFETs are deployed in applications that range from DC-DC conversion and load switching to level shifting in bi-directional bus systems. Among the trends for these devices are high-speed switching and advanced packaging that supports the performance, power density and miniaturization needs of high-component-density applications such as mobile battery-powered electronics and wearables.

More recent additions to the portfolio of power discretes include those fabricated from wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as gallium nitride, which have already achieved great success in RF power. Now, thanks to a combination of ultra-low RDS(on) at high voltages, excellent switching FOM (figure of merit), thermal stability, high-frequency operation and reducing price points they are becoming important for a growing number of high-power, high-density, ultra-high-speed switching applications – including hard-switched topologies where silicon super-junction FETs cannot be used. Offering options for automotive, telecommunications, computing and industrial market sectors, the power GaN technology covered in this Handbook targets the needs of AC-DC and DC-DC conversion, power factor correction (PFC), automotive on-board charging and electric drive applications.

It is interesting to note that the patent for the first field effect transistor was filed by Polish-American physicist Julius E. Lilienfeld in 1926 and the first super-junction FET was patented back in 1984. Although FET technology has clearly moved on significantly in the last few decades (not least in terms of switching speeds - some of the latest MOSFETs switch in the time it takes light to move just 3 m), many of the key issues that engineers must consider remain the same. Understanding the impact of switching, conduction and avalanche losses on system efficiency, for example, is critical in most designs, as are techniques for ensuring EMC compliance, optimised thermal management and reliability. A range of other factors will need to be taken into account for applications based on emerging GaN FET technology.

Furthermore, as product choice grows, so too does the challenge of narrowing down the plethora of FET options to those that are most likely to match the requirements of a given use case, comparing those devices on a ‘like-for-like’ basis and then deciding which will deliver the ‘real-world’ performance demanded by the target application. This challenge is not made any easier by a lack of consistency between suppliers regarding the conditions used for rating key parameters.
This Application Handbook provides useful guidance on all of these topics and many other issues that the design engineer is likely to encounter when working with MOSFETs and GaN FETs. By providing insight into their sometimes confusing and complex behaviour – including information necessary to solve common problems and avoid potential pitfalls – Nexperia’s belief is that the Handbook will become a ‘go-to’ reference for anybody tasked with delivering optimised power and small-signal switching, power conversion and power management. To supplement the handbook, further product information and the most up-to-date application notes can be found at nexperia.com

Ke stažení
MOSFET & GaN FET Application Handbook (PDF) nebo snapshot (PDF) ze dne 2.4.2023

Zdroj
www.nexperia.com