Integrated DrMOS power stages allow higher density supplies

Jon Lawson

Vishay Intertechnology has launched five new VRPower integrated DrMOS power stage devices. Nick Flaherty reports

To meet the need for high-current, high-efficiency, and high-power-density performance in next-generation equipment, Vishay Intertechnology has launched five new VRPower integrated DrMOS power stage devices.

Combining power MOSFETs and an advanced MOSFET gate driver IC with a bootstrap Schottky diode in thermally enhanced 4.5mm by 3.5mm PowerPAK MLP4535-22L and 5mm by 5mm PowerPAK MLP55-31L packages, the Vishay Siliconix SiC530CD, SiC531CD, SiC532CD, SiC631CD, and SiC632CD are 45% smaller than discrete solutions.

The devices' high power density is optimised for computing platforms using the Intel Skylake platform but are also suitable for industrial PC and high-current multiphase point og load (POL) modules used in networking and industrial applications.

Today's platforms require higher currents than their predecessors, while consumers demand ever-smaller form factors. The integrated devices released today offer continuous current up to 30A in the 4.5mm by 3.5mm PowerPAK MLP4535-22L package and 40A in the 5mm by 5mm PowerPAK MLP55-31L package.

In addition to their high-current capabilities and footprint savings, the power stages also lower package parasitics to enable switching frequencies up to 2MHz — further shrinking the overall solution size and profile by reducing the size of the output filter. For high performance, the devices' high- and low-side MOSFETs use Vishay's fourth generation TrenchFET technology to reduce switching and conduction losses. The power stage driver IC is compatible with a wide range of PWM controllers and supports tri-state PWM logic of 5V.

The devices are optimised for synchronous buck converters, DC/DC voltage regulation modules, and multiphase VRDs for CPUs, GPUs, and memory. To increase light-load efficiency in these applications, the devices' driver IC incorporates diode emulation mode circuity and zero-current detect. An adaptive dead time control helps to further improve efficiency at all load points. To support PS4 mode light-load requirements for IMVP8, the power stages reduce current consumption to 5 µA when systems are operating in standby mode, and they can be woken from this state within 5 µs. Protection features for the RoHS-compliant, halogen-free devices include undervoltage lockout (UVLO).