New Industry Products

Fairchild Introduces New Load Switches for Portable Designs

October 18, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

Fairchild Semiconductor introduced the FPF100x family of IntelliMAX™ load switches featuring industry-leading packaging (WL-CSP or MLP), integration (slew-rate control, ESD protection and load-discharge capability) and low-voltage operation (1.2V). The FPF1003, FPF1005 and the FPF1006 are specifically designed to enhance thermal and electrical performance in portable applications such as cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, MP3 players, peripheral ports and hot-swap supplies.

"Fairchild's IntelliMAX FPF100x family allows our customers to stay ahead of the market trend that calls for adding new features and functions into increasingly smaller end products," said Chris Winkler, Marketing Director, Low-Voltage Power Segment. "By saving board space and reducing component count, these highly integrated load switches facilitate simplified designs, reduced system costs and faster time-to-market."

The FPF1003 comes in an ultra-small-footprint (1.0 x 1.5mm) wafer-level chip scale package (WL-CSP) that the company claims is six times smaller than similar load switches on the market. This package type reduces RDS(on) for a lower voltage drop (30mOhms @ 5V) and higher current capability (2A), which in turn results in efficient electrical and thermal performance. For an alternative package option, the FPF1005 and FPF1006 devices are available in an industry-standard, compact (2mm x 2mm) molded leadless package (MLP).

The FPF100x series integrates slew-rate control to minimize inrush current at turn-on to ensure reliable operation. They also feature built-in ESD capability and drive circuitry. This increases reliability and minimizes the need for extra components, thus reducing system costs. The FPF1006 device offers a load-discharge option to discharge parasitic capacitance and further increase system reliability.

Utilizing Fairchild's advanced CMOS MOSFET process, the FPF100x devices are rated at a low 1.2V voltage rating compared to typical devices on the market rated at 1.8V. This enables these IntelliMAX load switches to manage power even in very low-voltage logic and processor solutions. These lead (Pb)-free devices meet or exceed the requirements of the joint IPC/JEDEC standard J-STD-020C and are compliant with European Union regulations now in effect. Samples and demo board are available now with an 8 week ARO.