New Industry Products

MOSFET Gate Drivers Boosts Conversion Efficiency

December 02, 2014 by Jeff Shepard

Diodes Incorporated has introduced a pair of compact 40V, 1A-rated gate drivers specifically designed to control the high-current power MOSFETs used in on-board and embedded power supplies and motor drive circuits. Enabling the MOSFETs to be more rapidly and fully switched on and off, the ZXGD3009E6 (SOT26 package) and ZXGD3009DY (SOT363 package) help minimize switching losses, improve power density and increase overall conversion efficiency.

Acting as a high-gain buffer stage for low-power control ICs, the devices can provide a typical drive current of 500mA from an input current of only 10mA, ensuring the desirable fast charging and discharging of the power MOSFET’s capacitive load. The drivers’ switching capability is ultra-fast, with a propagation delay time of less than 5ns, and rise and fall times of less than 20ns.

Separate source and sink outputs offer independent control of MOSFET turn-on and turn-off times, which enables MOSFET behavior to be more closely tailored to the needs of the application. The ZXGD3009s’ ability to drive the gate negatively as well as positively assures dependable hard turn-off of the power MOSFET.

The gate drivers’ rugged emitter-follower design avoids any issues of latch-up or shoot-through and can tolerate peak currents of up to 2A. Their wide 40V operating range will also cater for voltage spikes far beyond the typical 12V normally associated with power MOSFET gate driving. In 1k quantities, the SOT26 packaged ZXGD3009E6 is priced at $0.12USD each, and the SOT363 packaged ZXGD3009DY at $0.10USD each.