National Semi Intros LM5111 and LM5112 Gate Drivers

National Semiconductor Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) introduced the latest additions to its family of high-voltage power control integrated circuits designed to provide efficient dc-dc power supply solutions. The dual-channel LM5111 and single-channel LM5112 are gate drivers that offer flexible solutions in small packages, making them suitable for driving large power MOSFETs used in ac-dc and dc-dc converters, motor drives and industrial control systems.

The LM5112, available in a 3 mm x 3 mm LLP-6 package, also enables the design of high-performance dc-dc converters when used as part of a chipset with National's LM5000 family of pulse width modulation (PWM) controllers and LM510x half-bridge drivers. The LM5112 operates at high speeds with minimal delay and high peak output currents. Designed using National's high-voltage Analog-BiCMOS-DMOS (ABCD) technology, the LM5112's compound output driver stage includes MOS and bi-polar transistors operating in parallel.

The LM5111 offers two full 5 Apk drivers in a SOIC-8 package that can directly replace many older CMOS gate drive solutions, while offering an improved peak output current of 5 Apk compared to 2 Apk, as well as higher-efficiency operation. The dual-channel LM5111 deploys the same advanced compound driver technology as the single-channel LM5112. The LM5111 also allows the normally separate 5 Apk drive channels to be tied in parallel with their inputs and outputs connected, doubling the output drive current capacity to 10 Apk for driving extremely large power MOSFETs efficiently at high speeds of up to 1 MHz. It is available in three different input signal options: the two channels can be non-inverting, inverting or a combination of the two.

Available now, the LM5111 is priced at $0.65 and the LM5112 is priced at $0.55 each in 1,000-unit volumes.