Siliconix Unveils TrenchFETs for Portable Power Management

Vishay Siliconix Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) announced that it is sampling power MOSFETs built on a silicon technology that will, they claim, enable a new generation of record-breaking devices for power management and conversion in end products ranging from cellular phones to the fixed communication infrastructure that powers the Internet.

The new proprietary TrenchFET process enables small, high-efficiency devices by increasing the transistor density on the silicon level from the norm of 32 million cells per square inch to 178 million cells per square inch. For a given area of silicon, the new Vishay Siliconix process is designed to reduce on-resistance by upwards of 30 percent for a given device.

Based on this new technology, Siliconix is now able to offer a power MOSFET in the SO-8 PowerPak. Complete families of devices aimed at such applications as cellular phone and notebook computer power management, and dc/dc conversion for desktop computers and the fixed telecom infrastructure will be released by Siliconix over the next few months.

“Siliconix was the first in the industry to offer power MOSFETs built on trench silicon technology, which has now become the standard for this device type," said Dr. King Owyang, president and CEO of Vishay Siliconix. “With this latest advance, we're pushing the envelope again with devices that will play a key role in enabling smaller, lighter end products that will run longer on smaller batteries."

Vishay Siliconix will begin mass production of the new TrenchFETs at the end of the first quarter of 2001.