New Industry Products

TI Introduces New Power-Distribution Switches To Handle Heavy Capacitive Loads & Guard Against Short-Circuits

January 07, 2009 by Jeff Shepard

Texas Instruments Inc. has introduced four new power-distribution switches that enable end equipment to handle heavy capacitive loads while preventing short-circuits in a variety of applications, such as USB ports/hubs, cell phones, laptops, flat panel TVs and set-top boxes.

The new chips offer a programmable current-limit threshold from 75mA to 1.3A via an external resister with up to 6% accuracy. The constant current TPS2552/53 and latch-off TPS2552-1/53-1 provide at least a 50% improvement in current limit accuracy compared to competing solutions.

The TPS2552/3 devices limit the output current to a safe level by switching into a constant-current mode when the output load exceeds the current-limit threshold while the TPS2552-1/3-1 turns the switch off completely during over-current events. The enhanced accuracy of the TPS2552/53 also enables the device to be used as a simple circuit-breaking or current-limiting solution for a wide range of applications outside of consumer end equipment, including optical modules and low current management rails in telecommunications systems.

The TPS2552/53 is available now in SOT23-6 and 2 x 2mm SON-6 packaging and is priced at $0.75 in quantities of 1,000.