News

IR Grants License Agreement for DirectFET® Packaging Technology to Infineon

September 26, 2007 by Jeff Shepard

International Rectifier (IR)® and Infineon Technologies announced that Infineon will license from IR its patented advanced power management packaging technology, DirectFET®.

Designed for use in ac-dc and dc-dc power conversion applications in computers, notebooks, telecommunications and consumer electronics devices, the DirectFET power package is a surface-mount power MOSFET packaging technology for efficient topside cooling in an SO-8 footprint or smaller. Compared to standard plastic discrete packages, DirectFET’s metal can construction enables dual-sided cooling to effectively double the current handling capacity of high frequency dc-dc buck converters.

Infineon will deploy the DirectFET power package technology with its OptiMOS® 2 and OptiMOS 3 chip technology and expects to sample the OptiMOS 2 in DirectFET packages starting early 2008.

VP of IR’s Enterprise Power business unit, Tim Phillips said, "By deploying a unique dual-sided cooling design, IR’s DirectFET package technology is the preferred solution to reduce energy losses while shrinking the design footprint in advanced computing, consumer and communications applications. We are continually developing leading-edge technology to save energy and, through licensing agreements, we can broaden the energy-saving impact made possible with such innovations as DirectFET, as well as further expanding our presence in the largest segment of the power management market."

"With this agreement, Infineon continues to expand its power semiconductor portfolio. Combining our successful OptiMOS chip technology with various package options suited for a wide range of applications, we enable power supply designers achieve energy and cost-efficient solutions for a given application," said Arunjai Mittal, Senior VP and GM of the Power Management and Drives business unit at Infineon Technologies. "Providing OptiMOS 2 and OptiMOS 3 devices with their excellent characteristics in a package with double-sided cooling capability will further strengthen Infineon’s position in the power conversion market."