New Industry Products

IR Introduces the IR2181/IR2183/IR2184 Series of Gate Driver ICs

July 31, 2001 by Jeff Shepard

International Rectifier Corp. (IR, El Segundo, CA) introduced the new IR2181, IR2183 and IR2184 Series of 600V MOSFET and IGBT gate driver ICs. The ICs can be used in a variety of circuits, including UPSs, switched-mode power-supply applications up to 12kW, and ac motor drives up to 10HP. They are especially suited to high-density, high-current designs.

The IR2181 Series ICs integrate one high-side and one low-side gate driver into one IC. The IR2183 Series ICs are half-bridge drivers with a separate low-side inverted input and a high-side input. The IR2184 Series are single-input, half-bridge drivers with a separate shut-down pin.

The new devices are offered in standard eight- and 14-pin SOIC or PDIP packages. The devices in the 14-lead packages include added features such as programmable dead-time for half-bridge drivers and enhanced noise immunity due to separate power and logic ground. In addition, high-voltage pins are on one side of the 14-pin package while the low-voltage pins are on the other side to simplify layout.

Alberto Guerra, director of the motor drive sector at IR, said, "IR is a pioneer in high-voltage IC technology. The new IR2181, IR2183 and IR2184 Series gate drivers simplify product design and manufacturing by replacing discrete circuits with integrated solutions. IR will continue to develop efficient power-management solutions to fulfill the demand to decrease design cycle time and increase performance."

Engineering samples of the new series are currently available. Pricing starts at $1.74 each in 1,000-unit quantities.