New Industry Products

Fairchild Introduces Automotive Gate Driver ICs for Hybrid, Electric Vehicle Applications

April 04, 2012 by Jeff Shepard

Engineers in the automotive space are faced with the challenges of delivering inverter designs with increased efficiency, higher drive current and greater immunity to noise, especially in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and electric vehicles (EV). To help designers meet these challenges, Fairchild Semiconductor developed the FAN7171 high-current, high-side gate driver IC and the FAN7190 high-current, high- and low-side gate driver IC.

Part of a family of automotive high voltage ICs (HVIC) gate drivers, the FAN7171 and FAN7190 are well suited for electric and hybrid electric DC-DC power supplies and power inverters, diesel and gasoline injectors and valves as well as MOSFET and IGBT high-side driver applications.

The FAN7171 and FAN7190 HVIC devices deliver an integrated inverter solution with higher efficiency, more drive current and more robustness in harsh automotive applications.

The FAN7171 is a monolithic high-side gate driver IC that can drive high speed MOSFETs and IGBTs that operate up to +500V, while the FAN7190 can drive MOSFETS and IGBTs that operate up to +600V. Greater drive capability enables higher power systems with an increase in power efficiency.

Both devices have a buffered output stage with all NMOS transistors designed for high pulse current driving capability and minimum cross-conduction. Better noise immunity, with a negative voltage swing (VS) down to -9.8V at 15V VBS, allows for improved design reliability and increased durability in challenging noise environments.

Qualified to AEC Q100 Automotive Class 1 standards, the FAN7171 and FAN7190 are highly integrated devices that provide increased functionality, resulting in reduced component count and reduced bill of material costs, reduced board space and potentially faster design cycles.

Fairchild’s high voltage process and common-mode noise cancelling techniques provide stable operation of the high-side driver under dv/dt noise circumstances. An advanced level shift circuit offers high-side gate driver operation down to VS = -9.8V (typical) for VBS = 15V. An Under Voltage Lockout (UVLO) circuit prevents malfunction when VBS is lower than the specified threshold voltage.

Both devices are packaged in an 8-lead small outline package (SOP) and are RoHS-compliant.

The units are priced (in 1,000 quantity pieces) as follows: FAN7171 at US $1.28, and FAN7190 at $1.50.

More news and information regarding the latest developments in Smart Grid electronics can be found at Darnell’s SmartGridElectronics.Net.