TI Provides Complete MOSFET SOA Protection with Hot Swap Controllers
1/6/2004 - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) announced the industry´s first hot swap power managers featuring programmable power and current limit functions for positive 9-V to 80-V systems. Simplifying high voltage system design, the new 10-pin, 3 mm x 5 mm controllers take advantage of TI´s new 0.7-µm silicon-on-insulator analog process to ensure complete MOSFET safe operating area (SOA) protection.
The TPS2490 and TPS2491 hot swap managers are ideally suited to support and protect emerging positive high voltage distributed power systems, such as 12-V, 24-V and 48-V server backplanes, storage area networks, medical systems, plug-in modules and wireless base stations.
"One of the major concerns for power designers of positive high-voltage power systems is maximizing voltage operation while achieving low channel resistance," said Rich Valley, vice president of TI's system power management business. "These new flexible hot swap devices give designers peace of mind by following the power curve and guaranteeing the FET is safe, no matter how harsh the operating conditions."
Unique Power Limiting Feature Reduces Risk
The TPS2490 and TPS2491 devices´ programmable power limiting feature helps make certain the external FET never operates outside its SOA in applied voltage, current and time. During normal operation, the external FET works with the gate-to-source voltage maximized to provide the lowest possible channel resistance. During start-up and short-circuit events, the gate-to-source voltage is modulated to provide a defined turn-on time and to prevent damage to the external FET.
A timer function limits how long the device will be in power-limit mode. The power-limit circuitry, which monitors the drain current and drain-to-source voltage of the external FET, computes the power dissipation and controls the gate-to-source voltage to prevent the FET from dissipating power greater than the user-programmed level. When the drain-to-source voltage of the external FET is low, the circuitry operates in a current-limit mode, preventing the drain current from surpassing the user-programmed level.
LBC-SOI Analog Process for High-Voltage Capability
TI´s new 0.7-µm LBC-SOI thick copper process focuses state-of-the-art manufacturing technology on the future needs of high voltage power systems and high performance analog. The 110-V analog process significantly eases the design process through advanced trench isolation techniques. The LBC-SOI process allows TI to achieve several competitive advantages, including higher packing density, smaller parasitic capacitances, inherent latch-up immunity and the ability to eliminate substrate currents.
Key Features Include:
- Programmable Power Limiting and Current Limiting
- Wide Operating Range: +9-V to +80-V (100-V maximum)
- High-side Drive for Low-RDS(on) External N-Channel MOSFET
- Latched Operation (TPS2490) and Automatic Retry (TPS2491)
- Fast Current Limit to Protect Input Distribution During Output Short
- Programmable Fault Timer to Eliminate Nuisance Shutdowns
- Power Good Open-Drain Output that Provides Downstream DC/DC Coordination
- Highly Accurate (+/- 10 Percent)
- Programmable Undervoltage Lockout/Logic Enable to Allow Source Low Voltage Shutdown or System Level Logic Control
Available Today
The TPS2490 and TPS2491 are shipping in volume today in lead-free, 10-pin MSOP, and are priced at $1.70 per 1,000 units. Evaluation modules of the TPS2490 can be obtained in less than 24 hours through power.ti.com.
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