Micrel Debuts Integrated MOSFET Buck Regulators for High Power Density DC-DC Applications

Micrel (News - Alert), a specialist in analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, announced that it has launched its new SuperSwitcher II family of integrated MOSFET buck regulators for high power density DC-DC applications.

Micrel supplies IC solutions for analog, Ethernet and high bandwidth markets. It provides advanced mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high-performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs.

According to company sources this new MIC26xxx family includes six DC-DC buck regulators that leverage Micrel’s proprietary HyperSpeed Control and HyperLight Load architecture. The devices are most useful in distributed power systems, communications networking and infrastructure, and industrial applications.

In a release Brian Hedayati, marketing vice president for the analog division at Micrel said, “System designers need to implement power supplies that are as efficient and as small as possible.”

“Micrel’s proprietary HyperSpeed Control and HyperLight Load Control architectures used in SuperSwitcher II family allow designers to create minuscule power supplies optimized for efficiency at the most important power level for each design. The common footprint of Micrel's SuperSwitcher II family also enables maximum design re-use over a wide range of output currents,” Hedayati added.

Officials explained that the MIC26601/901/1201 and the MIC26603/903/1203 operate with an input supply voltage range from 4.5V to 28V, and deliver an output current of 6A, 9A and 12A respectively. Also the SuperSwitcher II family is Any Capacitor stable and does not depend on the output capacitance Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR). This eliminates power stability problem often witnessed by power designers owing to distributed output capacitance.

The SuperSwitcher II devices feature an onboard 5V regulator that enables single-supply operation, an enable pin for very low power shutdown, internal soft start, under-voltage lockout, and internal compensation, besides safety features like pre-bias safe startup, over temperature protection, fold-back current limit and short circuit protection.

Officials added that the MIC26601/901/1201 and the MIC26603/903/1203 buck regulators are available in a thermally enhanced lead-free 28-Lead 5mm x 6mm MLF package. This SuperSwitcher II family of buck regulators can drive DC-DC loads at 95 percent efficiency or more. They can operate at 600kHz switching frequency with ±1 percent output voltage accuracy with the output being adjustable down to 0.8V.

In other news, Micrel, Inc. recently announced that it has begun MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) manufacturing at its San Jose, California-based wafer and foundry operations.

The company has started production with a major MEMS manufacturer representing a significant percentage of the existing foundry capacity and is developing production MEMS processes for several other start ups. Micrel is one of the few 6-inch fabs in the United States offering MEMS manufacturing capability.