EL SEGUNDO, CA, January 24, 2000 - International Rectifier (IR^®), the power conversion experts, today gave the electronics industry its first look at a comprehensive roadmap for power-conversion components and packaging capabilities aimed at maintaining isolated and buck DC-DC converter efficiency at or above 90 percent at ever lower output voltages.

"Our new DC-DC roadmap is focused on providing the power conversion component and packaging technology to power advanced microprocessors at under 1 volt -- a key enabling factor for the next generation of servers, routers and desktop PCs," said Alex Lidow, CEO at IR. "With currents escalating as supply voltages drop, designers are increasingly challenged to implement efficient distributed power supplies at the heart of servers, routers, telecom equipment, and 1GHz PCs." At the same time, IR announced it had met another major milestone on its roadmap, offering new MOSFETs and control ICs that keep isolated DC-DC converters with 3.3V outputs operating at efficiencies of 90 percent or more. "Our latest effort -- MOSFETs and control ICs for DC-DC converters -- helps single-forward-topology brick manufacturers eliminate more than 25 percent of the losses in their 3.3V-output 200W product lines," Lidow noted. "And our roadmap gives them a clear view of 2.5V and 1.8V solutions from IR coming in the near future."

Lidow indicated that last year the IR DC-DC program produced advanced power MOSFETs with CopperStrap^TM packages to provide very efficient 1.3V buck converter solutions. More recently, the company has launched Dual FETKY^TM co-Paks that fully integrate the power devices for a low-power synchronous buck in a single SO-8 package. Using the Dual FETKY co-Pak, DC-DC designers can achieve the highest possible power density for converters, providing 5A or less at voltages from 1.3 to 5V.

"Our new IR DC-DC roadmap includes future sub-1V-output solutions for both buck and isolated topologies," Lidow said. "The real excitement comes later this spring with our vision for integrating a large part of a converter on a multi-chip-module (MCM), reducing component count and board space in converters by over 70 percent. Enabling new levels in power density, this integration will ultimately lead to breakthrough silicon and packaging solutions tailored for multi-phase and multi-stage DC-DC."

DC-DC designers can view the complete IR DC-DC roadmap and monitor its progress at a special IR Web site at http://dc2dc.irf.com. They can also order samples of the new devices directly from the site. Additionally they can take advantage of its DC-DC design center capabilities, which allow engineers to better evaluate DC-DC systems requirements and recommends application-tuned components from IR to boost efficiency.

IR Speeds Efficient Isolated DC-DC Converter Design with a New Synchronous Rectification IC (January 24, 2000)

IR Optimizes New HEXFET^® Power MOSFETs for Isolated DC-DC Converters to Cut Losses More Than 25% for 3.3V Output Bricks (January 24, 2000)

Contact the Technical Assistance Center or your local Sales Rep.