EL SEGUNDO, CA. April 2000 - International Rectifier (IR^®), the power experts, now offer synchronous buck designers the industry's first component solution to demonstrate high efficiency at 1V output voltage. As Internet appliances continue to demand dramatic increases in bandwidth capability, on-board performance and power conservation requirements become even more demanding, thus driving operating voltages down to 1V. This poses a major challenge for the DC-DC converter. IR's solution, designated the IRF7901D1, integrates a high-side control FET, a low-side synchronous FET and parallel Schottky diodes in a single SO-8 package. This new 30V N-channel Dual FETKY^TM achieves up to 87 percent efficiency for applications demanding up to 5A peak at 1V output. This power density is unattainable with any other solution.

"The new IRF7901D1 Dual FETKY^TM essentially 'componentizes' a 1V Buck DC-DC converter, providing lower component count and reduced footprint for best-in-class power density, while achieving benchmark operating efficiency," said Carl Smith, product marketing engineer for the Processor Power Group at IR. "These benefits are increasingly important in advanced portable systems such as Internet appliances, PDAs, cell phones, and sub-notebook PCs, where improved power density is everything at ever decreasing operating voltages."

By internally connecting all power components, IR's new IRF7901D1 Dual FETKY^TM significantly reduces the stray inductance that would occur in a discrete solution board layout. The Dual FETKY^TM also offers source and gate pins, reducing control loop inductance for improved gate drive.

The IRF7901D1 Dual FETKY^TM is an extension of IR's successful FETKY^TM product line optimized for synchronous buck DC-DC converters with a switching frequency of up to 300kHz. The devices are available in industry standard SO-8 surface mount packages, priced at $0.65 in 100k quantities. Samples are available from the DC2DC.irf.com Web site, with production commencing in Fall, 2000. A complete design kit is also available direct from IR (IRNBPS2), allowing engineers to compare discrete and Dual FETKY^TM solutions on the same board for multiple output voltages.