EL SEGUNDO, CA. June 2000 - International Rectifier (IR®), the power conversion experts, significantly enhanced its industry-leading family of HEXFET® power MOSFETs for offline switch-mode power supply (SMPS) applications.

Combining a new mass manufacturable process platform with an application-specific approach to development, IR's latest products offer outstanding performance for zero-voltage switching (ZVS) and hard-switching (HS) converters.

These new devices couple silicon design with AC/DC power supply design to solve critical in-circuit performance problems and enable better efficiency.

The new ZVS and HS devices continue to demonstrate IR's commitment to being the leader in designing components specifically for SMPS applications.

According to Carl Blake, technical marketing manager for SMPS products, "IR has developed a new generation of advanced planar silicon that reduces RDS(on) by about 60% over industry standards."

Blake adds, "IR's technology is based upon a proven planar platform with minimal processing steps, allowing for fast manufacturing cycle times, which is very important in this time of constrained manufacturing capacity."

"Extensive R&D efforts helped us understand all switching characteristics in SMPS designs. IR's new line of HEXFET® power MOSFETs are designed specifically for ZVS and HS circuit topologies. We feel that it is necessary to design power devices for specific applications so that selected performance parameters can be optimized to achieve system design targets," Blake continues.

For example, in the very demanding telecom/server market, power density and power dissipation are the main design factors. In these applications, ZVS and HS circuit topologies are used. Rather than attempting to force a designer into using a single product for either topology, IR's product platform provides the designer with a wide choice of devices - one optimized for HS circuits and the other designed specifically for ZVS designs.

The tables below show some advantages of the new IR application-specific devices in HS and ZVS topologies:
Hard-Switched Topology:

Zero Voltage Switched Topology:

According to Blake, "With IR's level of device optimization, range of process technologies, and knowledge of SMPS design, we can offer optimum power devices to best match system performance, and achieve the lowest system cost."

The new ZVS- and HS-specific MOSFETs fit within three distinct product performance tiers - benchmark, high performance and industry-standard. The table below shows the main specifications for the new ZVS- and HS-specific devices.

Blake points out, "In addition to the ZVS and HS MOSFETs being introduced now, complementary power components such as PFC and Schottky diodes will be developed in the next few months. These upcoming products will also be designed using the same 'total power systems solution' approach, thus continuing IR's commitment to being the leader in designing power devices specifically for SMPS applications."

Pricing for IR's new High Performance MOSFETs for HS bridge AC/DC applications begins at $1.67 each in quantities of 10,000. The devices can be sampled now by contacting normal IR sales channels. Volume production is scheduled for July, 2000.