EL SEGUNDO, CA. May 1997 - International Rectifier, acknowledged in the semiconductor industry as the power experts, is 50 years young this year. The company was founded on August 7, 1947, by Eric and Leon Lidow to take advantage of advanced processes they developed for manufacturing selenium rectifiers, and so predates the development of the transistor by more than four months. In fact, IR is the oldest independent semiconductor company in continuous operation.

IR's 50 years of success reads like the history of the electronics industry. The company pioneered the development of increasingly capable commercial semiconductor processes and devices based at first on selenium, then germanium in the early 1950's and by mid-decade silicon. In each area, IR was quickly acknowledged as a leader in the industry, producing devices with higher and higher power ratings and superior reliability characteristics. IR's subsequent legacy of power semiconductor technology firsts also include:

• the first to introduce the first commercial Zener diodes and solar cells in 1958.
• development of the first epitaxial process in 1962 for producing the industry's most stable high voltage SCRs
• development of the first practical solar-powered electric car in 1964
• one of the first suppliers of high-reliability devices for space applications
• the introduction of the first power transistors and Darlingtons to use glass passivation in 1974
• the first hexagonal-celled power MOSFET, trademarked HEXFET, in 1979
• the introduction of one of the world's first intelligent power Ics called the ChipSwitch in 1983
• first patents issued for power MOSFETs and IGBT products in 1983
• first patents issued for power MOSFETs and IGBT products in 1983
• The introduction of the world's first high voltage power IC in 1983
• the world's first SmarFET
• the world's first four mask MOSFET manufacturing process and the resulting generation 5 HEXFET power MOSFETs in 1996

Of particular importance, the development of the HEXFET power MOSFET by International Rectifier brought the manufacturing efficiencies of Large Scale Integration into the power semiconductor world, much as the development of the integrated circuit gave rise to the LSI world of the microprocessor. IR has licensed this technology to all comers in the power semiconductor business and the HEXFET remains the heart of today's ever more capable power conversion devices.

"Over the past five decades, International Rectifier has met many challenges, " said Derek Lidow, today's CEO at IR and a son of founder Eric. "The first 40 years or so, we concentrated on achieving ever higher performance capabilities for our products that address all aspects of the power conversion process from input rectification to control to switching to output rectification and distribution. While this is still important, we have increasingly been focused in the last decade on improving the efficiency of power semiconductors in their various application. We expect power conversion efficiency to become an even more critical issue in the future, as governments grapple with the challenges of balancing growth in power generation with environmental quality throughout the world."

"Improvements in mechanical packaging technology will become increasingly important in reaching higher levels of power conversion efficiency," he continued. "In many areas, the efficiency of the power semiconductor material itself is approaching its physical limits. For example, last year we introduced a microelectronics relay that featured lower on-resistance than reed relays, electromechanical components that have long been recognized as the most efficient switching devices. Further improvements in the MER area will involve improving the packages that they are offered in, thereby reducing the parasitic impedance of the devices when they are interconnected in circuits with other components. This reduction in parasitics will continue our drive toward more efficient power conversion."

"Another challenge just emerging among our customers is a critical shortage of engineers with power conversion semiconductor expertise," Lidow indicated. "It seems that virtually the entire college and university system worldwide has become focused on the digital arena, and are not providing the trained engineering professionals we need for power conversion design. For example, only two universities in the U.S. currently offer degreed programs in power engineering. So at IR, we have had to begin training incoming engineers in power technologies, in effect home-growing our own technical staff."

"Since many customers face this same power engineering talent shortage, we are now focusing an ever increasing portion of our resources on providing complete power conversion solutions, rather than just component solutions. We call these complete solution POWIRTRAIN, and have already introduced several for markets like motors and switching power supplies. We expect this commitment to power solutions to continue to grow and become key to our overall future success in the power conversion marketplace," Lidow added.