Silicon Semiconductor Corporation Announces New Power MOSFET Products with 200%-300% Performance Improvement

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA – April 22, 2003 - Silicon Semiconductor Corporation (“SSC” or the “Company”) announced the release of four 30V Power MOSFET products including two innovative MOSFETs with integral Schottky diodes (“JBSFETs^TM”).

These new devices comprise the first offering of SSC's family of 30V Power JBSFETs^TM and standard MOSFETs optimized for use in single or polyphase power supply circuits in microprocessor core DC-DC converter circuits.  The new synchronous low-side and control high-side power JBSFETs^TM provide industry-best performance for this application, with a 200%-300% improvement in RDS(ON)*QG, and  RDS(ON) *Qsw products. 

Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, company founder, Chief Technology Officer and renowned inventor of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (“IGBT”), stated, “The Company's significant intellectual property in PowerMOS technology combined with standard, mature manufacturing processes has enabled SSC to quickly and reliably produce these PowerMOS products using industry-standard equipment and practices throughout the process flow -- from front-end wafer foundry through assembly and test.” 

According to Timothy Maloney, the SSC Vice President responsible for the launch of the products, "the release of these initial products is illustrative of SSC's core product strategy to leverage the Company's strong intellectual property platform with standard process technology and standard packaging.  This approach enables designers to move quickly into prototypes thus benefiting immediately from the SSC technology advantages.  At the same time they limit their risk variables which are present when employing more expensive and complex technologies with only sole source availability,” 

Maloney went on to say, “the core value of our products is embedded in the innovative physics of the device design, which pushes the standard silicon boundaries past their perceived limits and enables this revolutionary leap forward in technology.  Having the ‘best-in-class’ product of RDS(ON)*QG, and RDS(ON) *QSW, coupled with the virtual elimination of the parasitic body diode, attacks all of the variables in the power loss equation – not just the standard I2*R conduction loss.  Since our JBSFETs^TM offer a monolithic Junction Barrier Schottky diode, which can handle 25A in parallel with the intrinsic body diode, the body diode is essentially clamped off resulting in negligible conduction and reverse recovery losses for the body diode.”

The exceptionally low CRSS/ CISS ratio of 0.01 or lower, as well as the low gate resistance values ranging from 0.5 Ω to 1.0 Ω, enhances the SSC products’ CdV/dt immunity and eliminates "shoot-through" situations in which the high and low-side MOSFETs both are on simultaneously, creating a short from the input voltage to ground.  This shoot-through protection enables designers to cut component costs by incorporating less-expensive MOSFET drivers into product designs while maintaining reliability. 

"The release of these initial products is illustrative of SSC's core product strategy to leverage the Company's strong intellectual property platform with standard process technology and standard packaging.  This approach enables designers to move quickly into prototypes thus benefiting immediately from the SSC technology advantages.  At the same time they limit their risk variables which are present when employing more expensive and complex technologies with only sole source availability,” said Maloney. 

Maloney also stated that feedback from the company’s initial customers is very positive.  “Third party prototype test results on a single phase sync buck controller at 20A have shown five percentage points in improved efficiency even when compared in side by side tests with ‘industry best’ parts in more expensive, thermally enhanced packages.” 

The new SSCJ3003S is optimized for low-side synchronous rectifier operation, by not only reducing standard conduction losses, but, by virtually eliminating body diode conduction and reverse recovery losses.    The lower associated QG of the SSCJ3003S also reduces the gate charge dissipated power by 75% over the best in class MOSFETs available today. 

With its low RDS(ON) of 5 mΩ and typical gate charge of 17 nC, the SSCJ3003S is designed for sync buck converters with 200kHz to 2MHz applications where a 4.5V gate drive is used.  Even using a 10V gate drive, the SSCJ3003S has a 200%-300% lower QG (35nC) when compared to most competitor’s gate charge which are in the range of 75nC - 125nC.   This dramatic reduction in gate charge allows designers to utilize lower cost/performance drivers without the penalty of slower PWM switching frequency or increased gate charge losses. 

The SSCJ3004S is designed for high-side operation.  With an on-resistance rating of 7mΩ at a 4.5-V gate drive, the fast-switching SSCJ3004S minimizes switching losses and produces higher efficiency control.  The device features a turn-on delay time of just 6.8 ns and a very low typical gate charge value of 11.5nC:  300% better than competitive devices capable of handling a 10A to 25A output current.

The SSC family of products is currently available for sampling in standard SO-8 and Amkor’s ePad S0-8.  Please visit our web site –http://www.siliconsemi.com - for additional details about packages and sample availability. 

Silicon Semiconductor Corporation was founded in June 2000 by Dr. B. Jayant Baliga as a fabless, semiconductor company focused on providing customers with high performance power infrastructure products for power management and RF applications.  SSC was recognized “Spin-off of the Year” in 2002 by the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CEDNC). 

Dr. Baliga is an internationally renowned scientist, author of 10 books and over 550 publications and an established educator in the field of power semiconductor devices.  Among his inventions, the most widely commercialized device is the IGBT – which accounts for approximately $700 million in worldwide sales annually.   In their 1997 special issue commemorating the Solid-State Century, Scientific American Magazine named Dr. Baliga one of the “eight heroes of the semiconductor revolution” along with such other notable scientists and inventors such as Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Jack Kilby.