| Abstract |
Several active and passive devices can be obtained from a standard power FET process that allow simple circuits to be designed that provide protection for the basic power device. The circuits that can be integrated are very simple but only require: 1) a small increase in the area to the basic power FET and 2) the addition of only one masking layer to the process. Therefore the cost impact of these circuits is only a small fraction of the total cost of the power switching device. However, the functions that can be obtained provide significant improvement in ruggedness, reliability, protection and system cost reduction. Since many of these functions are associated with smart power IC's and they can now be obtained at reduced cost, they provide designers a cost-effective alternative especially for applications requiring low on-resistance or high current. This paper will discuss temperature sensing, current sensing, gate-to-source and drain-to-gate voltage clamping that can be designed into power FETs and IGBTs as well as the performance and applications of products that incorporate these features. |
