powerZONE Products for the week of April 7, 2003

Advanced Power Technology Says . . .
APT30S20C/15S20G: 200-V Hermetic Schottkys Improve Efficiency Of 48-V Rails

Advanced Power Technology was pleased to announce its new product line of 200 volt rugged Schottky Diodes built in hermetic packages. APT's Schottky Diodes offer several dramatic improvements over existing Epitaxial Diodes (FREDs), including:

• Lower forward voltage drop (VF) to minimize conduction losses enabling higher power conversion efficiencies
• Softer reverse recovery characteristics, resulting in reduced EMI
• Avalanche energy rated for improved reliability
• Built in hermetic TO-257 and TO-254 packages for Hi-Rel applications or harsh environments where added protection is required
• Military screening available

Power supply designers can now use APT's new Schottky Diodes to increase the efficiency of their designs. Designs with APT's Schottky Diodes will have 10-15% lower losses then FRED's with the same voltage ratings. These cost effective Schottky Diodes can replace FRED's as output rectifiers in high power 48 Volt DC-DC converters and as free wheeling and anti-parallel diodes in low voltage converters.

analogZONE Says...

These parts are most likely to be seen in -48-V supplies when they will be used as the rectifiers and where they will exhibit lower losses than epitaxial diodes and, therefore, yield higher efficiencies. No switching noise characteristics are quoted for the parts but, by definition, they should also be considerably better than epitaxial parts.

For the APT30S20S the maximum forward voltage, at 30 A forward current, is 0.80 V typical while the maximum reverse leakage current at the 200 V rated voltage is just 0.15 mA maximum. Junction capacitance is a typical 143 pF and the series lead inductance (with a standard definition) is a typical 10 nH.

Not all the data sheet numbers are in yet for the dynamic performance but the recovery times look they are going to be exceptional.

With the high blocking voltage, the low leakage and the low forward currents I would expect to see the parts find ready acceptance in -48 V supplies and to be used as snubber diode, parallel diode in inverters and SMPSs, and other high-speed rectifier solutions.

The parts are sampling now with the 15-A APT15S20G in a TO-257 and the 30-A APT30S20C in a TO-254. Pricing starts at $47.55 and $61.23, respectively in 500-piece lots. Military screening is available.

Data Sheet (APT30S20C)

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