This month’s product focus highlights several products in the components family—supporting actors and directors in the controlled flow of electrons in circuits—challenging quality, durability, and size limitation frontiers in the industry today. Included in December offerings are power inductors, switches, capacitors, thyristors, and BGA sockets.
The SJ Series of SCR (silicon-controlled rectifier) thyristors is touted by Littelfuse to withstand a high junction temperature of 150°C. Koichiro Yoshimoto, business development manager, Semiconductor Business Unit, at Littelfuse, explains, “The combination of a higher junction temperature and excellent surge-handling capability will allow designers to replace existing SCR thyristors in larger TO-220AB and TO-263 packages, and allow others to design smaller products.”
New switches by Pasternack operate over an ultrabroadband frequency range with fast switching performance, according to the company. Tim Galla, product manager at Pasternack, notes, “Pasternack’s new line of millimeter-wave SPST and SPDT PIN diode waveguide switches offer exceptional broadband performance, fully integrated WR10 and WR12 waveguide ports, and innovative TTL driver circuitry.”
HS200—a DC/DC power IC that converts 48 V to low voltages—is touted by Helix Semiconductors to offer greater than 97% efficiency at 2.6 W and greater than 90% efficiency at 15 W. According to Harold A. Blomquist, president and CEO of the company, “Our goal is to continue to push the envelope to bring true “zero power” to any device that uses a power supply.”
The XTL7030 Series features side-metal terminations for automated optical inspection (AOI) of the component during the solder reflow process. It offers inductance values from 10 to 47 µH. It also provides current handling (up to 5.3 A) and low AC + DC power losses. The XTL7030 inductors measure 7.1 mm square, with a maximum height of 3.2 mm. They are also qualified to AEC-Q200 Grade 1 standards (-40° to +125°C ambient), making them suitable for automotive and other harsh-environment applications. They measure 8.5 mm square, with terminals that elevate the inductor body 1.5 mm from the printed circuit board surface. The unique off-the-board construction allows standard power management IC packages (for example, QFN/VQFN) to be mounted beneath the inductor in a 3-D packaging arrangement. The XAR7030 is available with inductance values ranging from 0.16 to 10 µH. It also offers low DCR—as low as 1.26 mΩ. It features RoHS-compliant matte tin over nickel over phosphor bronze terminations and is also halogen free. The composite construction of both products results in soft saturation characteristics, allowing them to withstand high current spikes. Coilcraft
The 4-mm2 reed relay, switching up to 1 A, 20 W, is the latest offering in the Series 120 relays from this vendor. The Series 120 is a range of single pole (1 Form A) reed relays that require a board area of only 4 mm x 4 mm, making it the highest packing density currently available, according to the vendor.
Two switch types are available: a general-purpose sputtered ruthenium switch rated for up to 20 W, 1 A, and a low-level sputtered ruthenium switch rated at 10 W, 0.5 A. The device has pins on a 2-mm square pitch. There are suitable connectors available from some manufacturers, both SMD and through-hole, which will allow these relays to be stacked in either a row or in a matrix on a 4-mm pitch.
The relays feature an internal mu-metal magnetic screen. Mu-metal has the advantage of a high permeability and low magnetic remanence and eliminates problems that would otherwise occur due to magnetic interaction. Relays of this small size without magnetic screening would be unsuitable for applications where dense packing is required, the company said. Pickering Electronics
The vendor of the SJ Series of thyristors (SCRs) calls them the first circuit-protection devices of their kind to offer a junction temperature of 150°C in compact surface-mount D-PAK (TO-252) packaging. These devices are also available in through-hole V-PAK (TO-251) packages. Standard SJ Series thyristors have a low gate current trigger level of 6 mA or 15 mA maximum at approximately 1.5 V. Sensitive models in the series feature a gate trigger current of less than 200 μA. These sensitive gate devices can be easily triggered by sense coils, proximity switches, and microprocessors. Compact D-PAK and V-PAK packages enable smaller board designs by making it possible to replace larger TO-220AB and TO-263 packages. Applications for SJ Series thyristors include capacitive discharge ignition (CDI) systems for motorcycle engines, portable generator engine ignition, strobe lights, and nailers as well as generic rectifiers, battery voltage regulators, converters, and inrush current-limiting circuits in AC/DC converters. They are also suitable for use in controls for power tools, home/brown goods (such as consumer electronics like televisions, radios, digital media players, and computers) and white goods/appliances. Littelfuse Inc.
Small coupled power choke
WE-DPC HV (Double Power Choke High Voltage) is a magnetically shielded, SMD coupled power choke with two identical windings and a high isolation voltage of 1.5 kV. It is the smallest product of its type in the vendor’s portfolio. With this power choke in a 5030 package, customers can attain a 40% lower DC resistance than offered by other products on the market, the company says. The vendor considers the WE-DPC HV to be suitable for SEPIC, flyback, Cuk, zeta, and multi-output-buck converters application. It can be used as a power choke in series and parallel connection. WE-DPC HV offers functional isolation for 250-VRMS rated voltage. Würth Elektronik eiSos
Synchronous step-down silent switcher
The LT8650S, a dual 4-A, 42-V input synchronous step-down switching regulator, uses the vendor’s Silent Switcher 2 architecture—including four internal input capacitors as well as two internal BST and a single INTVcc capacitor—to minimize the area of the hot loops. Combined with well-controlled switching edges and an internal construction using copper pillars in lieu of bond wires and an integral ground plane, the LT8650S reduces EMI emissions. This improved EMI performance is not sensitive to PCB layout, simplifying design and reducing risk even when using 2-layer PC boards. The LT8650S can pass the automotive CISPR 25, Class 5 peak EMI limits with a 2-MHz switching frequency over its entire load range. Its synchronous rectification delivers efficiency as high as 94.6% with a switching frequency of 2 MHz. Its 3.0-V to 42-V input voltage range is suitable for automotive and industrial applications. The product’s burst mode operation ensures only 602 µA of quiescent current (for both channels), suited for applications such as automotive always-on systems, which require extended operating battery life. For the lowest noise operation, it can be programmed to run in forced continuous mode over the entire load range with spread spectrum frequency modulation. Its spreading frequency is programmable and synchronizable from 300 kHz to 3 MHz. Analog Devices Inc.
The CBT-BGA-6071 BGA socket addresses high-performance requirements for microcontroller units. The contactor is a stamped spring pin with 31-g actuation force per ball and cycle life of 125,000 insertions. The self-inductance of the contactor is 0.88 nH, insertion loss is < 1 dB at 15.7 GHz, and contact resistance is < 30 mΩ. The current capacity of each contactor is 4 A at 60°C temperature rise. Socket temperature range is -50°C to +180°C. The socket also features a floating guide for precise ball to pin alignment. The configuration of the package to be tested in the CBT-BGA-6071 is a 17×17-mm, 0.8 mm pitch, 293-position, 20×20 ball array. The socket is mounted using supplied hardware on the target PCB with no soldering. Five stiffener plates support the back side of the PCB, and passive components can be placed between the posts. The socket utilizes a clamshell lid with integrated mechanism. Ironwood Electronics
Designed for automotive and other high-temperature applications, the FH65 Series compact flexible printed circuit (FPC)/flat flexible connector (FFC) is resistant to temperatures from -40 to 125°C. Featuring a pitch of 0.50 mm, a height of 1.20 mm, and depth of 3.57 mm, the FH65 Series reduces the occupied mounting area by 47% (on average) with a weight reduction of 62% (on average) compared with previous technologies, the vendor said.
The actuator is positioned so that solder tabs and terminals firmly retain the actuator, suitable for high-vibration applications. The space-saving I-shaped solder tabs not only allow visual inspection, but also offer a high-retention force of 23 N. With a wide 120° FPC/FFC opening and guided positioning, the FH65 Series is easy to use.
The FH65 Series connector is suited for a range of automotive applications including camera, millimeter-wave radar, and heads-up display systems. The FH65 Series is currently available in a 34-position version. It meets halogen-free requirements and is RoHS-compliant. The FH65 Series has a rated current of 0.5 A, a rated voltage of 50 V AC/DC, and a contact resistance of 50 mΩ. Hirose
This line of E- and W-band PIN-diode waveguide SPST and DPDT switches are reflective designs that operate over an ultrabroadband frequency range with fast switching performance. They are suitable for telecommunications, test instrumentation, research and development, and radar front-end applications that may involve general switching, receiver protection, pulse modulation, or antenna beam switching. The PIN-diode waveguide switches consist of four models with fully integrated WR10 and WR12 waveguide ports covering E-band (60- to 90-GHz) and W-band (75- to 110-GHz) frequencies. The switch circuits integrate low-loss fin-line assemblies with high-performance GaAs beam-lead diodes—resulting in 4-dB typical insertion loss, greater than 25 dB of isolation, and switching times less than 300 ns. These waveguide PIN diode switches incorporate TTL driver circuitry with an SMA connector control port. All models require a dual voltage bias of ±5 VDC and have a maximum rated CW input power level of 0.5 dBm. Rugged MIL-grade compact package configurations combine both switch and control-module packages and offer maximum performance and reliability over a temperature range of -55°C to +85°C. Pasternack
The HS200—a DC/DC power IC that converts 48 V to low voltages—offers greater than 97% efficiency at 2.6 W and greater than 90% efficiency at 15 W. The vendor says that the HS200 features a unique three-stage process, each of which divides its input in half. Power can be pulled from any of its three outputs simultaneously up to 15 W.
Target applications for the HS200 include Power over Ethernet products such as wireless access points, security cameras, IoT gateways, and VoIP phones—as well as 48-V input telecom and datacenter blades and electric and hybrid vehicles. The HS200 also targets products with 24-V inputs, such as HVAC systems and industrial controllers. The device is flexible and can perform voltage conversions on input voltage ranging from 12 V to 48 V with output voltage as low as 1.5 V.
HS200 evaluation boards are offered in three configurations: single 12-V output, triple 24-V/12-V/6-V outputs, and a regulated 5-V output. Each evaluation board is self-contained and ready for use. Wiring diagrams, schematics, BOM, and Gerber files are provided. Helix Semiconductors