Controller chip

Diodes has announced an active ORing controller chip enabling shared power system designers to replace heat-dissipating blocking diodes with high-efficiency MOSFETs.

In uptime-critical telecom, server and mainframe applications, the ZXGD3102 will ensure cooling running, lower maintenance and higher reliability.

The heat dissipated by the Schottky blocking diodes used to protect a load from faulty power supplies is high, relating directly to its 0.5 V forward voltage drop.

Replacing the diodes with low on-resistance MOSFETs, with typical forward voltages of under 100 mV, means power dissipation is greatly reduced. The device is purpose designed to control MOSFETs in high-reliability N+1 redundant power systems.

Sinking a peak turn-off current of 5 A, the controller’s gate drive can achieve a typical MOSFET turn-off time of 160 ns, ensuring the rapid load protection that is needed to avoid any variation in bus voltage if there is a power supply failure and hot-swapping.

To meet the fault-handling requirements, turn-on time can be adjusted to enable a smooth hand over between supplies. The input voltage blocking capability is 180 V.