Miniature MOSFET gate driver family for portable applications

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has added five new MOSFET gate-driver ICs in the TCK42xG series, ideal for a broad range of battery-powered, consumer and industrial equipment applications. The devices in this series control the applied gate voltage separate from the input voltage and offer an over-voltage lock-out function to protect the circuit.

These new products join the TCK421G, released earlier this year. Products in the series can be chosen for a gate-source voltage of 10V or 5.6V, permitting use with a broad variety of MOSFETs. A selection of detection voltages for the input over-voltage lock-out allows them to function from power lines from 5V to 24V. The drivers available are the TCK420G for 24V power lines, TCK422G and TCK423G for 12V, TCK424G for 9V, and TCK425G for 5V.

Each new driver in the series provides a built-in charge pump that offers a stable gate-source voltage at the external MOSFET, while the input can range from 2.7V to 28V. This enables large currents to be switched. Also, when utilised to control two N-channel MOSFETs connected back-to-back, they are appropriate for configuring load-switch or power-multiplexer circuits with reverse-current blocking.

Housed in a 1.2mm x 0.8mm WCSP6G package, one of the smallest in the industry, the gate drivers offer a tiny footprint that enables high-density mounting in space-constrained portable products. They also offer a low input OFF current, IQ (OFF), of 0.5μA (maximum, at VIN=5V) that assists in prolonging battery runtime.

To further assist customers’ projects, the company has developed the Power Multiplexer Circuit Reference Design, which offers a design example for power multiplexers that use series functions.