On April 13, 2015, Micrel Korea (CEO Young-Jun Oh, www.micrel.com) announced the MIC4520/MIC4521, a family of IntelliMOS™ power stage products that provide up to 20A of output in a compact 4mm x 6mm TQFN package. The MIC4521 is a two-phase power stage (including a MOSFET driver and power MOSFET) featuring integrated current and temperature sensing capabilities and can interface with a single-phase controller (Micrel's MIC2111) to enable the realization of complete high-current and high-performance power converters. The MIC4520 is a single-phase power stage device that can be driven by either single-phase or multi-phase controllers. These power stages can be used in various Point of Load (PoL) applications for markets such as networking, servers, storage, base stations, and graphics cards. The MIC4520/MIC4521 devices are available for bulk supply, priced at $2.34 and $2.57 respectively for 1,000 units. Samples can be ordered online. (http://www.samplecomponents.com/scripts/samplecenter.dll?micrel)

The MIC4520/MIC4521 achieved high efficiency (peak efficiency of over 90%) by utilizing Micrel's high-performance FETZilla™ DMOS technology. Micrel's IntelliMOS power MOSFET is optimized for low gate capacitance to minimize switching losses through high-speed switching performance (up to 1.2 MHz) and can also reduce conduction losses with low on-resistance.

Brian Hedayati, Vice President of Marketing for Micrel’s High Performance Linear and Power Solutions, stated, “As board space and heat dissipation issues emerge as major challenges in cloud computing systems, designers require high-efficiency and compact DC/DC solutions. Micrel’s IntelliMOS power stage solutions can address these issues, enabling designers to reduce solution size by operating at higher switching frequencies while maintaining very high efficiency.” He added, “When used with Micrel’s MIC21000 digital controller, Micrel’s IntelliMOS solutions also provide accurate monitoring and protection capabilities. Consequently, designers can implement a complete PoL solution featuring full monitoring, dynamic output voltage scaling, and fault protection.”

The MIC4521 provides superior intelligence capabilities and telemetry compared to conventional DrMOS power stages. The MIC4521's integrated current and temperature sensing capabilities enable power system designers to accurately measure and monitor the status of each power converter to improve system stability. Both the MIC4520 and MIC4521 utilize Micrel's unique bidirectional fault communication protocol to protect the system from faults.

The MIC4520/MIC4521 operates in an input voltage range of 7V to 16V. This device can be set to a continuous or discontinuous conduction operating state and supports a diode emulation mode to improve light load efficiency.