ABSTRACT
Smart power technologies, integrating high-voltage CMOS transistors with standard low-voltage CMOS cores, are finding an increasing use in the area of automotive applications, switching power supplies and amplifiers, and devices operating in industrial environments where the supply voltage busses are in the 12 V to 50 V range. The two main figures of merit of power devices are their on resistance and breakdown voltage. Solid-state power devices are capable of handling a wide range of currents and voltages. Although solid-state power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors utilize semiconductor processing techniques that are comparable to those of conventional very-large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits, voltage and current levels are much different from the design used in VLSI devices. A high blocking voltage in the off state and a high current capacity in the on state are the two important characteristics associated with power devices and usually exceed the limitations of modern conventional transistors to perform as a high-power switch.
