Infineon enables next generation of power distribution architectures
Infineon Technologies AG supports the trend towards decentralized, intelligent and cost effective vehicle power net architectures. Infineon has now launched Power PROFET, a new ultra-low ohmic smart high-side switch family. They enable the replacement of electromechanical relays and fuses in power distribution and junction boxes up to 40A DC.
Today, the vehicle's power architecture is strongly restricted by the intrinsic limitations of relays and fuses. They are too bulky, often in need of replacement and some of their functionalities are rather limited. Their switching cycle capability, for example, is only about 200,000. Power PROFET switches address these issues. They offer more than 1,000,000 switching cycles. Also, they replace within one single device many components from the existing system, such as relays, fuses, relay drivers, cables and connectors. This allows new mounting locations and, therefore, enables the next generation of decentralized power architectures.
"The new generations of smarter power distribution architectures will greatly benefit from the high reliability, small form factor and diagnosis capability of our new Power PROFET," said Andreas Doll, Vice President and & General Manager, Body Power Automotive at Infineon. "With the release of the ultra-low ohmic Power PROFET family we further expand our broad portfolio of high-side switches available to our customers."
The Power PROFET switches feature on-resistances down to 1.0mΩ and are specially designed to drive high-current applications. These comprise power feeds of electronic control units (ECUs), auxiliary power outlets, PTC heaters or rear window heaters. The switches are also well-suited for applications with high switching cycles and high energy requirements such as starter relays in "start-stop" systems and electric brake vacuum pumps. Power PROFET switches improve vehicle system reliability. They offer integrated protection functions and diagnostics functionality including, for example, short circuit protection and over-temperature protection.
POwer PROFET switches increase energy efficiency as power losses are reduced by a factor of up to 7. They feature less than 2W dissipation while conducting 30A DC. Further power management is supported through integrated current sensing and pulse-width modulation capability. In addition, Power PROFET switches offer a benchmark energy handling capability of up to 3,000mJ for single pulses and 550mJ for repetitive pulses. For most applications, this eliminates the need for a free-wheeling current recirculation path and thus reduces the system cost.
The switches provide an outstanding protection performance of more than 1,000,000 short-circuit cycles, achieving Grade A according to AEC-Q100. In case of a single over-current event, a re-start strategy can be implemented via a software reset. There is no need to access or replace a part any longer. At the system level, Power PROFET switches enable a more accurate system sizing. Also, they simplify significantly the wire harness architecture by reducing the lengths of many wires or removing them completely. Representatives of the car industry expect a higher single-digit euro system cost saving in the power distribution system including the wire harness. The cost saving is based on the effective implementation of Power PROFET and on simplified vehicle production processes.
