Interactive datasheets put MOSFET behaviour analysis at engineers’ fingertips

By manipulating interactive sliders within the datasheets, users can manually adjust the voltage, current, temperature, and other conditions for their circuit application and watch how the operating point of a device dynamically responds to these changes.

These interactive datasheets effectively offer a type of graphical user interface to a circuit simulator, using Nexperia’s advanced electrothermal models to calculate the operating point of a device. In addition, they allow engineers to visualise immediately the interaction between parameters such as gate voltage, drain current, RDS(on), and temperature. Their collective contribution to the device behaviour is then displayed dynamically in tables or graphs. As a result, Nexperia’s interactive datasheets can significantly increase productivity by eliminating the time needed for an engineer to perform manual calculations or set up and debug a circuit simulation.

The datasheet is commonly the first port of call when a design engineer is looking to select a device for an application. However, while they contain a wealth of information, including the minimum, maximum, and typical specifications across dozens of device parameters, it is often difficult to determine how these are interrelated. Consequently, engineers must perform time-consuming manual calculations or set up a circuit simulator using models provided by the manufacturer (assuming these are available) to thoroughly investigate a device’s behaviour. Even then, many manufacturers’ simulation models do not show the effect of temperature changes on device behaviour. The new interactive datasheets from Nexperia support engineers by showing real-time interaction across different parameters as they are manually changed with the easy-to-use datasheet sliders.

Chris Boyce, Senior Director of Nexperia’s Power MOSFET business adds: “Whether you are a Design Engineer looking to see how a device will perform at elevated temperature, or a Component Engineer trying to compare devices under different test conditions, our new interactive datasheets are designed to make your life easier.”

The technology powering these datasheets is the same as that used in Nexperia’s hugely successful precision electrothermal MOSFET models, which demonstrate how the behaviour of discrete MOSFETs changes with temperature. The new interactive datasheets are offered in addition to the traditional static datasheets and operate in any standard web browser without the requirement of additional software for device simulation.

With the initial version currently under patent application, Nexperia will be reaching out to its global community of customer engineers to evaluate how interactive datasheets are used in real-time in order to broaden the functionality of future versions.

More than 200 interactive datasheets are already available, covering the devices in Nexperia’s latest generations of Automotive and Industrial Power MOSFETs. Over time, the company plans to make them available for its entire portfolio of discrete MOSFETs and other devices.

Try a live interactive datasheet in action at www.nexperia.com/interactive-datasheet