Next-gen switches enable the replacement of electromechanical relays

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 and bring multiple benefits. 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 decentralised power architectures.

Vice President and General Manager, Body Power Automotive at Infineon, Andreas Doll said: “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.”

Doll added: “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 is 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.