John Bende, vice president of low-power products at Fairchild Semiconductor, believes: "Surface mount MOSFETs are replacing similar products in the past, allowing end product manufacturers to gain the ability to continuously innovate." He gave an example that new MOSFETs can enable portable devices with limited space. The device reduces the overall size and can provide the best thermal and electrical performance required for power conversion, charging and load management for various low-voltage (<20V) portable electronic products. It is especially suitable for applications in mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. , medical equipment and other intelligent, miniaturized portable devices. It also meets environmental requirements such as RoHS standards required in global electronic product applications.
Aiming at different application fields, multiple suppliers provide various types of high-performance MOSFETs, entering a stage of innovation. Bende believes: "The innovation of MOSFET comes from the emergence of Subcon manufacturers that provide technology." Just as power IC companies in the 1990s tended to "fabless", some emerging discrete device suppliers are entering the market. In the process, silicon wafer manufacturing and packaging are outsourced to reduce the pressure on silicon wafer manufacturing and packaging in order to gain cost advantages in market competition. Currently, many MOSFET suppliers using the "fables model" have taken advantage of this cost advantage to gain a larger market share.
However, John Bende further pointed out: "Now, the question faced by MOSFET suppliers adopting the 'fables model' is whether they can effectively compete with the manufacturers owning factories in the long term like power IC companies using the 'fables model'" MOSFET suppliers are competing. "The reason for this concern is that power IC suppliers are very different from MOSFET suppliers. Today, there are many "fabless model" power IC companies that outperform IC companies with fabs because these "fabless model" IC suppliers are able to apply knowledge and convert the knowledge into products, and these products in turn apply in customers’ next-generation products. The success of power IC suppliers not only relies on advanced IC process technology with the smallest geometric size to realize system solutions, but also relies more on the "non-technical" factor of cost advantage to bring customers highly cost-effective products.
The success of MOSFET suppliers in the "manufacturing-free model" mainly comes from technical competitiveness and no competitive advantage in cost. MOSFETs carry actual power to achieve system designers' pursuit of performance such as efficiency, size, and dynamic response. In order to be competitive in the market, MOSFET suppliers have to trade off the technical characteristics of DC and AC voltages in order to obtain higher performance in the system than competitor products. At the same time, because system design requirements are constantly changing, MOSFET suppliers must always carry out technological innovation to adapt to system design development trends or exceed competitor product performance. Typically, MOSFET suppliers need to upgrade their technology every 18 months in order to maintain a leading position in the future market.
John Bende concluded: "Whether 'fables model' MOSFET suppliers can maintain their competitive advantage depends critically on the innovation speed of next-generation technology." From the initial emergence of "fables model" MOSFET suppliers, there are now 2 Years of history, but many MOSFET suppliers with manufacturing plants have accelerated the speed of technological innovation and launched an impact on the next generation of MSOFET technology.
However, in which direction will the next generation of MOSFETs develop? In different application fields, in addition to reducing power consumption which is the main development direction of MOSFET, there are also three significant development trends: strengthening the level of performance improvement, miniaturization and integration under the same footprint. In particular, in order to meet the requirements for MOSFET miniaturization in portable devices, MOSFET manufacturers such as Philips and Fairchild are fully committed to developing small package products to reduce the MOSFET footprint.
As a representative of portable devices, notebook computers are a major field of low-voltage MOSFETs, and the key technology development trend in this field is "focused processes." Five years ago, only a single process could meet the requirements for high-side and low-side MOSFETs in notebook computer designs. Now, MOSFET suppliers need three focused processes to match the notebook computer's requirements for MOSFET locations (high-side and low-side). Requires, sometimes even 4 focusing processes. Because the operating voltage of notebook computers is 19V, the dynamic loss at this voltage is more serious than that of desktop computer systems. To overcome this shortcoming, "high-side" MOSFETs in notebook computers use complex gate structures to minimize Miller capacitance to achieve fast switching between poles. The "low-side" MOSFET uses a process of integrating Schottky and "complex gate" in the silicon wafer to enable the MOSFET to achieve optimal efficiency.
Although it is difficult to predict the fluctuations in the discrete device market in today's world, MOSFET manufacturers agree that the rapid development of notebook computers, game consoles, monitors and handheld devices has created a huge demand for high-performance MOPSFETs. MOSFET manufacturers believe that only by continuously strengthening technological innovation can they win in the MOSFET market.
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