IRF7807VPbF
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Control FET
Special attention has been given to the power losses
in the switching elements of the circuit - Q1 and Q2.
Power losses in the high side switch Q1, also called
the Control FET, are impacted by the R
ds(on)
of the
MOSFET, but these conduction losses are only about
one half of the total losses.
Power losses in the control switch Q1 are given
by;
P
loss
= P
conduction
+ P
switching
+ P
drive
+ P
output
This can be expanded and approximated by;
P
loss
= I
rms
2
× R
ds(on )
()
+ I ×
Q
gd
i
g
× V
in
× f
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟
+ I ×
Q
gs 2
i
g
× V
in
× f
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟
+ Q
g
× V
g
× f
()
+
Q
oss
2
×V
in
× f
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
This simplified loss equation includes the terms Q
gs2
and Q
oss
which are new to Power MOSFET data sheets.
Q
gs2
is a sub element of traditional gate-source
charge that is included in all MOSFET data sheets.
The importance of splitting this gate-source charge
into two sub elements, Q
gs1
and Q
gs2
, can be seen from
Fig 1.
Q
gs2
indicates the charge that must be supplied by
the gate driver between the time that the threshold
voltage has been reached (t1) and the time the drain
current rises to I
dmax
(t2) at which time the drain volt-
age begins to change. Minimizing Q
gs2
is a critical fac-
tor in reducing switching losses in Q1.
Q
oss
is the charge that must be supplied to the out-
put capacitance of the MOSFET during every switch-
ing cycle. Figure 2 shows how Q
oss
is formed by the
parallel combination of the voltage dependant (non-
linear) capacitance’s C
ds
and C
dg
when multiplied by
the power supply input buss voltage.
Figure 1: Typical MOSFET switching waveform
Synchronous FET
The power loss equation for Q2 is approximated
by;
P
loss
= P
conduction
+ P
drive
+ P
output
*
P
loss
= I
rms
2
× R
ds(on)()
+ Q
g
× V
g
× f
()
+
Q
oss
2
×V
in
× f
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
+ Q
rr
× V
in
× f
(
*dissipated primarily in Q1.
Power MOSFET Selection for DC/DC
Converters
4
1
2
Drain Current
Gate Voltage
Drain Voltage
t3
t2
t1
V
GTH
Q
GS1
Q
GS2
Q
GD
t0