The ever increasing density and complexity of automotive and industrial control electronics requires integration of components, wherever possible, so as to conserve space, reduce cost, and improve reliability. Integration of protection features with power switches continues to drive new product development. The often open environments of automotive and industrial electronics, subject to severe voltage transients, high power and high inductance loads,
numerous external connections, and human intervention force the requirement of fault protection circuitry. Advancements in power MOSFET processing technology afford an economical marriage of protection features, such as current limitation, and standard MOSFET power transistor switches. This paper describes the technology and operation of ON Semiconductor’s HDPlus monolithic low?side smart MOSFET family.