The 10 devices, available in 40 V and 60 V versions, target high-temperature, high-current automotive and other applications with inductive loads, such as high-side switches, motor drives and 12 V boardnets.

MOSFETs can turn on spontaneously in high-temperature, high-current environments if their threshold voltage is impacted by heat and starts to approach 0 V. Designers sometimes added a negative voltage driver to the circuit, but that solution increased the circuit’s size, cost and complexity, according to Siliconix. Another option to use a device with a high threshold voltage, which could affect an undesirable increase in on-resistance.

Siliconix said its new devices deliver a high threshold voltage that avoids the problem of spontaneous turn-on, and low on-resistance. The devices are available in DPAK, D2PAK and PowerPAK SO-8 packages.