Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. Announces A New Automotive Grade Full Bridge MOSFET Predriver IC

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Worcester, MA ¨C May 20, 2008 ¡ª Allegro® announces a new H-bridge device to complement their existing line of automotive grade MOSFET pre-driver ICs. Allegro¡¯s new device is designed in the latest generation BCD process and includes enhanced features, which make the A3941an ideal choice for high-temperature automotive systems and industrial systems utilizing a 24-volt battery. Significant improvements have been made to the fault diagnostics, input logic flexibility and bootstrap charge management.

An area of considerable focus in the automotive market is finding new technologies to replace belt-driven and hydraulic actuators with more efficient systems. Most belt-driven actuators provide a loss to system efficiency even when not in use. Eliminating this older technology is made possible by the adoption of full electronic systems, which utilize various electric motor technologies to replace the belt driven actuators.

Allegro¡¯s A3941 is designed to fit the emerging needs of this market and is capable of driving four external N-Channel MOSFETs in a full-bridge configuration. It is typically used in brush DC motor drive applications where high-currents in combination with high ambient temperatures require the use of external MOSFETs. This new device is designed with high-temperature automotive applications in mind and is rated over the full automotive temp range (-40¡ãC to +150¡ãC junction temp) and the full battery supply range of 7 V to 50 V.