The beginning of October was an interesting week with lots of exciting components being launched for various electronic gadgets and automotive applications. In this article, we’ll look towards the features and applications of devices like half-bridge gate driver, ICs, power modules, MCUs, and capacitors. These components suit a wide range of applications like Wireless Charging TX circuits used in cordless power tools, vacuum cleaners, drones, automotive xEV/EV/FCEV pressure sensing braking, transmission, AC/DC converters in onboard chargers for xEVs, smart grid hardware, EMI filtering in Variable Frequency Drivers (VFDs), LED drivers, and high energy density applications such as capacitive power supplies.

Among all the components that we covered last week, we found the following should definitely grab your attention:

• AOZ32033AQI Half-Bridge Gate Driver
• RAA2S425x Family ICs
• UCC14240-Q1 Isolated DC/DC Bias-Supply Module
• RX140 MCUs 
• R53 Series

AOZ32033AQI Half-Bridge Gate Driver

The new AOZ32033AQI integrated half-bridge gate driver from Alpha and Omega Semiconductor is capable of driving high-side and low-side N-channel MOSFETs and offers a wide range of input voltages from 4V to 28V. This Device features SRC (Slew Rate Control) to adjust sink/source current and provide the ideal trade-off between efficiency and EMI optimization in the design of Wireless Charging Transmitter (TX) circuits. This half-bridge gate driver enables PCB space savings and higher performance in wireless transmitter circuits with high wattage of up to 30W.

This device is ideally suited to the design of Wireless Charging TX circuits used in cordless power tools, vacuum cleaners, drones, and other consumers’ electronic equipment. The AOZ32033AQI is now available in production quantities with a lead-time of 12 weeks and the unit price in 1,000piece quantities is $0.75.

RAA2S425x Family ICs

The RAA2S425x Family of ICs from Renesas Electronics Corporation features high integration and advanced digital and analog functionality that significantly ease the design cycle and reduce customers' system BOM and production costs. These new ICs offer extended analog sensor offset compensation (XSOC), are adjustable to nearly all resistive bridges, and deliver pressure and temperature readings with high accuracy (0.35% - 1.0%) over a wide temperature range (-40°C to 150°C). These ICs integrate a 16-bit embedded RISC microcontroller that provides digital compensation of offset, sensitivity, temperature drift, nonlinearity and has highly reliable non-volatile memory.

These new devices provide highly accurate amplification and sensor-specific correction of signals in automotive xEV/EV/FCEV pressure sensing braking, transmission, and HVAC systems. The RAA2S425x devices are now available in 4mm x 4mm QFN-24 packages with wettable flanks. 

UCC14240-Q1 Isolated DC/DC Bias-Supply Module

The new UCC14240-Q1 1.5-W isolated DC/DC bias-supply module from Texas Instruments uses a proprietary integrated transformer technology to enable designers to cut their power solution size in half for use in high-voltage environments. This dual-output power module offers 60% efficiency, twice that of traditional bias supplies, doubling the power density and helping increase vehicle driving range. The UCC14240-Q1 dual-output power module's 3.55-mm height and its small footprint enable designers to reduce the power solution volume by as much as 50%, packing more power in half the size.

Target applications of this device include electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid EVs, motor-drive systems, and grid-tied inverters. The UCC14240-Q1 is available in pre-production quantities from TI and pricing starts at US$4.20 in 1,000-unit quantities.

RX140 MCUs 

The ultra-low-power RX140 MCUs from Renesas Electronics feature the latest capacitive touch sensing units for enhanced user experience and user interface. These new MCUs with powerful RXv2 CPU core deliver over 30% better power efficiency for home and industrial applications with the operation of up to 48 MHz with a CoreMark score of 204. These MCUs for improved noise tolerance can detect changes in water level by directly measuring changes in capacitance through high-precision sensing. 

These MCUs are suitable for home appliances, industrial applications, building automation, home automation, and consumer applications. The RX140 MCUs are available now in 32- to 64-pin packages with 64KB flash memory and the mass production for additional configurations and memory sizes over 128KB will be available starting in February 2022. The pricing of these microcontrollers will vary based on package and memory configuration. 

R53 Series

The new R53 series of miniature, polypropylene film X2 EMI (electromagnetic interference) suppression capacitors from KEMET offer capacitance values from 0.1µF to 22µF and long-life stability in harsh environmental conditions. This series is intended for use in Class X2 line-to-line applications or in series with the AC mains and fulfills the growing need for automotive, industrial, consumer, and energy applications that require a smaller, high-capacitance X2 class solution for suppressing EMI.

The R53 series is well-suited for AC/DC converters in onboard chargers for xEVs, smart grid hardware, EMI filtering in Variable Frequency Drivers (VFDs), LED drivers, and high energy density applications such as capacitive power supplies. The R53 series is now available via KEMET distributors.