New High-Current eFuses with Enhanced Accuracy and Auto-Reset Features for Advanced Power Protection

30 July 2024 - 0 Comments

Nexperia has introduced two new electronic fuses, the NPS3102A and NPS3102B, to its power device portfolio. These fuses are designed to be low-ohmic (17 mΩ), high-current (13.5 A), and resettable, making them suitable for protecting downstream loads from excessive voltages and safeguarding power supplies from load faults and large inrush currents. These eFuses are particularly useful in 12V hot-swap applications, including enterprise communication and storage equipment found in data centers such as solid-state and hard-disk drives, servers, Ethernet switches, and routers. They are also applicable in mobile communications infrastructure like 5G radio-heads and industrial automation equipment like programmable logic controllers (PLC). The NPS3102A and NPS3102B feature a wide input voltage range (21 V absolute maximum) and an integrated low-resistance pass MOSFET, which minimizes voltage drop and power loss, thereby enhancing operating efficiency.

The current clamp limit can be adjusted between 2 and 13.5 A using a resistor at the ILIM pin, which also allows real-time load current measurement. Additionally, these eFuses have a built-in overvoltage clamp that limits output voltage during an input overvoltage condition and provides a 2 μs short-circuit protection response time. One key difference between the two models is that the NPS3102A requires manual reset after a fault event, while the NPS3102B includes an auto-retry block that automatically attempts to re-enable the pass-FET without user intervention. Both devices are designed to protect systems against input and output overvoltage's and large inrush currents, with a 10% current limiting accuracy. They are available in DFN3030-10/SOT8037-1 leadless plastic packages measuring 3.0 x 3.0 x 0.75 mm.