Nexperia announced the NPS3102A and NPS3102B electronic fuses (eFuses) as the latest additions to its ever-expanding power device portfolio. These low-ohmic (17 mΩ), high current (13.5 A), and resettable electronic fuses help to protect downstream loads from exposure to excessive voltages while also protecting power supplies from load faults and large inrush currents. These eFuses have been designed for use in various 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. Additionally, they can also be used to protect mobile communications infrastructure like 5G radio-heads and industrial automation equipment like programmable logic controllers (PLC).
The NPS3102A and NPS3102B eFuses have a wide input voltage range (21 V abs. max) and have an integrated low-resistance pass MOSFET which minimizes voltage drop and power loss. This feature helps to increase operating efficiency beyond that attainable from similar competing devices in the same package type. The current clamp limit can be adjusted in the 2–13.5 A range using a resistor at the ILIM pin, which can also be used to measure load current in real-time. Both devices include a built-in overvoltage clamp that limits the output voltage during an input overvoltage condition, with a 2 μs short-circuit protection response time.
The pass-FET in the NPS3102A must be manually reset after a fault event whereas the NPS3102B integrates an auto-retry block, which safely attempts to re-enable the pass-FET without the need for user intervention. Apart from having the ability to quickly protect systems against input and output overvoltages and large inrush currents, Nexperia eFuses are designed to protect the downstream loads from high current fault conditions given its 10% current limiting accuracy. The NPS3102A and NPS3102B are available in DFN3030-10/SOT8037-1 leadless plastic packages measuring only 3.0 x 3.0 x 0.75 mm.
