Can the fabless semiconductor company
model work as well for power
devices as it does for more complex
chips? It has for Alpha and Omega Semiconductor
(AOS), which emerged from
the shadows at APEC 2008 in Austin,
Texas, last month with a successful product
portfolio.
These devices include power MOSFETs,
some unique transient-voltage
supressors (TVS), and an array of high
power-density dc-dc regulators, smart
load switches, and battery-protection
ICs. And it’s not a paper portfolio, either.
Formed in 2000, AOS shipped more
than 2.1 billion products last year, capturing
almost $200 million in revenue.
The company’s founders, including
CEO Mike Chang, comprise former
Siliconix employees who departed when
Vishay acquired Siliconix. The current
management team also includes veterans
from Linear, Elantec, Fairchild, National
Semiconductor, Harris, Intersil, and
Micrel. Chief technology officer Francois
Hebert said the company developed its
customer base, along with its product
line, by starting with MOSFETs for laptops
and working from there into a range
of consumer products.
The company’s MOSFETs are now
into a fourth generation of trench vertical
depletion-mode devices, scaling for low
conduction loss and die size. The 30-V,
85-A AOL1412 is designated a “softrecovery”
device because it integrates a
Schottky rectifier across its intrinsic body
diode. Guaranteed maximum RDS(ON) is
less than 3.9 mO with 10 V of gate drive,
less than 4.6 mO with 4.5 V.
While the MOSFETs are built on
all-MOS process technologies, the company’s
latest transient voltage supressors
combine bipolars with its trench-MOS
devices, yielding near-ideal clamping
with low parasitics. Clearly, AOS is doing
more with the fabless semiconductor
model than simply relying on foundries’
standard recipes and cells.
So how will AOS differentiate its
technologies so successfully with no fab
of its own? Herbert points to the years
of experience—and the PhDs—of the
management team. “If you understand
the process technology, you can make it
work,” he says.
ALPHA AND OMEGA SEMICONDUCTOR
www.aosmd.com