The proximity and ambient light optical sensor (VCNL4000) and the power MOSFET (SiR88DP ThunderFET 80 V) have been chosen for the En-Genius ‘Best Development in Light Sensing’ and ‘Best High-Voltage Power MOSFET’ awards respectively.
The jury for selecting the award winning products consisted of Paul McGoldrick, editor in chief for EN-genius and his colleagues Lee Goldberg and Alex Mendelsohn.
The VCNL4000 is a fully integrated proximity and ambient optical sensor, which has a distinguishing feature of fabricating a number of components onto a small surface-mount leadless package for the first time. The various components on the sensor are the IR emitter, photo-pin diode, ambient light detector, signal processing IC and a 16-bit ADC. The I2C bus communication interface is compatible with the VCNL4000. The compact size (3.95 mm x 3.95 mm x 0.75 mm) of this sensor is of great advantage as it goes a long way in simplifying the design of consumer and industrial applications. EN-Genius lauded the compact design of VCNL4000 and was confident that the sensor will suit all of its applications in terms of performance and price.
Another product from Vishay to win an award was the ThunderFET SiR880DP. The MOSFET is built using a new technology called low-on resistance, which is optimized for higher-voltage MOSFETs. In the area of power MOSFETs, the ThunderFET is the first 80V MOSFET having an on-resistance rating at 4.5 V gate drive. The device comes in a thermally enhanced package called PowerPAK SO-8, which offers very low-on-resistance in the order of 8.5 milliohms at 4.5 V, 6.7 milliohms at 7.5 V, and 5.9 milliohms at 10 V. Such low on-resistances prove to be useful in DC/DC converter applications of the MOSFET. EN-Genius was appreciative of the high voltage rating and ultra low on-resistance of the ThunderFET. The pricing of the ThunderFET was also a highlight as per EN-Genius.