Why Choose Our Solutions Fairchild's portfolio of products provides a complete AC/DC switch mode power supply solution for high, medium, and low power applications. These solutions help you as a designer increase efficiency by up to 96%, reduce standby power, and meet the worldwide 1W initiative—all with unequaled design simplicity. Our solutions include: SuperFET® II which have robust body-diodes and provide higher system reliability and power density, thereby reducing heat sink size, Green Fairchild Power Switches (FPS™) that offer state-of-the-art standby power to support the industry's 1W initiative, and Power Factor Correction ICs that increase system efficiency. Fairchild is the only semiconductor supplier that provides a complete portfolio for AC/DC switch mode power supplies. Featured Products Technology Block Diagram Application Notes Reference Designs Related Resources Battery ManagementNon-Isolated DC-DCOff-Line & Isolated DC-DC MOSFET & IGBT Gate DriversOptocouplersPower Factor Correction

Amplifiers & ComparatorsCircuit ProtectionVoltage Regulators mWSaver® TechnologymWSaver Technology combines our most energy efficient process and circuit technologies for power adapter design into this uniqueLearn More > Flyback ConverterFind the controller that offers the optimum combination of standby power and operating efficiency for popular power levels with this reference chart. Interleaved PFC ControllersIntelligent Interleaved Control that enables Unparalleled Performance, Converter Protection and Design BenefitsLearn More > SupreMOS® MOSFETsFairchild brings designers of power supplies, lighting, display and industrial applications a new generation of 600V Super-Junction MOSFETs — SupreMOS®. Low-Side Gate DriversThe FAN31xx and FAN32xx series of high-speed, low-side gate drivers offers flexibility for power supply designs, providing a wide selection of performance and packaging combinations to create compact, highly efficient and reliable power supplies.

TinyBuck® DC-DC RegulatorFairchild's next-generation TinyBuck synchronous buck regulator family provides higher system efficiency, which helps system designers meet tough energy standards and improve battery life while reducing total cost of ownership. SuperFET® II MOSFETsFairchild recently added the SuperFET II MOSFET family using the latest Super Junction Technology to the high-voltage power MOSFET portfolio. Motion SPM® Smart Power ModulesMotion SPM® modules integrate drive and protection circuitry into a single package. Simplify and accelerate your design as you optimize efficiency. Dual Cool™ Packaging TechnologyFairchild Semiconductor developed the Dual Cool™ packaging for MOSFETs to meet the needs for better thermal characteristics, high current capability, high efficiency, and smaller form factors. Power Stage MOSFETsReduce Power Supply Area, Increase Power DensityLearn More > Power Supply Block DiagramOur family of building blocks for power supply systems includes: Click to enlarge 1.

Isolated DC-DCIsolated DC-DC ControllersIGBT/MOSFET Gate DriverMOSFETs (500V-1000V)IGBTs (>=600V)Synchronous Rectifier DriversSynchronous Rectification MOSFETs (20V-250V)Schottky Diodes & Rectifiers3. Non-Isolated DC-DCNon-Isolated DC-DC ControllersIGBT/MOSFET Gate DriverMOSFETs (500V-1000V)Synchronous Rectifier DriversSynchronous Rectification MOSFETs (20V-250V)Rectifier4. cost of mini split ac systemOptocouplerLow Voltage, High PerformanceHigh Speed Logic GateHigh Performance TransistorIGBT/MOSFET Gate DriverSpecific FunctionTRIAC Driver Optocouplers5. choosing a ac unitPFCPFC ControllersRectifiersIGBT/MOSFET Gate DriverMOSFETs (500V-1000V)IGBTs (>=600V)ac motor control driver FirstPrevNextLastApplication NoteDescriptionAN-558AN-8021AN-4137AN-8027AN-6083AN-6086AN-FEBFAN9673_B01H2500AAN-9067AN-5232AN-4178AN-6099AN-4179AN-1031AN-8024AN-4141AN-4148AN-4140AN-4159AN-4176AN-303AN-6753AN-5844AN-4147FirstPrevNextLast+ Show All Results

FirstPrevNextLastApplicationDocument NumberFeaturedProduct(s)OutputPower (W)Input VoltageRange (VAC)TopologyNetbook AdapterRD-337FAN6862FAN6862HFAN6862HRFAN6862LFAN6862R40 W90-265VACFlyback ConverterPower Supply LCD TVRD-212FSFR2100FSFR2100XSKA431A192 W340-400V/DCLLC Resonant Half-Bridge ConverterPower Supply LCD MonitorRD-334FSQ0465RS40 W85-265VACFlyback ConverterFirstPrevNextLast+ Show All Results For filtering please select the subitems on the left.AC power vs. DC power: Both are necessary in our everyday lives and switching between the two causes a great deal of strife in electronics. Why do we need both? As some of you may or may not know, there was a long standing battle between the two types of power raging back in the 1880s between two giants. The proponents of this war knew that whoever won would determine the future of the power distribution in the United States and possibly the world. In the first corner was Thomas Edison and his company that would eventually become General Electric;

Edison wanted the world to run on DC. In the other corner was Westinghouse Corporation, funded by George Westinghouse and led (intellectually) by Nikola Tesla. Westinghouse represented AC power and would be the eventual winner. You can read more about the battle HERE, but I thought it would be interesting to point out that this battle eventually became a political one. Edison even started fighting dirty, secretly funding the invention and use of the first electric chair powered by AC, in order to give some bad press. AC of course won out over DC as the power distribution of choice, mainly because of the ability to have large generators in a central location and then transmit the power efficiently over power lines to homes and businesses. DC would have required local generators on every street or even every home, which was not possible nor economically viable at the time. Hang on a second though…a DC generator on every home…sounds familiar…where have I heard about something like this before?

However, even more interesting than the fact that solar power produces DC power output is that any kind of storage will have to be in DC. So THAT means if you have any kind of renewable energy resource on your premises (wind, geothermal, any kind of generator which will have an AC output) and it’s not continually supplying power to your home, you will likely need to store it somewhere (assuming you are not selling power back to the power company, which is the case in some areas still and a must in the remote areas). Further, barring any possibility of storing AC power (a huge inductor?), you will need to store that power in DC. So let’s look at a theoretical wind turbine on a theoretical property: The wind blows –> wind turbine spins –> motor in turbine creates AC power –> AC converted to DC –> DC stored in a battery –> DC converted back to AC when needed –> AC powers devices in a home –> (possibly) AC converted back to DC for use in consumer devices That’s a lot of steps!

Not only are there a multitude of steps to convert wind into air conditioning (heh, the electrical way…the natural way is opening the window), there are lots of places that you will be losing energy to inefficiencies. These occur in the power generation (motors have friction), the storage in the batteries (heat and losses due to chemical impurities in the wet cells), the AC to DC conversion and the DC to AC conversion (both processes lose energy to heat in the electronics). All told, it’s not hard to see why this is not the preferred method of powering ones’ home. So now the real question: Can we take out some of these steps? Other articles on this site will deal with improving efficiencies of each of these steps, but the simplest method for improving overall efficiency would be to remove one or more of those steps. The way I see it, one of these ways would be to convert a power scheme in a house. Let’s look at all the ways a DC power system in a house could be beneficial or detrimental to ones’ living situation: