Claimed to increase available current by 60%, the LNK3207 is the latest member of the LinkSwitch-TN2 AC/DC converter family. The integrated IC facilitates higher-power offline buck converter designs for appliances and industrial applications by increasing the available output current from 360 to 575mA, while also reducing the bill of materials (BoM count).

The LinkSwitch-TN2 ICs are pin-to-pin compatible with previous generations, so designers can upgrade to higher powered designs. “A high-current buck converter can be created using a minimal number of easily available components while saving at least one diode over previous solutions,” said Silvestro Fimiani, product marketing manager at Power Integrations.

In addition to increasing the available current, the IC also delivers greater than 80% efficiency and no-load consumption of less than 30 mW. Each monolithic LinkSwitch-TN2 IC incorporates a 725V power MOSFET, oscillator, on/off control for high efficiency at light load, a high voltage switched current source for self-biasing, frequency jittering, fast (cycle-by-cycle) current limit, hysteretic thermal shutdown, and output and input overvoltage protection circuitry.

The IC is intended for mass-market appliances such as washers, dryers and coffee makers, but also for sensor-based devices that require low power, for example, home security cameras and smart thermostats, metering and IoT installations.

The ICs are available in PDIP-8C, SMD-8C and SO-8C packages. The SMD-8C package is suitable for high-temperature ambient 85/105 °C applications.

The company also offers a reference design, the RDR-912, which describes a 6.6W non-isolated buck converter with 85 to 265V AC input and 12V, 550mA output built using the lowest possible component count.