Integrated smart power circuits - Introduction, design and application

Integrated smart power circuits gain more and more importance, as many segments of microelectronics move towards system integration. The combination of many functions - analog, digital and power on a single chip enable the design and production of even more miniaturised systems for different applications in the fields of automotive, telecommunication and electronic data processing. This paper gives an introduction to the available semiconductor technologies, shows some circuit design examples specific to the problems of smart power devices and focuses on available real products in different application areas. A discussion of future technical trends under the constraints of an extremely price-sensitive market concludes the paper.