Comparing the Best MOSFETs for Power Electronics

Created: April 25, 2022
Updated: December 16, 2024

MOSFETs are some of the most important components involved in stable power delivery, fast switching, and low loss in a range of applications. In particular, discrete MOSFETs enjoy a primary role in motor control, power regulation, specialty logic, high power amplifiers, lighting, and other systems requiring high current draw with low loss. If you start looking around the components marketplace, you’ll find multiple component options from most semiconductor manufacturers. It can be difficult to navigate the various options and make comparisons, especially when there are so many component options available.

As much as we’d like to think there is one MOSFET that is great for everything, there is no objectively “best” MOSFET for every system. Some MOSFETs target specific products, applications, or industries. Others target the general “high power” or “low power” designer. Weighing the tradeoffs takes time, skill, and experience, and not all engineers have time to compare every component. Therefore, it’s understandable that some engineers have the go-to MOSFETs that they use for everything, even though they may be overdesigning their systems and racking up extra costs for such convenience.

Because we care so much about helping engineers get access to the perfect components for their products, we’ve compiled a list of the best MOSFETs for a range of power electronics applications. Some of these products are selected and compared based on their popularity, while others are less well-known or newer components that provide a major advantage over the more popular MOSFET options.

Comparing the Best MOSFETs

If you’re looking for the best MOSFET option for your new electronic device, what are the right dimensions for comparison? There are several dimensions that can be used to compare MOSFETs, ranging from the basic electrical parameters to high-frequency performance. First, we’ll look at the basic electrical specifications that apply to MOSFETs generally, then we’ll look at more advanced performance metrics that are important in specialty applications.

Basic Electrical Specifications

Here are some of the important electrical specifications to consider when selecting the best MOSFETs for your system.

Current limit: This is probably the one specification that is most often used to select the best MOSFETs. If the current limit is exceeded at a certain ON-state resistance, heat dissipation in the channel will accelerate and the component will quickly fail.
ON-state resistance: This is the counterpart to the current limit. The ON-state resistance will determine the amount of power dissipated in the channel and whether the component can withstand high current.
Temperature limit: This is just another way to quantify reliability. MOSFETs will fail almost immediately if their junction temperature exceeds the rated value, so this specification is critical in high-reliability systems.
Enhancement vs. depletion-mode: This simply determines how the gate is modulated to cause the MOSFET to turn ON or OFF during operation.
Breakdown voltage: This simply states the voltage required to drive the body diode into reverse bias. These voltages tend to be rather high, but they are still important in high power systems that might run at negative polarity.
Rise time: For switching applications, such as in switching converters, the rise time is an important consideration. When driven with a PWM pulse driver, the rise time should be shorter than the pulses being delivered to the gate.

It’s okay to overdesign with MOSFETs, especially during a chip shortage. For instance, you can always accept a lower on-state resistance to ensure low power loss and heat dissipation in the channel, and you can always accept a higher current rating for reliability purposes. With component shortages seeming to shift from one component class to another, you can never tell when your preferred through-hole MOSFET will suddenly be in short supply.

More Advanced Performance Metrics

The points listed above are great for low-frequency, low-power systems that only need a generic component on silicon. However, with newer applications involving RF power products quickly becoming the norm, and with reliability being such a major focus in some industries, other metrics become quite important and will form the basis for selecting the best MOSFETs.

Material platform: Silicon is the material of choice for the vast majority of integrated circuits, but other platforms are much more desirable for advanced applications. What’s important here is that the low-loss frequency range and thermal conductivity are functions of the material platform. Alternatives like GaAs, SiC, and GaN all offer much higher thermal conductivity for given power output at higher frequencies.
Input and output capacitances: At practical wireless frequencies, or in ultra-fast digital systems, the capacitance becomes important as it will modify the input impedance and limit the bandwidth of the component. At very high frequencies (mmWave), the input and output capacitances can form an unintended feedback loop that allows power to flow in a closed loop where noise is amplified.
Temperature coefficients: There are multiple temperature coefficient values that should be considered when designing high-reliability systems. These coefficients are also important in applications like precision measurement and electro-optics (e.g., precision lidar imaging).
Inductance: Transistors as a circuit don’t have inductance, rather the inductance comes from the package. The parasitic inductance in the packaging comes from the electrical leads between the pads/posts and the die. This value should be as low as possible to ensure ideal behavior at high frequencies.

Alternative material platforms are quite important as they enable upcoming technologies like 5G and high-power radar, as well as specialty applications like software-defined radio. While not technically MOSFETs, more of these FET component options are coming into the market, and growth is only expected to continue.

Popular MOSFET Options

Among the range of MOSFETs available from major manufacturers, there are three N-channel enhancement MOSFETs that stand out as being highly popular:

Infineon IRFZ44N, a good option for general-purpose use
2N7002, a generic component available from multiple manufacturers targeting lower current applications
ON Semiconductor FQP30N06L, a low-loss moderate current drop-in option for many applications

These N-channel options are very popular for simple regulation or as switches in power systems, but they have some characteristics that make them very useful in a broad range of applications. I would regard these components as general-purpose and ideal as drivers in motor control and DC-DC converters. I wouldn’t use these in systems running at RF frequencies for multiple reasons, which I’ll detail below. For now, let’s look at each of these in a bit more detail.

Infineon IRFZ44N

The IRFZ44N from Infineon is one of the most popular MOSFETs thanks to its high breakdown voltage and high current limit. This component is available in a TO-220 package that is preferred for commercial and industrial applications. The breakdown voltage is rated at 60 V and the output current is rated at 49 A DC maximum or 160 A pulsed at room temperature. The turn-on time is also relatively fast, reaching approximately 60 ns. The pulsed transfer curves below show the output current at low gate driving voltage.

2N7002

I’ve listed this MOSFET without a specific manufacturer name because it’s a generic component and is available from multiple manufacturers. This component is sometimes listed together with part numbers 2N7000, VQ1000J, and VQ1000P on the same datasheet. I’ve focused on the 2N7002, such as this component from Vishay, as it’s a low-cost option for low-current applications. Although it’s only intended for low current delivery (400 mA DC, or 2 A pulsed), it has a high breakdown voltage of 60 V, low ON-state resistance of ~1 Ohm, and relatively short turn-on time of 10-20 ns (depending on gate-source voltage).

ON Semiconductor FQP30N06L

The FQP30N06L MOSFET from ON Semiconductor also provides high breakdown voltage that is necessary in typical consumer and automotive DC power applications. It provides a slightly lower maximum DC current of 32 A compared to the IRFZ44N, but it can still deliver high pulsed currents of 128 A. The ON-state resistance is also lower than the 2N7002, reaching ~27 mOhm nominal. The switching time is much slower than the 2N7002 and is only ~200 ns, but this is still sufficient for use in switching regulators operating at a few MHz or less switching frequencies. The DC transfer characteristics at low gate drive are shown below.

The next component is a high-power GaN FET that is useful in a range of high frequency or high power applications. While GaN and GaN-SiC components are typically marketed for high-frequency applications, they are still useful for high power/high current delivery products as they have much higher thermal conductivity than Si.

Nexperia GAN063-650WSAQ

The GAN063-650WSAQ from Nexperia targets high-power applications. This GaN FET has 650 V, 50 mOhm rating at 10 V gate drive with a high drain current rating of 34.5 A. The threshold voltage is only 4 V, so this component can be driven with small PWM sources operating at logic levels. This operating temperature rating is also much broader than you’ll find with some of the best MOSFETs, spanning from -55 to 175 °C. This component is also AEC-Q101 qualified, making it an excellent choice for automotive applications or other harsh environments. The safe operating area for pulsed current reaching above 100 A is shown below.

Other Important Components for Power and Motor Systems

Transistors, both discrete and in integrated circuits, are fundamental building blocks of modern electronics and will probably never be replaced. As fundamental as they are to enabling modern electronics, systems with power MOSFETs need plenty of other components to operate properly. These range from components for measurement and feedback stability, to processors for overall system control and configuration. Some components you might need to support MOSFET-based power systems include:

Once you’ve chosen your Wifi 6 chipset and it’s time to select other supporting components, you can use the advanced search and filtration features in Octopart to find the components you need. The electronics search engine features in Octopart can help you choose Wifi 6/6E components by manufacturer, technical specifications, and many other filters to suit your needs. You can also access distributor pricing data, parts inventory, parts specifications, and CAD data, and it’s all freely accessible in a user-friendly interface. Take a look at our connectors page to find the components you need.

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