4A peak drive for fast MOSFET switching
The MAX17600AUA+ is a low-side gate driver from Analog Devices that delivers 4A peak source and 4A peak sink current. That current capability charges and discharges the gate capacitance of a power N-channel MOSFET in tens of nanoseconds — the 40ns rise and 25ns fall times are typical into a 1nF load. For a DC-DC converter switching at 500kHz, those transition edges keep the switching loss well below the conduction loss in the FET. The driver operates from a 4V to 14V supply rail, so it runs directly off a 5V or 12V bus without an intermediate regulator. The inverting input means the output goes high when the input goes low — a polarity that matches the output of many PWM controllers and digital isolators.
Two independent channels in a single package
The MAX17600AUA+ integrates two independent low-side drivers in an 8-pin MSOP with exposed pad (8-uMAX-EP). Each channel drives its own N-channel MOSFET with independent control — useful for driving the bottom FETs of two separate synchronous buck converters or a single half-bridge where the low-side FET needs a dedicated gate signal. The driven configuration is low-side, meaning the driver's output references the source pin of the external MOSFET to ground, which is the standard topology for buck converters, boost converters, and push-pull stages. The junction temperature range spans -40°C to 150°C, covering automotive under-hood ambient and industrial enclosures without derating.