IRF840 N-Channel Power Mosfet IRF840 Pinout
The IRF840 is an N-Channel Power MOSFET that can switch loads up to 500V. The Mosfet could switch loads that consume up to 8A, it can turned on by providing a gate threshold voltage of 10V across the Gate and Source pin.
Pin Configuration
Pin Number |
Pin Name |
Description |
1 |
Source |
Current flows out through Source (maximum 8A) |
2 |
Gate |
Controls the biasing of the MOSFET (Threshold voltage 10V) |
3 |
Drain |
Current flows in through Drain |
Features
- N-Channel Power MOSFET
- Continuous Drain Current (ID): 8A
- The gate threshold voltage (VGS-th) is 10V (limit = ±20V)
- Drain to Source Breakdown Voltage: 500V
- Drain Source Resistance (RDS) is 0.85 Ohms
- Rise time and fall time is 23nS and 20nS
- Available in To-220 package
Note: Complete technical details can be found at the IRF840 datasheet linked at the bottom of the page
About IRF840
The IRF840 is an N-Channel Power MOSFET that can switch loads up to 500V. The Mosfet could switch loads that consume up to 8A, it can turned on by providing a gate threshold voltage of 10V across the Gate and Source pin. Since the MOSFET is for switching high current high voltage loads it has a relatively high gate voltage, hence cannot be used directly with an I/O pin of a CPU. If you prefer a MOSFET with low gate voltage then try IRF540N or 2N7002 etc.
One considerable disadvantage of the IRF840 Mosfet is its high on-resistance (RDS) value which is about 0.85 ohms. Hence this mosfet cannot be used in applications where high switching efficiency is required. The Mosfet requires a driver circuit to provide 10V to the gate pin of this Mosfet the simplest driver circuit can be built using a transistor. It is relatively cheap and has very low thermal resistance, added to this the MOSFET also has good switching speeds and hence can be used in DC-DC converter circuits.
Applications
- Switching high-power devices
- Inverter Circuits
- DC-DC Converters
- Control the speed of motors
- LED dimmers or flashers
- High-Speed switching applications