Driving a mosfet directly?

[Ioannis]

I remind that for every ampere of the Drain pin there must be an amount of Gate drive. Don't get too excited byt the great amperage that datasheets state! Read carefully!

Ioannis

[passion1]

Paul, RussMartin, Ioannis

Thank you for the advice.

Paul, thank you for pointing out that I won't be able to get much IDrain current.
Any suggestion for a driver near 10Vdc, apart from the 2N7000 suggested by RussMartin?
I really appreciate your help.

[Ioannis]

Look at Microchip, MCP1401 is one example. Many others exist too.

Ioannis

[Dave]

passion1, May I suggest an IRL2505. It is a logic level fet. I have used them in the past with great success..

Dave Purola,
N8NTA

[paul borgmeier]

passion1, May I suggest an IRL2505. It is a logic level fet. I have used them in the past with great success..

Dave Purola,
N8NTA

This is a great FET but it requires a large gate charge (130nC). If you are switching a lot, you would want to buffer the PIC pin as a minimum since the PIC pin cannot supply a lot of current. (i.e., it will take some time for the PIC to directly charge the gate, which means lots of FET heat if your load is high). One of the FETs recommended by Russ actually has an amazing low charge requirement and could be charge in less than a 1 uS directly by a PIC. Again, the proper answer to your question depends on what you are doing.

[RussMartin]

Attached is a circuit I've had repeated success with.

I suggested the 2N7000 because of its availability, general utility and very low cost (about 0.11 USD in single quantities). It's been around a long time. Both the MTP3055V and MTP3055VL are also readily available and moderately priced (about 1.16 USD in single quantities).

I have to echo Paul's questions:

What kind of load are you driving?
What current capacity do you actually need?
How often will you be switching?

We could probably be a lot more helpful if we knew these things!

[George]

Pauls question is quite important - especially the how often part, if you want yr fet to pwm - then you really have to use a driver or it will just end up as a load of smoke, if it's just occasional switching you should be fine - preferably with logic level fet.

[paul borgmeier]

Paul, RussMartin, Ioannis

Thank you for the advice.

Paul, thank you for pointing out that I won't be able to get much IDrain current.
Any suggestion for a driver near 10Vdc, apart from the 2N7000 suggested by RussMartin?
I really appreciate your help.

I didn't really point it out - Ioannis did in a post before me.

As far as a driver, it depends on what you are driving and how often. If you are switching a lot, you need something different than if you just want to turn something on once or once in a while. I'll ask again:

What you driving?
What Amperage do you need?
How often will you be switching?