Power Integrations' TinySwitch-5 ICs serve appliance applications.

Power-Switching ICs Deliver High Efficiency Under Light Loads

March 25, 2025

Power Integrations’s 5th-generation switcher ICs provide up to 175-W output and achieve 92% efficiency in classic flyback architectures.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

The Overview: A New Generation of Integrated Off-Line Switcher ICs

At APEC 2025, Power Integrations debuted its TinySwitch-5, extending the output power of the integrated off-line switcher ICs to 175 W. The new TinySwitch-5 achieves up to 92% efficiency using basic diode rectification and optocoupler feedback.

Who Needs It & Why: Power-Saving Designs

Power Integrations’s TinySwitch ICs are intended for use in bias and auxiliary power supplies in appliance, computing, communications, industrial, and medical applications. They’re desirable in these applications by dint of their simple implementation and high efficiency, particularly when driving light loads.

Under the Hood: High Efficiency Under Light Loads

The control engine built into the TinySwitch-5 switcher ICs is said to seamlessly manage switching frequency and power delivery, which maximizes efficiency even at light loads. As a result, designers can build power supplies that easily meet the light-load power consumption limit of 300 mW, set by the European Commission Energy-related Products (ErP) Directive 2009/125/EC, while still delivering up to 220 mW of output power for display, control, and communications functions.

Thanks to an enhanced thermal package, TinySwitch-5 ICs can deliver up to 75 W without a heatsink. In addition, and line undervoltage and overvoltage protection ensures robustness for use in countries with unstable mains power.

Availability & Resources

Pricing for TinySwitch-5 starts at $0.35 for 10,000-unit quantities. For developers, there are references that describe: a 12-W, single-output power supply (DER-1017); a 26.5-W, dual-output power supply with high standby efficiency (RDR-1016); a 36-W, single-output power supply with high efficiency at light load (DER-1040); and a 120-W power supply with 92% efficiency at 230 V AC (DER-1027).

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About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.