Custom Case Study
Our customer was a manufacturer of hospital ventilators at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand for these ventilators increased dramatically as the number of cases rose sharply and the medical industry attempted to respond in a very short timeframe.
One of our customer’s existing resistor suppliers was temporarily shut down and unable to manufacture the parts required. The case sizes, resistance values, and power ratings of the devices used were not common values, and were thus unavailable in standard series from other manufacturers.
To avoid a costly and time-consuming redesign and re-approval process, the Vishay design team was tasked with creating a 1 W resistor in the 2506 case size with two different resistance values below 10 Ω.
The Vishay thin film PHP series was electrically similar to our customer’s previous solution in terms of material specifications, and therefore some areas of electrical performance. It was already available in the 2512 case size, and was rated at 2.5 W with a resistance range from 10 Ω to 30 kΩ. Mechanically altering the substrate and reducing the case size width by 50% immediately met the 2506 case size requirement, and the part could easily achieve a power rating of 1 W.
As mentioned, the resistance values required were outside the standard PHP range. Sputtering additional material onto the substrate reduced the resistance value and tests were quickly carried out to establish the process required to achieve the required low ohmic values. All of the above customization was performed in under three weeks — an extraordinarily short timeframe.
Standard PHP series and reduced width, semi-custom version
Our customer was able to restart production of their ventilator product and begin shipments to hospitals, saving the lives of COVID-19 patients.
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