FAQs
Sales and commercial
How can I keep up to date with news about your products?
We have a dedicated section of our website for new product notifications. You can also sign up for our email Newsletter
Where can I purchase your products?
We have a global network of partners and representatives who are technically trained to support the design-in of our products and are able to offer supply solutions. Please visit our partner page in order to find the right partner for your region.
What are your current lead times?
Contacting your regional partner is the best way to get current lead times, as well as discussing additional supply options.
What is the warranty on your products?
Flex warrants that, during a period of three (3) years from the date of manufacturing of the product, unless another time period is explicitly agreed in the Sales Contract, the product will be free from major defects in material and workmanship, and will meet the agreed technical specification in all major aspects.
How do I get samples?
Sample requests can be sent to our partners to support new designs. On our partner page you can find a partner for your region.
Where do I find prices?
Please contact our partners for pricing information. On our partner page you can find a partner for your region.
How can I arrange an RMA/FAR for your products?
If for any reason you need to return products for failure analysis, this should be done through the originally-sourced channel. Please contact our partners. On our partner page you can find a partner for your region.
What if you don't have what I need listed on your site?
Do not see what you need? We are constantly developing new solutions so please let us know your request by contacting us and we can discuss your specific needs.
Where do I find life-cycle information about the products?
If you have a question on product life-cycle, please reach out to your partners and representatives or alternatively you can contact us directly. Our representatives can answer questions about the product life-cycle for all the products found on our web pages.
Technical
How can I get technical support on your products?
We have a global network of partners and representatives technically trained in our products. Please contact our partners. Additionally, you can email your inquiry to pm.support@flex.com, and one of our Application Engineers will respond to your request.
What type of input filter do I need to reduce conducted noise?
This is dependent on the particular module in question. Our technical specifications for isolated devices typically provide EMI conducted noise plots both with and without additional external filtering, and the filter suggestions provided are to meet Class B conducted noise emissions according to EN55022/EN55032, CISPR22/CISPR32 and FCC part 15J.
Can I connect your products in series?
It may be the case that a particular module cannot deliver the specific voltage required by a particular application.
In these cases, it's good to know that our products can typically be connected in series to produce these alternative voltages.
For example, it’s possible to connect the outputs of two 30V converters in series to produce a 60V rail. It may be necessary to include protection circuitry however to disable one device if the other one turns off for any reason.
Our FAEs can support your designs by contacting us at pm.support@flex.com
Can I connect your products in parallel?
Sometimes, a single module will not provide the required level of current or power needed in a particular application. In these cases, it's often desirable to connect devices in parallel.
Whether or not this is possible with our products is actually device dependent, so please consult the technical specification of the device in question to check if this is advisable.
Some modules include a voltage droop current share mechanism, while others include an active current share scheme. Some devices are not recommended for paralleling at all, or will need external current share control circuitry.
Design Note DN006 goes into more detail about this, or one of our FAEs can also support you by contacting us at pm.support@flex.com
Where can I find safety certifications for your products?
Please contact us at pm.support@flex.com for information.
Can I use active trimming on your converters?
Yes, the output voltage of many of our converters can be trimmed actively using a voltage source. Please consult the specific technical specification for the device in question. Our FAEs can also guide you by contacting us at pm.support@flex.com
How do I connect the sense lines?
Many DC/DC modules provide sense pins which enable the output to compensate voltage droops due to the copper resistance of the traces of application boards.
Note that the DC/DC converters accurately regulate the voltage between +sense and -sense pins, not the voltage on the output pins. Voltage droops of up to 0.25-0.5V may be compensated if the sense pins are connected to the corresponding terminals of the load.
However, to avoid noise, the sense traces should be properly routed to minimize the area between them, i.e. they should be as short as possible and close to each other.
If not used, the sense pins should be connected directly to the corresponding output pins.
How should I store and handle your products?
Products intended for Pb-free reflow soldering processes are delivered in standard moisture barrier bags according to IPC/JEDEC standard J-STD-033 (handling, packing, shipping and use of moisture/reflow sensitivity surface mount devices).
Using products in high temperature Pb-free soldering processes requires dry pack storage and handling. In case the products have been stored in an uncontrolled environment and no longer can be considered dry, the modules must be baked according to J-STD-033.
Please note that our products are to be stored and handled as ESD sensitive devices and are delivered as such.
Can I use water washing during manufacturing?
Products are qualified for water washing (as well as Glycol Ether and Isopropyl alcohol washing) according to IEC 60068-2-45 XA, method 2. However, it is imperative that sufficient drying time is considered to avoid any problems. Our FAEs can also guide you by contacting us at pm.support@flex.com
What standard do you use to calculate MTBF?
The failure rate and mean time between failures (MTBF) is calculated at max output power and an operating ambient temperature of +40°C. Flex Power Modules mainly uses Telcordia SR-332 Issue 2 Method 1 to calculate the mean steady-state failure rate and standard deviation. Telcordia SR-332 Issue 2 also provides techniques to estimate the upper confidence levels of failure rates based on the mean and standard deviation. Our Technical Specifications therefore typically provide both a standard MTBF figure, and an MTBF figure at 90% confidence factor.
Some of our devices designed for Industrial and Rail applications also include MTBF calculations based on the MIL-HDBK-217F reliability method.
How should I accurately measure the Output Ripple?
Please refer to DN022 for detailed information on measuring Output Ripple. Our FAEs can also guide you by contacting us at pm.support@flex.com
Do you offer FloTherm models?
Yes, we have FloTherm models available for many of our products. If they are not present on the relevant product page, please contact us at pm.support@flex.com
Do you offer 3D CAD files?
Yes, we can offer 3D files in .STP format for many of our modules. Please contact us at pm.support@flex.com
What protection features do your products offer?
Please consult the specific technical specification for the device in question for details, but typically our products include input Under Voltage Lock Out (UVLO), output Over Voltage Protection (OVP), output Over Current Protection (OCP) and Over Temperature Protection (OTP). Digital products offer the ability to configure both the protection parameters as well as the protection behavior.
What is the Flex Power Designer tool?
We have developed the Flex Power Designer tool in order to help you to sketch, simulate, configure and monitor your digital power system. It is free to download the Flex Power Designer Tool. You can watch a short demonstration video HERE.
What are the key features of the Flex Power Designer tool?
Flex Power Designer (FPD) goes beyond simple converter configuration, and provides an overview of your whole power system, enabling you to define relationships across rails, including Phase Spreading, Sequencing and Fault Spreading.
The built-in simulation enables power-stage analysis to optimize tuning and visualize design behavior against your particular power requirements such as Transient Response, Output Impedance and Power Dissipation.
The software also includes thermal behavior simulation, graphically showing the dependencies between multiple user defined parameters such as ambient temperature, board temperature, wind speed, board thickness and copper thickness.
An additional feature recently added is a numerical conversion calculator which enables designers to work with the various alternative number formats for monitoring data allowed in the SMBus/PMBus standards. It also includes a display address resistor suggestion feature, which calculates suggested values for the PMBus address resistors SA0/SA1, as well as offering the ability to monitor common parameters from other vendors' power products.
It is free to download the Flex Power Designer Tool
Website
How do I use parametric search?
The parametric search is a tool to help you to quickly find the desired products. You can easily access the parametric search from the homepage. Parametric search has many different search fields, which will by filling in your criteria, automatically reduce the number of matching products.
Why should I create an account?
By creating your own account, you can save details of your selected products and immediately use the Flex Power Designer Tool.