Vishay Adds a Top-Side Cooled Power Resistor for Cars
Vishay Intertechnology introduced an Automotive Grade thick film power resistor in a TO-263 (D²PAK) package that sheds heat from the top side, as VSH traded up 1.21%.
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE: VSH) on Sept. 29, 2026 introduced an Automotive Grade top-side cooling mount thick film power resistor under its Vishay Sfernice brand, housed in a compact TO-263 (D²PAK) package, with the shares at $32.62, up 1.21%, as of 15:16 GMT.
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE: VSH) has added a new Automotive Grade power resistor to its Vishay Sfernice line, a thick film device in a compact TO-263 package — better known to circuit designers as the D²PAK — that moves heat out through its top surface rather than down into the board. The company announced the part from Malvern, Pennsylvania on Sept. 29, 2026, and positioned it squarely at automotive applications.
It is, on the face of it, a small announcement: one passive component, one package. But passive components are how a supplier like Vishay is paid, and the detail that matters here is the cooling direction.
Why the heat goes up instead of down
A power resistor's job is to burn energy as heat. In a conventional surface-mount package, that heat travels down through the solder joints into the printed circuit board, where copper layers and thermal vias spread it out. That works, but it makes the board part of the cooling system — and in a car, board area is expensive, tightly packed and shared with sensitive control electronics.
Top-side cooling flips the path. The thermal interface sits on the upper face of the package, so a heatsink or a chassis wall can be pressed directly against it. The board underneath is freed from carrying the heat load, which lets designers use fewer copper layers, route signals closer, or shrink the assembly outright. The trade-off is mechanical: the part now needs a clamp, a gap pad or a housing that makes reliable contact, which is why the approach shows up most often in modules built as sealed units — exactly the way automotive power electronics are built.
A thick film resistor, for readers less familiar with the terminology, is made by screen-printing a resistive paste onto a ceramic substrate and firing it. The construction is cheap, robust and tolerant of heat and vibration — the reasons it dominates in vehicle applications where a component may spend fifteen years under a hood.
What 'Automotive Grade' commits the supplier to
The Automotive Grade label is not marketing decoration. It signals qualification to the automotive component standards that carmakers and tier-one suppliers insist on before a part can enter a production platform: tighter temperature range, defined humidity and thermal-cycling endurance, controlled production lines, and a change-notification regime that prevents the supplier quietly altering the part mid-programme.
That is what makes automotive passives a different business from consumer passives. Design cycles are long, the qualification work is expensive, and switching costs once a part is designed in are high. The reward is durability of revenue: a component that wins a slot on a vehicle platform tends to ship for the life of that platform. The risk is the mirror image — losing a socket is slow to reverse.
The launch was carried on GLOBE NEWSWIRE and reported by Business Insider Markets.
Where the shares sat when the release landed
VSH changed hands at $32.62 as of 15:16 GMT on Sept. 29, up 1.21% from the previous close of $32.23, having traded between $32.45 and $33.13 on the day. The stock was therefore firmer than the broad market at that moment: the S&P 500 tracker SPY was at $764.20, down 0.18%, and the Dow 30 proxy DIA at $511.19, down 0.55%. The Nasdaq 100 fund QQQ was the one benchmark in positive territory, at $738.54, up 0.27%.
The honest read is that a single component release is not what moves a component maker's shares, and nothing in the day's price action should be attributed to it. What the quote does establish is the backdrop: a modest up day for the stock, within a narrow intraday band, on a session where the tech-weighted index outperformed the industrial-weighted one. For a company whose end markets sit at the intersection of automotive and industrial power electronics, that split is the relevant tension.
The vehicle-electronics trend the part is aimed at
Every generation of vehicle carries more power electronics than the last. Electric and hybrid drivetrains add inverters, on-board chargers and DC-DC converters; conventional platforms add electrified accessories, more sensors and more domain controllers. Each of those blocks needs current sensing, snubbing, pre-charge and discharge functions — the unglamorous roles power resistors fill — and each of them fights for volume inside a housing that has to survive road heat and vibration.
Thermal management is where that fight is usually decided. If a supplier can take the heat path off the board, the customer gets back space, layers and design freedom. That is the argument Vishay is making with a top-side cooled part in a package footprint engineers already know, and the familiarity of the TO-263 outline is part of the pitch: it lets a designer consider the thermal change without redrawing the layout from scratch.
What to watch from here
Three things will tell whether launches like this are compounding into results. First, design-win commentary: automotive parts qualify long before they ship, so management's characterisation of automotive content per vehicle is a leading indicator. Second, the mix between automotive and industrial demand, since the two cycles rarely turn at the same time. Third, inventory behaviour along the distribution channel, which for passive components has historically amplified both upswings and downswings.
For now, the takeaway is narrower. Vishay has broadened its Automotive Grade resistor range with a thermally repackaged device, in a brand — Sfernice — that it uses for its precision and power resistor lines, and it did so on a day its shares were up 1.21%. Whether that becomes revenue depends on decisions being made inside carmakers' power-electronics teams over the next several years, not on the announcement itself.
Key facts
- Stock: NYSE: VSH — $32.62, +1.21%, as of 15:16 GMT Sept. 29, 2026
- Product: Automotive Grade top-side cooling mount thick film power resistor
- Package: Compact TO-263 (D²PAK)
- Brand and datelinene: Vishay Sfernice; announced Malvern, Pa., Sept. 29, 2026
Frequently asked questions
What did Vishay Intertechnology announce?
On Sept. 29, 2026, from Malvern, Pennsylvania, Vishay Intertechnology introduced a new Automotive Grade top-side cooling mount thick film power resistor. The part is sold under the Vishay Sfernice brand and comes in a compact TO-263 package, also known as the D²PAK. The company designed it for automotive applications.
What does top-side cooling mean in a power resistor?
In a standard surface-mount resistor, heat escapes downward through the solder joints into the circuit board. A top-side cooling mount part moves the thermal interface to the upper face instead, so a heatsink or housing wall can contact it directly. That frees board space and copper layers, but requires mechanical clamping or a thermal pad.
What is a TO-263 or D²PAK package?
TO-263, commonly called D²PAK, is a surface-mount power package with a large metal tab for heat transfer. It is a long-established outline that circuit designers already know, which means a new part in that footprint can often be evaluated without a full redesign of an existing board layout.
Why does the Automotive Grade designation matter?
Automotive Grade signals the component has been qualified to the reliability standards carmakers and tier-one suppliers require: wider temperature range, thermal cycling and humidity endurance, controlled manufacturing and strict change notification. Qualification is expensive and slow, but a part designed into a vehicle platform tends to ship for that platform's production life.
How was VSH trading when the announcement came out?
Vishay Intertechnology shares were at $32.62 as of 15:16 GMT on Sept. 29, 2026, up 1.21% from the prior close of $32.23, within a day range of $32.45 to $33.13. On the same session the S&P 500 tracker SPY was down 0.18% at $764.20 and the Dow proxy DIA down 0.55% at $511.19.
Where are power resistors used in vehicles?
Power resistors handle current sensing, snubbing, pre-charge and discharge duties inside inverters, on-board chargers, DC-DC converters and domain controllers. As electric and hybrid drivetrains add more power electronics to each vehicle, the number of these functions per car rises, and the space and heat budget available for each one tightens.
Sources
- Vishay Intertechnology Releases New Top-Side Cooling Mount Thick Film Power Resistor in Compact TO-263 (D²PAK) Package — Business Insider Markets
Photo: blickpixel · Pixabay Content License — source
