Freescale Illuminates LED Growth Markets with New Power Management ...

Tag : LED

"LED backlighting is a disruptive technology that will spurinnovation and growth in the LCD market and enable moreenergy-efficient and environmentally friendly LCD displays,"said Arman Naghavi, vice president and general manager ofFreescale's Analog, Mixed-Signal and Power Division. "As aleading analog supplier, Freescale is well-positioned to deliveradvanced driver ICs for LED backlighting applications. The marketfor LED backlights offers untapped potential as growthopportunities expand from laptops and monitors to LCD TVs andautomotive, consumer and industrial lighting applications."

Energy-efficient, mercury-free

LED technology offers many advantages over conventionalcold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) lighting systems, which arewidely used in conventional LCD displays. LED backlighting enhancesthe user viewing experience, offers more flexible backlightarchitectures and enables thinner display designs. Additionalbenefits of LED backlighting over conventional CCFL technologyinclude higher efficiency (more light at a given power), reducedpower consumption, a five-fold longer lifespan, enhanceddurability, and up to 100 times better contrast ratios for clearerdefinition on screen.

A key benefit of LED technology is that it is free from mercury, asubstance known to be toxic to humans. Mercury is a key material inCCFL lighting systems, which are used in 99 percent of existing LEDTV displays. In Europe, the European Directive on the Restrictionof Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electronics (RoHS) hasmandated that manufacturers must move to mercury-free LEDs.

Growth markets: TV and lighting

Freescale analog and power management solutions are at the heart ofnumerous energy-saving advances used in consumer electronics, largeappliances, automotive systems and motor control. With the launchof its LED backlight driver IC portfolio, Freescale plans to expandinto growing backlighting markets, such as large-screen digital TVsand commercial lighting. Conventional LCD TVs without LED backlighttechnology are major energy consumers within households. LEDbacklights with local dimming can help reduce power consumption byup to 30 percent by allowing manufacturers to adopt thinner,lighter form factors.

Freescale plans to announce LED backlighting solutions for LCD TVsin Q1 2009. Also in 2009, the company expects to pursue the LEDlighting market for automotive, commercial and residentialapplications, which is expected to eventually dwarf the LCD TVmarket.

About the MC34844 LED driver IC

Freescale's MC34844 IC is the industry's most compact LED backlightdriver IC solution for large notebook and monitor applications.Capable of driving up to 160 LEDs in 10 parallel strings, thehighly integrated device provides greater LED control capabilitiesthan any other single-chip solution currently available.

The MC34844 provides an exceptional level of intelligence for LEDbacklighting. The pulse-width modulation (PWM) generator supportsLED dimming, a feature that helps improve picture quality andenables a long screen life. The device also is designed to deliverconsistent performance over the lifetime of the LEDs bycompensating for optical and temperature degradation.

Using the device's I2C / SMBus interface, developers can programthe LED current, PWM frequency and PWM duty cycle for the LEDs.Multiple devices can be synchronized for driving more LEDs. TheMC34844 is engineered to remove the burden on the controller forPWM generation and to eliminate the need for PWM signals to travelthrough the printed circuit board, which can cause noise andelectromagnetic compatibility performance issues.

MC34844 product features

-- Input voltage 7V to 28V

-- 3.5A integrated boost

-- Output voltage up to 60V

-- 10-channel current driver with +/-2% current matching

-- Programmable LED current with up to 55mA current per channel

-- Dynamic headroom control to improve device efficiency

-- Multiple control options

-- I2C / SMBus interface

-- PWM input

-- Analog control

-- Programmable PWM generator from 100Hz to 20kHz frequency

-- PWM synchronizing capability for improved matching betweendevices

-- User-programmable overvoltage protection

-- LED open failure detection and OTP/OCP/UVLO lockout

-- 32-pin 5x5x0.8mm TQFN package

Pricing and availability

Freescale is currently sampling the MC34844 LED driver IC forlaptops and monitor applications. Broader market availability isplanned for Q4 2008. The suggested resale price of the MC34844 in10K quantities is $1.44 (USD).

For more information about Freescale's LED driver ICs, visitwww.freescale.com/files/pr/led.html.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design andmanufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive,consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Theprivately held company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design,research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in morethan 30 countries. Freescale is one of the world's largestsemiconductor companies with 2007 sales of $5.7 billion (USD).www.freescale.com.

Freescale and the Freescale logo are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. in the U.S. and othercountries. All other product or service names are the property oftheir respective owners. (C) Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2008

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]