Date: 21/11/2009

Direct and edge LED backlighting drivers from Analogic for LED backlit LCD TVs

Analogic has launched the direct and edge LED backlighting drivers, a new chip set family in a series of power management semiconductor systems to enhance energy efficiency and user-experience for LED backlit LCD televisions.

"The launch of these new products for the LED backlit television market represents our continued drive to offer innovative solutions that conserve power and deliver a better end-user experience," stated Richard Williams, CEO of AnalogicTech. "We have a wealth of experience seamlessly integrating our ModularBCD-based LED drivers into tier one handset manufacturers' high-end handset designs. This technology allows us to deliver the same high-performance and energy efficiency to innovative solutions in the LED backlit LCD television space."

The intelligent control of LED current sinks in direct/matrix backlight applications can provide precise brightness of individual segments based on image content and can give the consumer truer blacks and improved contrast for a better viewing experience. Dynamic LED backlighting also makes it possible to meet the increasingly stringent energy consumption specifications for large panel TVs.

"The unique design and process advantages of our proprietary ModularBCD process allow the effective integration of low voltage digital circuitry with high-voltage analog circuitry. This combination enables the dynamic management of high current, high voltage LED current sinks and results in significant power savings," added Williams.

AnalogicTech also announced 7 new products for LED powering they are,

LED driver chipset with integrated boost converter for direct/matrix backlighting
AAT2400 (8ch Master) & AAT2401 unlatched (8ch Slave) chipset
AAT2402M (8ch Master) & AAT2402S latched (8ch Slave) chipset
Dedicated LED driver for direct/matrix backlighting
AAT2403 (16ch) latched LED driver
Dedicated LED driver for Edge backlighting
AAT2405 PWM with phase shift (6ch) LED driver
AHK2417E latched (8ch) LED driver
AHK2418E latched (16ch) LED driver
DC/DC boost controller
AAT2404 high voltage boost controller

These devices utilize Analogic's patent pending Multiple Chip Voltage Feedback technique that ensures the proper LED supply voltage is simultaneously regulated up to 16 chipsets (or 256 channels) allowing precise control of up to 2560 LEDs for direct or dynamic backlighting solutions or up to 16 channels for Edge.

"Adoption of these new technologies will be driven by three key factors: Environmental mandates to eliminate the mercury CCFLs used in today's backlighting, the continued price reduction of white LEDs bringing the cost of LED backlighting to parity with CCFLs, and the consumers' desire for a better viewing experience," stated Phil Dewsbury, Product Line Director, Display and Lighting Products. "With the products announced today and the pipeline of enhancements, we have the best system solution for the TV market to deliver on the promise of power conservation and enhanced user-experience."

Availability: All available for design-in.