Micrel Intros MIC2860, the New White LED Driver

Micrel, Inc., a global manufacturer of IC solutions for the worldwide analog, Ethernet and high bandwidth markets, launched the MIC2860, the latest in its product family of high efficiency White LED (WLED) drivers.

In a press release, Micrel (News - Alert) said that its new MIC2860 is designed to drive two WLEDs and features a typical dropout of 50mV at 30mA per channel. The IC is aimed at portable display backlighting, keypad backlighting and camera flash in mobile devices.

"The MIC2860-2 WLED Driver gives our customers a very high efficiency, yet cost effective solution for situations where only two WLEDs are required for backlighting in portable devices," Andy Khayat, director of the Portable Business Unit at Micrel said in a press release.

Micrel’s release indicated that the device's low dropout linear architecture is capable of offering the highest possible battery life in consumer applications by eliminating switching losses present in traditional charge pumps or inductive boost circuits. This, according to the company, allows the WLEDs to be driven directly from the battery and has the added benefit of eliminating inductive or charge pump switching noise from the system.

Moreover, the two channels are capable of offering uniform display illumination under all conditions. The maximum WLEDs brightness can be externally preset by a resistor and then dimmed using either a PWM signal or a single wire digital control.

In addition to this, Micrel’s release also revealed that the MIC2860-2D single wire digital interface accepts digital programming pulses providing 32 dimming steps, while the MIC2860-2P accepts a PWM dimming signal. The MIC2860-2D is available in Thin SOT-23 and SC-70 six pin packages with a junction temperature range of -40degC to +125degC.

In May 2010, TMC (News - Alert) reported on Micrel’s launch of a highly integrated Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) for 4G wireless applications, the MIC2829. The MIC2829 is reported as a comprehensive power management solution that powers processors, USB-PHY, memory, multi-standard RF transceivers and power amplifiers, associated I/O interfaces and other system requirements. Earlier the same month, Micrel also released the MIC47050, a 0.5A high speed, very low dropout regulator ULDO with input voltage capability down to 1.0V.