LED drivers reduce system complexity

16th February 2015

Siobhan O'Gorman

0 0

A family of LED drivers, designed for low-power to medium-power automotive exterior lighting applications, has been introduced by Infineon Technologies. The LITIX Basic family reduces system complexity and improves reliability of turn indicator, tail, stop and reverse LED lights. By reducing part count and offering more features than discrete design approaches, the drivers allow automotive manufacturers to expand the use of brand-specific and safety-enhancing LED light systems.

Providing precise current control across a wide voltage range, the family consists of 15 pin-compatible linear current sources with one to three output channels and current ratings from 60 to 180mA. The family also includes versions supporting advanced diagnostic functions directly at the LED’s PoL, allowing car manufacturers to achieve highest light quality.

Today, the majority of LED rear light designs still use discrete resistor solutions for the control of the LEDs. Due to the high discrete components count, this increases the complexity and lowers the reliability of LED rear light configurations. According to Infineon, the LITIX Basic drivers reduce PCB part counts by approximately 40%, thus reducing the risk of failures and speeding up the design and assembly phases.

The family of drivers use the same package footprint, making it easy to adapt a design for reuse in new LED configurations when requirements change, such as output current or the need for failure detection. Featuring overload and over-temperature protection in all devices including output current reduction, the devices operate across a supply voltage range of 5.5-40V and can be connected in parallel.

For devices with integrated diagnostics, short circuit, open load or N-1 functionality can be chosen for LED chain failure detection. The LITIX Basic drivers are suitable for both centralised diagnosis and decentralised diagnosis. In a decentralised architecture, the devices communicate with an MCU located within the rear light or an extra-module near it. Whether centralised or decentralised, the drivers’ functionality ensures that faulty light functions can be quickly identified for fast repair. The devices also feature a PWM engine, allowing for two different light levels within one light, such as a combination of stop and tail light function.

“The LITIX Basic LED driver family is an important milestone for us within the promising automotive LED market that is expected to grow by double-digit within the next years,” commented Andreas Doll, Vice President & General Manager, Automotive Body Power, Infineon Technologies.

The RoHS compliant LITIX Basic devices are available now in production quantities and offered in an SSOP with 14 pins and an exposed pad.