Multi-channel LED driver ICs enable advanced automotive lighting

LED systems are increasingly used in automotive lighting applications to enable design elements, improve efficiency and support ADAS. Applications range from simple single-function exterior lighting to more advanced systems, such as Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB), Advanced Front Lighting (AFL), LED matrix front lighting and Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) systems. Strong market demand has driven car makers and lighting system suppliers to produce both state-of-the-art products for high-end markets, as well as simplified or low-cost products for mid-tier and entry-level markets.

Despite this wide range of market requirements, car makers and lighting system suppliers are increasingly challenged to create differentiated and cost-efficient designs, often within narrow market windows. These dynamics are leading design teams to select platform solutions featuring scalable architectures over less flexible single product designs.

NXP's LED driver IC portfolio is designed to enable maximum design freedom with minimal cost in initial development, mass production and future system upgrades. The ASLx500 and ASLx416 ICs provide a single-platform architecture with the capability to drive virtually any configuration of LEDs and channels, while keeping system cost down. Optimal digital integration helps ensure a low external component count for maximum robustness and ease of design.

Jens Hinrichsen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Secure Car Access & Networking Business Line, NXP Semiconductors, commented: "Carmakers want their lighting platforms to be future-proof and cross-platform to cover the range of new exterior lighting functions that come with increasingly connected and automated vehicles - and this is exactly the flexibility and scalability that NXP has designed into its new LED driver IC portfolio. The portfolio leverages NXP's deep understanding of automotive LED lighting architectures to meet the stringent requirements of carmakers for cost effectiveness, performance, quality and robustness."

Both the ASLx500 and ASLx416 LED driver ICs are available now.