Driver consumes 12 times less power than industry-standard

24th February 2015

Nat Bowers

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Datasheet

Diodes Incorporated has introduced the ULN2003V12 and ULN2003F12A relay and inductive load sink drivers, providing seven and four channels, respectively. The ULN2003V12 consumes 12 times less power while offering a direct replacement to the industry-standard ULN2003A from other vendors, while the ULN2003F12A provides a smaller footprint when fewer output channels are required, such as when driving low-voltage stepper motors.

The ULN2003V12 and ULN2003F12 both support 3.3-5V CMOS logic inputs, making them compatible with a wide range of MCUs and logic devices. They also both integrate an input RC snubber circuit, which improves performance in noisy operating conditions, and an internal input stage pull-down resistor to simplify the use of tri-state input logic. The use of low-output impedance drivers minimises on-chip power dissipation while still supporting output pull-up voltages up to 20V. The devices feature low, 25μA/channel supply current and outstanding ESD performance of 4kV HBM, making them suitable for industrial applications and domestic appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers.

Each output of the relay and inductive load sink drivers is connected in a common-cathode configuration via internal freewheeling diodes to the COM pin. This provides an increased current sink capability by combining several adjacent channels in parallel. For example, under typical conditions the ULN2003V12 can handle a 1A load current when all seven channels are connected in parallel.

Miniaturised packages help reduce board space requirements, with the ULN2003V12 available in SO-16 and TSSOP-16 packages, while the ULN2003F12 is offered in a U-DFN3030-10 package.

The ULN2003V12 and ULN2003F12 load sink drivers are available now for $0.12 and $0.10 each, respectively, in 10,000 unit quantities.