New Industry Products

Exar Releases LED Driver To Reduce Board Space Requirements Critical In The Design Of Handheld Electronics

March 09, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Exar Corp. released a new LED driver – the SP6887 – that is said to save valuable board space by leveraging its small packaging (3 x 3mm QFN), and the integration of off-chip functions which lowers external component requirements. The SP6887 is a charge pump based 4-channel LED driver that requires only five external components.

It is suitable for two key market areas: small display/keypad LED lighting applications found in handheld portable devices such as PDAs, cell phones and data collection devices, and also in architectural and general purpose LED systems found in office equipment operator panels.

"In addition to reducing board space needs, the device delivers lowered Bill-of-Material (BOM) costs giving OEMs a competitive advantage for supporting price-sensitive market conditions," said Joe Vyvijal, Vice President, Power Product Line. "The SP6887, with its four independently controlled channels, is an ideal choice for keypads utilizing Light Guide Film (LGF) systems where only portions of the available LEDs are illuminated to accentuate specialized functions in end-user devices."

The SP6887 is compatible with PWM dimming up to 1 kHz and analog dimming and has the ability to enable/dim individual LEDs through a 3 bit parallel interface and can vary the current through an analog control pin. In addition, the drivers are adjustable from 1.1 to 30mA with peak efficiencies of 90% and have an input voltage operating range of 2.5 to 5.5V. Also, the SP6887 has 3% channel-to-channel current matching ensuring even color and brightness between all four LEDs.

Samples of the SP6887 are available now and it operates over a -40 to +85°C temperature range. In 1k piece quantities the SP6887 is $0.65.