Multi-Channel LED Driver for Automotive Exteriors

NXP Semiconductors announced the launch of its new multi-channel LED Driver IC portfolio for automotive exterior lighting. The portfolio addresses growing industry demand for a cost-effective, flexible and scalable platform architecture to enable existing and emerging LED lighting features.

LED systems are increasingly used in automotive lighting applications to enable design elements, improve efficiency and support advanced driver assistance systems (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 & 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 portfolio consists of two families – the multiphase boost ASLx500, and multichannel buck ASLx416 driver ICs. Together, these families provide a single-platform architecture with the capability to drive virtually any configuration of LEDs and channels, while keeping system cost down. Both are based on NXP's world-class automotive qualified ABCD9 technology – a platform for mixed-signal, high-voltage integration. Optimal digital integration helps ensure a low external component count for maximum robustness and ease of design.

"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," said Jens Hinrichsen, senior vice president & general manager for NXP's Secure Car Access & Networking Business Line. "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."

Key features include: Scalable architecture for cross-platform multi-channel solutions; Drive 120mA to over 1.5A LED current per channel with common PCB design; Multiphase boost with two independent voltage outputs, for improved efficiency; External buck FETs for better thermal design and EMC optimization for high current applications; High flexibility to drive any number of LED configurations, and matrix or segment switching with a common architecture and few external components; SPI interface enables programming of key control parameters and full diagnostics; and Pin-to-pin compatibility and package consistency allow sailable PCB designs. The new NXP automotive LED lighting portfolio is available now.