New Industry Products

Seamless Animation with Zero Audible Noise with RBG LED Drivers

November 29, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced a new family of LED drivers with integrated, independent color mixing, brightness control and a power-saving mode. The LP5018, LP5024, LP5030 and LP5036 enable smooth, vivid color and reduce system power consumption.

The devices are the industry's first to offer a 29-kHz dimming frequency, above human-audible range, to help designers of applications that use a human-machine interface, such as portable electronics, building automation and appliances, eliminate the noise typically heard when dimming lights.

Additionally, designers can achieve smoother color and brightness-level adjustments compared to standard pulse-width modulation solutions, by taking advantage of the devices' integrated 12-bit PWM generator.

There are smart homes and other LED-driver applications for which interaction between persons and machines is necessary. In these applications, more persons think performance is necessary for multi-channel RGB LED drivers. This performance helps to get LED-animation effects for excellent user experiences such as blinking, breathing, and chasing.

These devices make the color mixing and intensity control, formerly called brightness control, better. Thus, users have the good experience of live effects and writing code easily. The optimization of performance for RGB LEDs makes the device a possible alternative for applications with interaction between persons and machines.

These LED drivers controls each LED output with a 12-bit PWM resolution at 29-kHz switching frequency. This control helps get an intensity that decreases smoothly and stops noise that you can hear. Having different color-mixing and intensity-control registers makes writing the software code straightforward. When targeting fade-in, fade-out type breathing effect, the global R, G, B bank control reduces the microcontroller loading significantly. These drivers also implement a pwm phase-shifting function to help reduce the input power budget when LEDs turn on simultaneously.

These devices have an automatic power-saving mode to get the ultralow quiescent current. When channels are all off for 30ms, the device total power consumption is down to 10 µA, which makes these drivers possible alternatives for battery-powered end equipment.

Key features and benefits of the LP5018, LP5024, LP5030 and LP5036 LED drivers

  • High-resolution pwm dimming: The devices in TI's LP50xx family integrate a 12-bit PWM generator that operates above a human-audible frequency, at 29 kHz per channel, enabling smooth, vivid color with zero audible noise.
  • Ultra-low quiescent current: An integrated power-saving mode dramatically reduces power consumption to as low as 0.01mA from the typical 9mA offered in existing devices, improving total system efficiency in standby mode.
  • Multichannel options: 18-, 24-, 30- and 36-channel options provide independent color mixing and brightness control, while three integrated, programmable banks enable simplified software coding and ease of design.

PACKAGE, AVAILABILITY AND PRICING

The LP5018 and LP5024 LED drivers are available now in the TI store. Additionally, preproduction samples of the LP5030 and LP5036 are available now in the TI store. The table below lists pricing and package type.

(click on table to enlarge)