AnalogicTech Unveils Power-Efficient Step-Up LED Backlight Drivers for Handheld Devices

Advanced Analogic Technologies (AnalogicTech), an analog semiconductor company focused on powering innovative solutions in consumer, industrial, and communications markets, introduced the AAT14XX family of 31 mA step-up single-channel light-emitting diode (LED) drivers capable of driving up to 10 LEDs in a single string.

The drivers' small size and quiet operation make them ideal LED backlight solutions for single cell Lithium-ion battery-based equipment. They can be used in devices such as mobile and smart phones, MP3 players, portable media players (PMPs) and portable navigation device-type applications with larger screens.

The AAT14XX family enables larger displays. The new LED family offers filtered pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming to remove interference with the radios in handheld devices. With a 1.15 x 1.55 mm wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP) size, the devices require only 0.7 cm of space on a printed circuit board.

“The requirements and features for optimal backlight power management are constantly evolving in tandem with the growth of the LED market,” said Roger Smullen, director of strategic marketing at AnalogicTech, in a statement.

 “The AAT14XX family brings to market one of the smallest solutions for serial LED drivers, strengthening our portfolio for handheld devices,” Smullen added. “These new products add new capabilities to our comprehensive LED offerings, which are rapidly encompassing a broad range of end products ranging from handheld devices to tablets to televisions.”

Backlight in a LCD screen is the source of power drain in portable systems. The new AAT14XX family addresses power drain issue with three dimming controls, and an integrated precision, high voltage current sink. With this approach, high efficiency of 88 percent, significantly more than that offered by traditional LED drivers that use a ballast resistor, can be achieved.  

Recently, SmarTrend, a stock monitoring company, identified an uptrend for Advanced Analogic Technologies (News - Alert). In approximately 4 months since that trend was identified, Advanced Analogic has returned 15.2 percent.