Lighting Management for Multimedia Displays
Oct 1, 2003
With built-in LED drivers, integrated lighting management units efficiently drive white and RGB LEDs in color displays of modern cell phones to conserve power and enhance battery life....
Alleviating Noise Concerns in Handheld Wireless Products
Oct 1, 2003
Power supply ICs with built-in spread-spectrum switching alleviate harmonic interference with sensitive RF circuitry in battery-powered wireless products....
Integration Saves Time and Board Space
Oct 1, 2003
[For a copy of this article in PDF format, which displays figures and equations, click here. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, free download.] The first...
Hot-Swap Power Controllers Continue To Make Progress
Sep 1, 2003
Hot-swap power controllers have usually protected circuit boards and telecom/networking systems from damage when cards or boards are either removed or installed under live condition. ...
Power Converter Makers Take Silicon Route
Jun 1, 2003
Two products out of power supply makers Power-One and Vicor have seemingly affirmed the long-standing thesis that the functionality of the dc-dc converter will eventually be fully integrated on a single piece of silicon....
The Evolution of Smart Power Relays
Jun 1, 2003
Let's compare smart power relays with their traditional electromechanical counterparts to see which one outperforms the other....
Predictive Control Maximizes Synchronous Rectifier Efficiency
May 1, 2003
Using synchronous rectification, optimal components, and a few design tricks, you've reached your goal of, say, 91% power converter efficiency. Not bad, but what if you could gain 4% additional efficiency with little to no added design complexity....
Controller Optimizes High- to Low-Voltage Power Conversion
Apr 1, 2003
National Semiconductor has launched an integrated controller-driver chipset for high-voltage power conversion applications. This current-fed push-pull pulse-width modulated controller LM5041 works seamlessly with the 100V power MOSFET driver LM5101/2 to deliver efficiencies in excess of 90% for 48V to sub 2.5V and below conversion....
Battery-Based Power Supply ICs Require Unique Characteristics
Feb 1, 2003
Battery-based applications require the power supply controller IC to need very few external components. Any that are used should be low-cost types, while the IC should be packaged in some form of small outline package to minimize size and weight....
Spread Spectrum ICs Cut EMI
Feb 1, 2003
Conducted and radiated EMI emissions from switchmode power supplies can create havoc with nearby electronic systems. Alliance Semiconductor has developed a lower cost all-electronic approach for EMI suppression - spread spectrum modulation of the power supply's PWM signal....
SSPCs Handle Heavy Loads With Foldback Current Limiting
Jan 1, 2003
Turning on a power source into a highly capacitive load can wreak havoc on circuit elements and protection devices. Foldback current limiting allows circuit elements to withstand transient currents without over-designing for maximum load conditions....
FPAAs Target High-Volume Analog Applications
Jan 1, 2003
A combination of hardware and CAD/CAE software simplifies the design of analog circuits using field-programmable analog arrays (FPAAs) from Anadigm. The...
BLDC Drive IC Handles 50V Fractional HP Motors
Dec 1, 2002
A new 3-phase motor controller IC employs a fixed off-time PWM current control and bootstrapped high-side gate drives, enhanced with synchronous rectification and cross-conduction protection....
