LED driver IC has industry’s lowest voltage drop, says Infineon
The BCR431U allows more freedom in designing low current LED strips says Infineon Technologies. The constant current, linear, LED driver IC provides low-voltage drop performance for regulating LED current. It is the second device in the BCR family with low voltage drop of up to 37mA. Typical applications include LED strips, channel letters, architectural LED lighting, LED displays, emergency, retail and appliance lighting.
The voltage drop at the integrated driver IC can go down to 105mV at 15mA. According to Infineon, this is unmatched in the industry and improves overall efficiency and provides the voltage headroom required to compensate for the LED forward voltage tolerances and variances in the supply voltage. The BRCU431U allows the designer to either add LEDs to lighting designs, for example, use seven instead of six LEDs in series driven by one IC, or it can be used to increase the overall length of a LED strip design from, for example, 5m to 7m for less feeding points in the installation.
The LED current is easily adjustable via a high Ohmic resistor on a dedicated pin with an IC supply voltage ranging between 6.0 and 42V. For safe and reliable operation and to extend a system’s lifetime, a smart over-temperature controlling circuit keeps the current constant even at rising temperature. At the same time, it reduces the LED current only when the junction temperature gets very high. The BCR431U features a dimming capability of down to one per cent.
The BCR431U can be ordered now in a SOT-23-6 package. A demonstration board is also available.