New Industry Products

Cypress Semi Introduces First Integrated LED Driver & Controller On One Chip

March 31, 2009 by Jeff Shepard

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. introduced the PowerPSoC® family of integrated embedded power controllers, which the company states is the industry’s first single-chip solution for both controlling and driving high-power LEDs. The PowerPSoC family integrates four constant-current regulators and four 32V MOSFETs with Cypress’s PSoC® programmable system-on-chip, which includes a microcontroller, programmable analog and digital blocks, and memory.

According to the company, this unprecedented level of integration provides customers with a single-chip solution for high-quality LED-based lighting products, and extends into other embedded applications such as white goods and industrial control. The result is said to be end systems with fewer components, faster design cycles, lower power consumption and higher reliability.

The companion software for PowerPSoC, the PSoC Designer™ development tool, enables designers to quickly and efficiently program the controllers for different lighting and power options. It also allows changes late in the design cycle without having to change the circuit board layout.

"We are bringing the unique PSoC value propositions – integration, flexibility and programmable analog – to a new set of applications and customers," said Curtis Davis, Vice President of Cypress’s PowerPSoC Division. "PowerPSoC represents an important step in the development of the PSoC platform, as well as the entire Cypress product line."

"General illumination, medical, and architectural LED lighting applications all stand to benefit from the combination of integration and programmability offered by PowerPSoC," stated Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell Group, Inc. "Those same applications offer long-term compound growth for the next five years of over 90%/year, as well as immediate growth potential in 2009."

Among the PowerPSoC prominent features are: up to four integrated, independently operated 32V/1A MOSFETs offer the ability to drive high power LEDs up to 1A; up to four programmable hysteretic controllers provide controlled current output; up to four low-side gate drivers with programmable drive strength provide the ability to support voltages above 32V with external MOSFETs; up to 2MHz switching frequency allows smaller, less expensive inductors; floating load buck, floating load buck-boost, and boost converter topologies enable flexibility for applications’ different voltage requirements; auxiliary power regulator offers the ability to power the chip from a single power supply; and 16-bit dimming for lighting applications that require high-resolution dimming.

In addition, Cypress is offering the CY3268 demonstration kit, which drives four LEDs in a small form-factor (2.5 x 3.5") with basic reprogramming/debugging capability. A PowerPSoC evaluation kit (CY3267) is also available for customer prototyping. It offers a modular approach with interface for daughter-cards to support multiple applications, multiple protocols (DMX512 and DALI) and customer-specific daughter cards. The CY3267 also offers flexible topology, supporting buck, boost and buck-boost configurations.

The CY3268 is priced at US$50 and the CY3267 is priced at US$150.