New Industry Products

Ultra-Low Drop Linear Driver Improves Efficiency of LED Strips

January 18, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Infineon Technologies AG has released the BCR430U, a constant-current linear LED driver IC. The BCR430U provides industry-leading drop performance for regulating LED current in standalone operation. No external power transistor is needed.

Typical applications for the BCR430U include LED strips, architectural LED lighting, LED displays as well as retail, appliance and emergency lighting.

The voltage drop at the integrated driver IC can go down to 135 mV at 50 mA. This improves overall efficiency and provides the voltage headroom required to compensate for LED forward voltage tolerances and variances in the supply voltage.

Thus, more flexibility in the lighting design is possible. With the BRCU430U, additional LEDs can be added to lighting designs without changing the supply voltage.

The 400mV headroom of the BCR430U easily enables a 4th LED, while the supply voltages do not need to be changed. (click on image to enlarge)

The LED driver current ranges between 5 mA and 100 mA, and can be easily adjusted via high ohmic resistor on a dedicated pin. The supply voltage ranges between 6 V and 42 V.

For safe and reliable operation and to extend the LED lifetime, a smart over-temperature controlling circuit reduces the LED current when the junction temperature is very high.

Summary of features:

  • Supply voltage from 6 to 42V
  • Controls up to 100mA LED current
  • 135mV saturation voltage at 50mA
  • LED current precision ±5%
  • Smart over temperature protection

The BCR430U is available now in a SOT-23-6 package.