By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief
ON Semiconductor has released a family of four devices that help simplify the design of advanced vehicle lighting to ensure greater road safety. Aimed specifically at low-power solid-state lighting, the new family is comprised of two LED drivers (NCV7683 and NCV7685 ) and two current controllers (NCV7691 and NCV7692).
For improved road safety, automakers are moving away from the simple “on/off” operation to sophisticated systems that incorporate movement and variable intensity in rear combination lamps (RCLs), turn signals, fog lamps, and other externally modulated LED clusters to provide highly visible warnings to other road users, said ON Semiconductor.
The NCV7685 and NCV7683 integrate 12 and eight linear programmable current sources, respectively, enabling multiple strings of LEDs to be driven with up to 100 mA per channel. A variety of configurability options are available, including daisy-chaining, illumination level control, current regulation, sequencing functionality, and channel combination.
The NCV7685 incorporates an 8-bit I2 C interface with CRC8 error detection for individual output current adjustment via pulse-width modulation (PWM), and for advanced diagnostics — including detection of an open LED string or undervoltage condition — a dedicated diagnostic pin is also available. The NCV7685 may be powered with a DC/DC controller and/or LDO voltage regulator , depending on design requirements.
The NCV7691 provides a regulated wide current range for driving LEDs in one or multiple strings, with only an external NPN bipolar transistor and a feedback resistor. The driver allows the addition of additional single channels to multi-channel systems and supports a dimming function via its PWM input. For safe operation, the NCV7691 includes open-string, short-circuit, and thermal-shutdown functionality. The derivative NCV7692 offers a faster response time and a reduced threshold for open-load detection.
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