Wolfson ultra low power multimedia CODEC with Class G headphone amp

Wolfson ultra low power multimedia CODEC with Class G headphone amp

Wolfson Microelectronics announces launch of WM8900 AudioPlus Smart Power solution – a high performance, ultra low power audio CODEC with Class G, ground referenced headphone driver.

WM8900 delivers best power consumption for feature rich multimedia codecs

The WM8900’s quiescent headphone playback power consumption is under 6 mW in voice mode and under 11mW in Hi-Fi mode. This is ideal for extending battery life in portable audio applications and betters the quiescent power consumption of many feature rich multimedia CODECs with ground referenced headphone outputs by up to 25%. When using a typical 300mAH battery, the WM8900 solution can extend battery life by up to 11 hours during headphone music playback at a typical 2mW/ch listening level.

Wolfson has also designed the WM8900 to address cost and board space by implementing ground referenced headphone outputs that remove the need for bulky DC blocking capacitors. The device is offered in a low profile 0.55mm high 40-pin QFN package, which makes the WM8900 ideal for slim, portable electronic applications.

The WM8900 Class G architecture is implemented by powering the headphone amplifier with a dual input, level shifting, intelligent charge pump. The charge pump generates both the positive and negative power supply rails, ground referencing the headphone outputs. Automatic control of the charge pump maintains the most power efficient operating state during headphone playback. This is done with no intervention required from the operator or host software.

The ground-referenced Class G headphone amplifier also eliminates many sources of pops & clicks during power up, power down, mute and unmute to deliver the high quality audio performance expected by today’s consumer.

Nat Edington, VP of marketing at Wolfson comments, “The WM8900 introduces Class G amplifier technology as a means to deliver ultra-low power, ground-referenced headphone drive on a hi-fi audio CODEC. The device is Wolfson’s latest low power, high performance audio CODEC and helps designers of portable media players and multimedia handsets to meet the challenge of delivering longer battery life with reduced system cost.”