Reap The Benefits Of Integrated Power-Limiting Controller ICs

 By Bob Kando, Texas Instruments

Many cost and engineering improvements are realized by integrating the current pass element and current-sense function into a hot-plug controller IC. Controlling the pass-element power is the safest and fastest way to charge the load capacitance. Pass-element protection is maintained while boosting efficiency and reliability.

High Power-Factor LED Driver Converts AC Input To Power Halogen Replacement

 By Keith Szolusha, Linear Technology

High-brightness LEDs are an inexpensive, robust, and green replacement for halogen light bulbs. Since halogen bulbs typically are driven with 12 or 24 V due to their excellent efficacy at those voltages, buildings have been wired with 12- and 24-V ac transformers for halogen lighting. Therefore, replacing existing halogen lighting with LEDs requires only an LED driver to convert the 12- or 24-V ac to an appropriate dc voltage. A suitable circuit is a switch-mode regulator LED driver designed for ac lighting that requires a high power factor (PF).

Thyristors Provide Overvoltage Protection With Minimal Signal Distortion

The NP-MC series thyristor surge protection devices (TSPDs) from On Semiconductor provide protection from transient overvoltage conditions and, with capacitance values 40% to 50% lower than existing products, do so with minimal signal distortion in high-speed xDSL, T1/E1, and other broadband equipment, according to the company.

Multilayer Varistor Thwarts ESD

Protecting sensitive circuits from over-voltage conditions caused by ESD, lightning, NEMP, and inductive switching, the 100-pF version of the AVX Corp. miniature 0201 TransGuard series multilayer varistor (MLV) withstands up to 1000 strikes at 8-kV contact with a less than 1-ns response time for ESD events and a leakage current of less than 5 µA at the rated voltage.

Automotive Battery Managers Set Safety Bars

Embarking as the industry's first two-chip protection solution including all necessary functionalities, the Atmel Corp. ATA6870/71 chipset requires less external components than comparable offerings because it includes a hot plug-in capability, six integrated ADCs with a cut-off frequency lower than 30 Hz, and a stackable microcontroller power supply.

Class G Audio Codec Razes Power Consumption

Maintaining a 3- by 3-mm footprint, the DA7210 class G audio codec from Dialog Semiconductor exhibits the industry's lowest quiescent headphone playback power consumption at 2.5 mW and 5-mW operating power under listening conditions, according to the company.