austriamicrosystems develops high precision LED driver for latest LCD backlight technology together with LG.Philips LCD

austriamicrosystems (SWX:AMS),  a leading global designer and manufacturer of high performance analog ICs for communications, industrial, medical and automotive applications, announced that it has co-developed a new high precision LED driver, AS3693, with LG.Philips LCD, a leading provider of LCD displays. Designed for LCD TV backlight applications, the innovative AS3693 allows dimming of multiple segments of the LCD TV backlight, enabling highest contrast ratios and best picture quality. So-called block dimming results in only the required segments of the backlight being on, making bright spots in the TV picture really bright and dark parts completely black.

austriamicrosystems¡¯ AS3693 high precision LED driver offers control of 16 LED channels, where each channel can be controlled completely independently via built-in PWM generators while withstanding up to 50V. With the highest precision current control of 0.5% the AS3693 offers better accuracy than any competitor 16 channel LED driver currently on the market, guaranteeing the most accurate control of the LED light output for both white and RGB LED backlight panels.

A whole chain of AS3693 drivers can be controlled via SPI or I²C making the device the top choice for larger LCD panels. External clock and synchronizing inputs allow the easy synchronization of the LCD backlight with the TV picture. Built-in safety features include thermal shutdown as well as open and short LED detection.

Markus Luidolt, Marketing Manager for LED backlight drivers at austriamicrosystems, stated, ¡°To meet our customers¡¯ requirements, austriamicrosystems developed this high performance solution tailored to the specific needs of LCD TVs with LED backlight. Easy synchronization with the TV picture and highest precision to achieve optimal color and brightness levels are the most important characteristics of our AS369x-product family which is seeing strong interest from leading players in the LCD TV arena.¡±

austriamicrosystems will present its new LED driver family for LCD TV backlight applications in an off-exhibition suite at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas.