Designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, MagnaChip Semiconductor, has announced that it has launched three-channel BLU (backlight unit) LED driver for UHD TVs. For high-resolution UHD displays, this new standard display product is designed to control the local LED dimming of up to 270 LEDs through a maximum of 90 LEDs per channel.
In addition, it provides a dual dimming solution with Analog and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) for efficient and stable LED dimming, which reduces power consumption and helps achieve a high contrast ratio in UHD TVs.
Analog dimming, a type of LED dimming technology, adjusts the brightness of the LED by controlling the amount of current flowing through the LED in a linear manner. With this solution, the LED color changes when the current fluctuates.
By contrast, PWM dimming is a method to minimize the color change. MagnaChip’s new three-channel BLU LED Driver is designed to selectively use analog or PWM dimming according to the image signal, thus providing the solution to realize high contrast ratio and power efficiency.
The BLU LED driver also provides for high current accuracy within ±1% tolerance by using the average mode of the current control technology. In addition, this product supports Low PWM Dimming by operating at 480 kHz High speed Switching Frequency to elaborately control the current in the dark area of the image with a narrow pulse width.
Other advantages of MagnaChip’s BLU LED driver are that it provides various circuit protection functions, including short-circuit protection and under-voltage lockout (UVLO) to attain high reliability. In addition, this product features over-duty protection, which keeps the PWM duty ratio (on/off ratio) constant.
It also provides for current-sense resistor short protection, which prevents over-current from flowing into a specific area of the circuit. MOSFET drain-source short protection also detects and protects the shorts of the MOSFETs in the circuit.
YJ Kim CEO of MagnaChip, said: “MagnaChip’s 3-channel BLU LED driver, which features low power and high contrast ratio, will enhance the product value of high definition UHD TV.” He added, “As the UHD TV market grows rapidly, we will continue to strengthen our display driver lineup by developing multi-channel BLU LED drivers that increase the number of channels as well as LED current accuracy.”
