Kinetic Technologies Launches Highly Programmable RGB and RGBW LED Driver Family

San Jose, Calif. March 25, 2014   Kinetic Technologies, a high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductor company focused on developing power management solutions for computing, consumer, industrial, and communications markets, today introduced the KTD2026/7 product family of RGB and RGBW LED Drivers for use in Smartphones, Tablet Computers and other portable or mains powered electronics. The devices operate from 2.7V to 5.5V input voltage and can drive up to three or four LEDs, without the need for any inductors or flying capacitors.  Driving LEDs for system status indication, decoration lights and color mixing are easily programmed via I2C interface.

The KTD2026/2027 are three and four channel current sink regulators, with programmability for a wide range of timing, patterns and current settings.  Packaged in a 1.5mm x 1.5mm x 0.5mm UTDFN, with only a small input capacitor recommended, the device family offers the smallest total solution on the market today. Competitive solutions typically require an inductor or flying capacitor, however KTD2026 family of products has an extremely low 40mV (typ) dropout voltage at 10mA, making it the ideal solution for common Lithium-ion or fixed 3.3V to 5.0V systems. Current matching and accuracy are rated at +/-5%; the devices have excellent matching across the full load range.

For more flexibility, programming is done with I2C control.  A wide range of functionality is programmable, including LED current, repeating interval timing, patterns, color-mixing, fade in and out timing. LED current can be programmed up to 24mA in 192-steps.  Patterns can be programmed and can continue running even when the system microcontroller is in standby mode for power savings.

“Keeping the system processor awake to run an LED status indicator isn۪t an efficient use of the power budget in battery powered systems.” said Erik Ogren, Director of Marketing at Kinetic Technologies. Being able to program RGB LED patterns and put the processor to sleep while the LEDs are running has advantages in power savings as well as saving GPIO pins.

KTD2026/2027 are available in a 1.5mm x 1.5mm x 0.5mm 8-pin UTDFN package. The devices are rated over the -40 degree C to +85 degree C temperature range.

Key Features of KTD2026/2027

  • High accuracy output current: +/-5%
  • Ultra-low 40mV dropout at 10mA
  • I2C used to program LED current, timing, patterns, color mixing
  • Smallest PCB layout: 1.5mm x 1.5mm UTDFN package with 1uF input capacitor

About Kinetic Technologies

Kinetic Technologies designs, develops and markets proprietary high-performance analog power and protection semiconductors across mobile, industrial, automotive and enterprise markets. We deliver protection solutions tolerant of real world fault conditions and make power management solutions smaller and more energy efficient. Kinetic Technologies has R&D centers in Silicon Valley and Asia, with worldwide operations, logistics and customer sales support. Visit www.kinet-ic.com for more information.

*The Kinetic Technologies logo is a trademark of Kinetic Technologies. All other brand and product names appearing in this document are the property of their respective holders.