STMicroelectronics, a developer of semiconductors for LED lighting, has announced a new series of highly accurate LED drivers with automatic power saving, enabling electronic signage such as road signs, advertising, stadium displays, battery or solar-powered signs and similar equipment to deliver better, high-resolution viewing by ensuring consistent brightness across the viewing area.

The brightness of an LED is closely related to the drive current, usually supplied by a separate driver chip. To provide the enhanced current control designers need, ST has introduced a family of driver chips capable of supplying 16 LED channels with driving capabilities of 3mA to 40mA and bit-to-bit accuracy within +/-1%. This accuracy is superior in tolerance to alternative drivers providing comparable drive current. ST's new devices also provide excellent current matching from chip to chip (+/-2%) to further enhance visual performance.

The new LED drivers are the STP16CPP05, STP16CPPS05, STP16DPP05 and STP16DPPS05. In addition to their enhanced current accuracy, they also provide optional features including ST-patented automatic power saving, as well as built-in LED error detection. Available variants allow designers to specify either or both of these value-added features, in a choice of four industry-standard package options.

The patented automatic power saving allows the drivers to turn off independently when no LED drive data is provided. This function delivers two benefits: software design is simplified as no power-save algorithm is required; and power savings are increased as the drivers turn off more quickly than is generally possible under software control.