Infineon Technologies launched its LITIX™ Basic family of LED drivers specifically designed for low-power to medium-power automotive exterior lighting applications. The high-integration LED driver family reduces system complexity and improves reliability of turn indicator, tail, stop and reverse LED lights. By reducing part count and offering more features than discrete design approaches, the LITIX Basic family allows automotive manufacturers to expand the use of brand-specific and safety-enhancing LED light systems.

The LITIX Basic family provides precise current control across a wide voltage range. It consists of 15 pin-compatible linear current sources with 1 to 3 output channels and current ratings from 60 to 180mA. In addition to stable and reliable LED brightness, the LITIX Basic family includes versions supporting advanced diagnostic functions directly at the LED’s point of load. This allows car manufacturers to achieve highest light quality.

System complexity reduction

Today, the majority of LED rear light designs still use discrete resistor solutions for the control of the LEDs. Apart from higher system cost, this increases the complexity and thus lowers reliability of LED rear light configurations due to the high discrete components count. PCB part counts can be reduced by about 40 percent, with corresponding reduction in risk of failures and savings in both the design and assembly phase, where the automotive industry occasionally has to struggle with poor solder joints.

Scalable feature set with pin-to-pin footprint compatibility

With the automotive qualified LITIX Basic family, Infineon is the first semiconductor supplier to offer such a scalable portfolio of 15 LED drivers that use the same package footprint. This makes it easy to adapt a design for reuse in new LED configurations when requirements change, such as output current or the need for failure detection. With parallel connection of several LITIX Basic LED drivers, load currents higher than the 180mA of individual devices can be easily realized. The LITIX Basic family features overload and over-temperature protection in all devices including output current reduction, and also a wide supply voltage range of 5.5V to 40V.

For devices with integrated diagnostics, SC (short circuit), OL (open load) or N-1 (diagnostic bus between devices) functionality can be chosen for LED chain failure detection. The LITIX Basic drivers are suitable for both, centralized diagnosis – meaning that the failure diagnosis is controlled by the centralized Body Control Module – and also for decentralized diagnosis to enable real-time fault detection. In a decentralized architecture the LITIX Basic LED drivers communicate with a microcontroller which can be located within the rear light or an extra-module near it. Whether centralized or decentralized, the LITIX Basic LED drivers’ functionality ensures that faulty light functions can be quickly identified for fast repair. This fulfills safety aspects and legal requirements and helps maintain the appearance of the car as designed by the car manufacturer and thus the high-quality image of a car brand. A further option of the LITIX Basic LED drivers is the PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) engine that helps to easily realizetwo different light levels within one light, such as a combination of stop and tail light function.

“The LITIX Basic LED driver family is an important milestone for us within the promising automotive LED market that is expected to grow by double-digit within the next years,” says Andreas Doll, Vice President & General Manager, Automotive Body Power at Infineon Technologies AG. “The LITIX system advantages have already convinced car manufacturers worldwide.”

Availability and packaging

Volume production of all 15 LITIX Basic LED drivers has started. LITIX Basic devices are available in a lead-free “green” RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances)-qualified SSOP package with 14 pins and exposed pad (PG-SSOP-14EP).

Further information

Further information on the LITIX Basic portfolio is available at www.infineon.com/LITIX-basic