Diodes Incorporated is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets. Yesterday, it announced a miniature DC/DC converter AL8811 supporting boost, buck and voltage-inverting circuit topologies for LED lighting and universal energy management applications.

The AL8811 is available in the MSOP-8L package of 3.0mm x 4.9mm x 1.1mm, needing only smallest external components and significantly reducing circuit footprint and BOM cost.

The AL8811 is advantageous for many low-voltage LED lighting applications, particularly for dimmable MR16 lamps. For instance, using the AL8811 in boost mode along with an AL8807A buck LED driver creates a high-power factor, dimmable MR16 solution that is both compact in size and low in cost. Additionally, this two-stage design ensures good compatibility with a variety of electronic transformers and low LED current ripple.

With a wide input voltage operating range from 3V to 20V, and an output voltage up to 36V, the AL8811 is suitable for many different 12V AC lighting applications. The shut-down current of the AL8811 is also very low at 0.01µA (typical), while its maximum output switch current is 1.6A. The AL8811 provides designers with a particularly versatile solution for DC/DC conversion circuits.