ROHM launches LED driver that reduces the design cycle for automotive lights

Semiconductor manufacturer, ROHM, recently developed a BD183x7EFV-M, a 4-channel linear LED driver that substantially reduces the circuit board area and design cycle of automotive LED lights. The new product has built-in MOSFETs for the increasingly popular LED rear lights (brake lights, rear tail lights), fog lights, turn signals, etc.

The driver IC BD183x7EFV-M adopts two new technologies:

1. ROHM’s original heat dissipation circuit and LED individual control function, which can significantly reduce the circuit board area. 2. Application design cycle of LED lights.

The original heat dissipation circuit is used to reduce the pins required for each output channel in the past to only one, and through a small 16pin package, 4 channels have a higher output (150mA / ch). At the same time, when lighting automotive LED lights with different specifications, two LED drivers are required compared to the conventional one. If individual LED control functions are used, only one driver is required to drive.

In regards to shortening the application design cycle, through the original thermal dispersion circuit, the design required for each channel only needs to be done once — which helps to greatly reduce the design man-hours. Also, when using the LED individual control function, there are two control methods to choose from when an abnormality occurs (uniform OFF control or individual OFF control). This supports the safety standards for two-wheel locomotive license plate lights in countries around the world. So, it is easy to expand models in countries around the world.

What’s more: this new product is also equipped with various protection functions such as individual dimming functions for sequential lighting that can increase the sense of design, and protection of LED drivers and peripheral circuits.