LED Dimmer Wears Two Hats

In addition to driving 16 LEDs in parallel, the CAT9532 16-bit LED driver with dimmer and blinker control functions can also be used as a general purpose I/O expander. A drop-in replacement for the PCA9532, the device provides LED dimming in 256 brightness steps for backlighting and RGB color mixing. It can also turn each LED on, off, or blinking at one of two programmable rates for sensor control, power-switch, push-button, and status-indicator applications with I2C or SMBus interfaces. Other features include two selectable and programmable blink rates, operating frequency from 0.593 Hz to 153 Hz, and a duty cycle from 0% to 99.6%. Available in 24-lead SOIC, TSSOP, and 24-pad TQFN packages, price is $0.75 each/10,000. CATALYST SEMICONDUCTOR INC., Sunnyvale, CA. (800) 258-5991.