Texas Instruments (TI) has unveiled a fully integrated, high-brightness LED matrix manager IC for adaptive automotive headlight systems. The TPS92661-Q1 is a compact, scalable solution that enables automobile manufacturers to create innovative LED headlamps that vary beam patterns and intensity dynamically for optimum roadway illumination and enhanced driver safety.
Featured in premium vehicles today and proliferating into mainstream models in the coming years, adaptive headlamp systems automatically manage the direction and intensity of high and low beams. The TPS92661-Q1 is a compact solution for shunt FET dimming arrays of high-brightness LEDs and includes 12 individually controlled MOSFET switches to steer current through or around the connected LEDs, thereby providing individual pixel-level light adjustment. A serial communication port facilitates control and diagnostic functions from a master microcontroller, such as TI's AEC-Q100-qualified C2000 Piccolo.
Until now, headlamp beam forming and directional control in an adaptive headlamp design required considerable board space to house bulky discrete circuits, including multiple transistors, gate drivers and glue logic. A single TPS92661-Q1 replaces this complex design, reducing board space by 73-percent, and enables a headlamp system that is completely solid state with no moving parts that can wear out, such as motors or actuators.
Key features and benefits of TPS92661-Q1 include:
· Controls up to 96 LEDs from a single serial port for headlamp beam forming and directional control.
· Individual 10-bit pulse-width modulation (PWM) brightness control LED for pixel-level light intensity adjustment.
· LED open/short fault diagnostics and reporting alerts driver via the master microcontroller in the event of headlamp failures or damage.
Available now in volume from TI and its authorized distributors, the TPS92661-Q1 is offered in a 48-pin HTQFP package and is priced at $3.70 each in 1,000-unit quantities.
