Dialog Semiconductor Introduces New SmarteXite Technology Platform for Intelligent LED Lighting

SmarteXite enables solutions for digital dimming, wireless control and sensor control while supporting unprecedented time to market, optimised LED bulb quality and production yields

Dialog Semiconductor plc, a provider of integrated power management, AC/DC, solid state lighting and short-range wireless technologies, today announced its smarteXiteTM platform, enabling a new generation of highly flexible, programmable LED driver ICs for smart lighting applications. SmarteXite, based on fully configurable logic, is the first LED driver technology to directly and easily support wireless connectivity, light sensor control and allow easy integration into lighting control systems.

The first device from the smarteXite family, the iW6401, supports multiple dimming interfaces, including digital dimming via a simple main on/off switch, the new Ledotron(TM) digital dimming protocol and toggle-switch based dimming. All dimming-curves can be memory-configured to enable a highly optimised end-user lighting experience. The integrated digital loadline transmission (DLT) receiver in the iW6401 supports the Ledotron IEC 62756-1 dimming protocol, making it the world's first single-chip plug-and-play Ledotron solution.

Using a standard I2C digital interface, the iW6401 can serve as a powerful frontend for wireless communication modules like low-energy Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or ZigBee. Additionally, intelligent sensor devices enabling color- or proximity-sensing can be directly connected. When such a peripheral device is used, the integrated power management unit in the iW6401 provides a stable power source, reducing the external component count and cost.

Combining Dialog's strengths in configurable power management with state-of-the-art digital signal processing design, the iW6401 is the world's first programmable AC/DC retrofit LED lamp driver IC, which allows engineers to design and configure the bulb design via software with an optimised bill of material (BOM) versus a time intensive iterative hardware design process. This greatly reduces the time to market and allows a smarteXite-based design to support many different global configurations and lighting requirements.

'Solid state lighting components and manufacturing costs have fallen to a level enabling LED bulbs to be sold in retail stores for under 10 dollars; this price point drives consumers to adopt the technology and retrofit their homes,' said Mark Tyndall, VP Corporate Development & Strategy and GM Power Conversion Business Group at Dialog Semiconductor. 'Market analyst firm McKinsey predicts a 57 percent compounded annual growth rate for LED bulbs units to be sold between 2012 and 2016, with more than 2.6 billion units to be sold in 2016.'
SmarteXite supports final stage digital calibration on the production line where the bulb manufacturers can reconfigure the illumination calibration settings like brightness and colour via the A/C mains terminals. This allows lower tolerance LEDs to be used with less binning or waste of LED's. Additionally, using this final stage calibration feature, the adjustment of the LED currents can be done even in the installed state, making the smarteXite platform also ideal for Zhaga compliant power supplies. The iW6401 can be configured to actively manage the lamp temperature using either an on-chip or off-chip temperature sensor together with configurable state temperature control.

LEDs are especially suitable to be dimmed in a wide range. Unlike CFLs and other discharge lamps, LEDs can be set to almost zero current by applying digital control principles. With smarteXite, intelligent control algorithms can be employed and configured to provide a wide dimming range. Additionally, the smarteXite platform offers a range of protection and supervision functions, which can be customised for the different lamp requirements.