Diodes Incorporated Launches I2C/SPI Programmable LED Drivers for Precise Automotive Lighting and Color Mixing

Diodes introduced the AL58818Q and AL58812Q, a series of automotive-compliant 18- and 12-channel linear LED drivers designed for precise color mixing and brightness control in automotive rear lamp modules, grille and emblem lights, interior ambient lighting, infotainment displays, status indicator lights, touch panels, and LCDs.

The AL58818Q supports up to six RGB LED modules or 18 single-color LEDs with 18 channels, while the AL58812Q handles up to four RGB LED modules with 12 channels. Each channel delivers up to 70mA, set by an external resistor, with a maximum global 6-bit output current adjustable via registers. Both devices feature a 30kHz, 12-bit pulse width modulation (PWM) generator per channel for smooth dimming, supporting both I2C and SPI digital interfaces selectable via a hardware pin.

The drivers enable over 16 million color combinations through independent color-mixing and brightness control registers per RGB module. They offer logarithmic and linear-scale brightness control, with a default 12-bit PWM resolution using 9 bits of pure PWM and 3 bits of dithering for 0.0244% resolution. Deep dimming converts PWM to analog dimming below a 3% duty cycle to maintain linearity. A 3% device-to-device and channel-to-channel current matching ensures uniform color distribution. An internal 16MHz oscillator eliminates the need for an external PWM clock, and...