Melexis introduces multi-channel RGB-LED driver chips

     Melexis announced the launch of multi-channel RGB-LED driver chip MLX81116. The MLX81116 supports the MeLiBu high-speed communication IP, enabling the concept of intelligent dynamic automotive lighting, which is being used by the world's leading automotive manufacturers to enhance the safety of their latest models.

     More and more automobile manufacturers want to introduce dynamic lighting into the car to communicate important driver assistance cues and vehicle status information. While current design thinking uses RGB-LED light strips to communicate with the driver through features such as color mixing, color changing, and sequence flashing, the key challenge is to maintain consistent colors between all leds throughout the strip and ensure they change simultaneously. The MLX81116 solves this problem with its unique high-speed communication interface, IP MeLiBu. Each LED in the MaLiBu strip can be individually controlled to produce vehicle-specific lighting effects, and the intelligent RGB-LED controller can also provide real-time compensation for any LED color offset due to environmental changes.

     The MeLiBu communication interface uses the proven CAN-FD physical layer to ensure robustness, reliability and high speed (up to 2 Mbit), meeting the critical needs of today's automotive manufacturers. Specialized optical parameters are supported to achieve UV (YUV color space) color mixing accuracy of 1%, ensuring that there is no significant difference between each LED in the strip. In addition, smart high resolution for temperature-dependent color offsets helps provide a consistent and distraction-free user experience in all operating conditions.

     The MLX81116 driver IC has a very wide dimming range, providing optimal brightness adjustment for both day and night driving. The MLX81116 meets ISO 26262 Automotive functional safety requirements to reach Safety Level B (ASIL B), and thanks to CAN-FD physical layer, it also has low EMI characteristics that make it easy to meet the EMC requirements of the system.

     "Automakers need powerful solutions that can support high-end lighting capabilities." Michael Bender, product line Manager for Embedded Lighting at Melexis, said, "The MLX81116 is the first product in our product range to incorporate MeLiBu, a reliable and economical solution. We are pleased to see that a number of leading car manufacturers are already introducing it into new models to provide a safer driving experience."