Micrel to Exhibit Analog Power Technology at APEC 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas, March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Micrel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCRL), an industry leader in analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, today announced that it will be previewing breakthrough analog technology solutions at The Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, APEC 2011. The industry conference will be held March 6-10th, at the Fort Worth Convention Center.  Micrel will be exhibiting Monday, March 7, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.; Tuesday, March 8, 12:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. and Wednesday, March 9, 10:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m., Booth No. 434/436.  Solutions on display will include:

Non-Portable Analog

Micrel's SuperSwitcher II™ family is the latest in Micrel's fully integrated power converter solutions.  This product line is comprised of three DC-DC buck regulators featuring Micrel's proprietary Hyper Speed Control™ architecture.  The MIC26400, MIC26600, and MIC26950 devices operate with an input supply voltage range from 4.5V to 26V and deliver an output current of 5A, 7A and 12A respectively.  The MIC27600 operates over an input supply range of 4.5V to 36V and provides a regulated output of up to 7A of output current.  The SuperSwitcher II™ family has been tailored to be Any Capacitor™ stable independent of output ESR, thus solving the perennial problem of stability power designers have faced with distributed output capacitance.  Coupled with a high level of integration in a small form factor, the SuperSwitcher II™ family delivers uncompromising performance, reduces cycle time, size and costs.

In the high performance LDO space, the new MIC61150 and MIC61300 are 1.5A and 3A LDOs designed for applications that require a low voltage, high current power supply, generated from a single input supply.  The devices target point-of-load, ASICs, FPGAs, microprocessors, networking cards and low voltage post regulation applications.  The solutions feature the ability to adjust output voltages down to 0.5V with input voltages as low as 1.1V, while supplying up to 3A of output current.  This makes the MIC61150 and MIC61300 highly flexible solutions for low VI(N)/V(OUT) applications.  Both devices also offer single supply/input voltage operation —greatly enhancing design simplicity while reducing the BOM cost for the power supply designer.

In the high voltage arena, the Micrel MIC2176-1/-2/-3 is a family of constant-frequency, synchronous buck controllers featuring a unique digitally modified adaptive ON-time control architecture.  The MIC2176 family operates over an input supply range of 4.5V to 75V and can be used to supply up to 15A of output current.  The output voltage is adjustable down to 0.8V with a guaranteed accuracy of + 1 percent, and the device operates at a constant switching frequency of 100kHz, 200kHz, and 300kHz.  Micrel's Hyper Speed Control™ architecture allows for ultra-fast transient response while reducing the output capacitance and also makes (High V(IN))/(Low V(OUT)) operation possible.  The solution is ideal for distributed power systems, networking/telecomm infrastructure and printers, scanners, graphic and video card applications.

In the lighting solutions category, the MIC3201/02/03 family is capable of driving HBLEDs in series at more than 90 percent efficiency with +5 percent current accuracy from input voltages of 4.5V to 42V. With its hysteretic control architecture and high-side current sense scheme, the MIC3201/02/03 family is well positioned to provide constant current with changes in input voltage and output load. The MIC3201/02/03 operating frequency is adjustable up to 1MHz to allow flexibility in the design. The MIC3201/02/03 family features a dedicated PWM dimming pin, an enable pin for very low power shutdown, over temperature protection and under-voltage lockout (UVLO). The MIC3201/02 has an internal power switch and requires no external compensation. In addition to enhanced power driving capability/reliability, the MIC3201/02/03 comes in a thermally enhanced exposed pad SOIC-8L package. The MIC3203 has an external power switch and is available in an SOIC-8L package.

Portable Analog

The MIC23153 is the latest high output current device in Micrel’s popular HyperLight Load™ family of synchronous step down regulators. The patented architecture implemented in the MIC23153 delivers extremely high efficiency over the load range for portable products and green home/office appliances. The MIC23153 features internal MOSFETs which deliver up to 2A continuous output current yet the device consumes just 23 microamperes quiescent current and is packaged in a tiny 2.5mm x 2.5mm Thin MLF®. The MIC23153, as with many other HyperLight Load™ step down regulators, achieves up to 93 percent peak efficiency and an impressive 87 percent efficiency under light load conditions as low as 1mA. In addition, the MIC23153 offers an adjustable soft start to minimize supply rail transients. The MIC23153 is available in fixed output and adjustable options.

For mobile back lighting, Micrel offers a family of high efficiency White LED (WLED) drivers (MIC284x series) which are designed to drive two, four or six WLEDs for display and keypad backlighting in mobile devices.  The linear architecture of these devices greatly extends battery life in portable applications because there are no additional switching losses that are ever present in traditional charge pumps or inductive boost circuits. The product family features ultra low dropout of 40mV at 20mA further increasing battery life.  Dynamic Averaged Matching™ (DAM™) technology is used to get excellent matching of +1.5 percent between all WLED channels.  The MIC2841A and MIC2842A drive four WLED channels and provide PWM or single wire digital control respectively.  The MIC2843A and MIC2844A drive six WLED channels and provide PWM or single wire digital control respectively.  In addition, the MIC2845A and MIC2846A drive six WLED channels with two independently controlled 150mA LDOs and provide PWM or single wire digital control respectively.  Maximum LED brightness can be preset by an external resistor and then dimmed using either a PWM signal or single wire digital control.  The digital interface takes commands from digital programming pulses to change the brightness in a logarithmic scale similar to the eye's perception of brightness with up to 32 step brightness resolution.

The MIC2860-2x is the latest of the high efficiency Linear White LED (WLED) drivers in the family.  It is designed to drive two WLEDs and features a typical dropout of 52mV at 30.2mA per channel.  In addition, the two channels have better than +0.5 percent matching, which ensures uniform display illumination under all conditions.  The WLEDs brightness is externally preset by a resistor and dimmed using either a PWM signal or 32 step single wire digital control signal.

The MIC5385 is an advanced general purpose triple linear regulator offering high power supply rejection (PSRR) in an ultra small 2mm x 2mm 8 pin Thin MLF® package. The MIC5385 is capable of sourcing 150mA for each output and offers high PSRR making it an ideal solution for any portable electronic application. Targeted at battery powered applications, the MIC5385 offers 2 percent initial accuracy, low dropout voltage (180mV @ 150mA), and low ground current (typically 32 microamperes per output). The MIC5385 can also be put into a zero off mode current state, drawing virtually no current when disabled.

About Micrel, Inc.

Micrel, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of IC solutions for the worldwide analog, Ethernet and high bandwidth markets.  The Company's products include advanced mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs.  Company customers include leading manufacturers of enterprise, consumer, industrial, mobile, telecommunications, automotive, and computer products.  Corporation headquarters and state-of-the-art wafer fabrication facilities are located in San Jose, CA, with regional sales and support offices and advanced technology design centers situated throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.  In addition, the Company maintains an extensive network of distributors and reps worldwide.  Web: http://www.micrel.com.

Note:  MLF is a registered trademark of Amkor Technology.  HyperLight Load, Any Capacitor, SuperSwitcher II and Dynamic Averaged Matching are trademarks of Micrel, Inc.

SOURCE Micrel, Inc.