Mixed signal chip firm AnalogicTech is branching out into drivers for small active-matrix OLEDs and large LCD TVs.
"We are looking at AMOLEDs for phones and the re-engineering of TVs to replace CCFL [fluorescent] backlights with LEDs," CEO Richard Williams told Electronics Weekly.
The firm has a proprietary BCD (bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) mixed-signal chip process that uses trench isolation and implants, rather than epitaxy and diffusion, and can therefore be made in cost-depreciated former DRAM fabs.
"We can mix 3V, 12V and 30-60V in our isolated islands, all on one chip, for a couple of implants for each voltage," said Williams.
He sees LED backlights making rapid progress in TVs.
"Fluorescent tube backlights are going to die," said Williams. "I wouldn't be surprised if they are banned because they have no Energy Star rating, and they have mercury."
LEDs can be used as direct CCFL, or in a multi-pixel (or 'domain') backlight that increases contrast and reduces power, because it supplies full intensity behind the brightest parts of the image.
"There will be hundreds of domains, you could end up with 2,000 LEDs in 200 domains in the backlight," said Williams. "They reduce current consumption by an average of six - depending on the image."
As well as the backlights, AnalogicTech will also work on chips for gamma correction and generating TV bias voltages, he added.
On the OLED display front, the firm has what Williams claims is an innovative power supply waiting in the wings. "An AMOLED needs a positive supply and a negative supply. These need a positive boost converter and a negative boost converter," he said. "That's two coils but we are privately sampling a PSU that independently regulates the plus and minus rails from a single coil with a measured efficiency comparable with dual converters."
Once again, gamma correction - this time to compensate for the different characteristics of red, green and blue OLED materials, is another target.
Its process is approaching the breakdown voltages required by some AC-DC power supplies. Is AnalogicTech going there?
"We have not gone after the AC-DC market yet," said Williams. "I think it is something we will eventually do, but I prefer chaotic markets.
See also: Electronics Weekly's roundup of content related to LEDs, with a special focus on both white LEDs and coloured LEDs:
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