LED power management with Atmel’s XMega

LED lighting power management typically comprises power conversion, constant current regulation and fault handling. Key design considerations of LED power management include high integration capabilities, small form factor, energy efficiency, high temperature operation and support for a variety of standard lighting communication protocols.

“That is exactly why Atmel’s XMEGA E is highly integrated to support multiple LED driver topologies, all while leaving CPU resources for additional application functionalities,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “Plus, we offer a small form factor and dual high-speed 40ns analog comparators for current regulation, with multiple high speed 128MHz timers allowing generation of fast PWM.”

The XMEGA E also boasts dual digital to analog converters for peak current management, asynchronous event system for ultra-fast response and control loops, with a custom logic (XCL) block removing external logic components.

“In terms of energy efficiency, the XMEGA E, with its rich analog peripheral features, is capable of running a complicated power control algorithm (e.g. PFC) to achieve high power efficiency,” the engineering rep continued. “Plus, the XMEGA E offers ultra low power consumption as low as 100uA/MHz in active mode and 100nA in RTC/RAM retention. Last, but certainly not least, the XMEGA E qualifies for high temperatures at 105C and 125C.”

Atmel also offers support for multiple lighting communication protocols, such as DALI via the XCL block in XMEGA E (hardware), along with DMX, LWmesh, and interface to PLC, ZigBee Light Link, ZigBee Home Automation and other wireless protocols (software). In addition, developers have easy access to Atmel Studio 6.0, Atmel Software Framework and Atmel Gallery.

Want to learn more about designing LED power management platforms with Atmel’s XMega? Be sure to check out Atmel’s extensive lighting portfolio here.