Lighting control, Atmel style

This is the last stop on our current tour of Atmel’s extensive lighting portfolio. Thus far, we’ve highlighted the AVR AT90PWM microcontroller and talked about how Atmel MCUs are used to light up both fluorescent and HID ballasts, as well as drive television direct backlights/industrial displays and various high voltage edge-lit TV topologies.

Today we’re going to be taking a closer look at lighting control, Atmel style. Indeed, our microcontrollers come with pre-tested and pre-certified software modules to speed prototyping, eliminate certification testing, keep costs in line and improve interoperability.

“More specifically, the single-chip ATmega128RFA1 supports wireless communication and touch functionality which makes the chip a great choice for capacitive touch remote control applications,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “Plus, the embedded Atmel BitCloud software stack offers provides a software development platform for reliable, scalable and secure wireless applications running on Atmel wireless platforms.”

According to the engineering rep, (lighting) remote controls are ideal candidates for high-performance Atmel AVR microcontrollers – with or without integrated capacitive touch and wireless capabilities, as well as for Atmel power line communications (PLC) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions with full digital implementation.

“In short, Atmel solutions give you design choices to fit your lighting control application needs. For example, you can choose a single-chip Atmel AVR microcontroller with integrated secure wireless and capacitive touch Atmel QTouch library, or a non-specific Atmel AVR microcontroller that you can match with a range of external low-power, standard-compliant transceiver options,” he added.

Interested in learning more about lighting control, Atmel style? Be sure to check out our official device breakdown here.

Driving LED backlit industrial displays with Atmel tech

Bits & Pieces is continuing its in-depth tour of Atmel’s versatile lighting portfolio. Thus far, we’ve highlighted the stalwart AVR AT90PWM microcontroller and talked about how Atmel MCUs are used to light up both fluorescent and HID ballasts, as well as drive television direct backlights and various high voltage edge-lit TV topologies.

And today we’ll be taking a closer look at the role Atmel tech can play when it comes to LED backlit industrial displays. Specifically, how an integrated DC-to to-DC power supply controller and internal current sinks reduce component count, while providing design flexibility and offering lowest overall system solution cost.

“These advanced devices also offer a digital control loop, which means they require no external components to manage the LED supply and regulate LED current up to 30mA per LED string with up to 12 LEDs per string,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“LED dimming is achieved through an external PWM signal or an internal 8-bit PWM engine. Analog dimming of LED string current is available for use with an ambient light sensor (ALS) and/or temperature management with a thermistor or IC temperature sensor.”

Additionally, Atmel offers LED driver modules/reference designs for industrial displays. These LED driver modules are compact and highly efficient LED driver boards designed to offer prototype or production ready platforms. Schematic, Layout and BOM files are also available for porting into an overall solution. And yes, pre-programmed LED drivers are also available.

Interested in learning more about Atmel devices targeted at LED backlit industrial displays? Be sure to check out our full device breakdown here.