October 11, 2004—International Rectifier, IR, a provider of power management technology, announced that industry engineers have selected IR’s IR2161 and IR2520D adaptive lighting control ICs to be among the top-ranked Ultimate Products V1.2. This product rating program, done with and for the engineering community, is sponsored by CMP Media’s EETimes and eeProductCenter. It surveys more than 1,300 engineers to determine the most significant semiconductor, passive component and test equipment product introductions each quarter across seven categories.
The IR2161 is specifically designed for electronic transformers that drive low voltage halogen lamps. All necessary features are integrated into a single 8-pin DIP or SOIC, reducing parts count, simplifying circuits and increasing reliability. It can adapt to changing supply voltage, frequency conditions and lamp conditions, enabling the introduction of highly-reliable halogen transformers while streamlining their design and manufacture. Adaptive Deadtime Control is a key feature of the IR2161, which increases transformer reliability by continually maintaining soft switching.
The IR2520D is a control IC integrating all the necessary features for fluorescent lamp ballasts. Also packaged in an 8-pin DIP or SOIC, the new device includes a zero voltage switching (ZVS) circuit that maintains soft switching, regardless of supply voltage, frequency and lamp conditions, and includes internal crest factor over-current protection and an integrated bootstrap diode. Its adaptive zero voltage switching control minimizes switching losses in the half-bridge MOSFETs, ensuring maximum efficiency and lifetime, regardless of component and lamp tolerances as well as line voltage variations.
Reference designs are available for the lighting ICs.
Results of the Ultimate Products ranking appear in the “Ultimate Products 1.2” supplement to EE Times online.
