LED drivers boost a low-level DC battery voltage to the high voltage needed to drive high-brightness LEDs.

Target applications for LED drivers include backlighting of LCD displays in PDAs, MP3 players, Cell Phones, GPS terminals and digital cameras. In addition, LEDs drivers are used for backlighting keypads, camera flash equipment and illumination in automotive markets.

Floating Gate Analog EEPROM (FGAE2™) technology is used to manufacture low-cost supervisors. Reset threshold levels can be programmed and reprogrammed during manufacturing to match customer requirements and order backlog.

Applications for microprocessor supervisors include PC motherboards, embedded control systems, set-top boxes, power-monitoring equipment, medical equipment and communication terminals.

Catalyst integrates voltage supervisor functions and EEPROM memory into single-chip solutions to help designers simplify system design, save board space and increase overall system reliability. Supervisor functions include watchdog, reset and voltage monitoring, combined with serial EEPROM memory sizes ranging from 2k to 64k bits.

Additionally, on-chip non-volatile memory streamlines the management of threshold set-up and fine tuning to simplify manufacturing logistics and improve delivery lead times.

For decades, mechanical potentiometers have been universally employed in electronic circuitry. They are used in millions of electronic products, for every conceivable application. Yet, until quite recently, electronic potentiometers were not sufficiently cost-competitive to be considered a viable alternative.

However, with improved productivity and yields from Catalyst's sub-micron CMOS manufacturing processes, electronic potentiometers are now cost-competitive with mechanical potentiometers and, for many applications, actually provide a lower total system cost.

Digitally programmable potentiometers (DPPs), offer many benefits for both the design and manufacturing engineer. They have better settability, drift specifications and cycle-life specifications than mechanical potentiometers. They fit into smaller spaces with multiple potentiometers possible in a single package. They provide superior tracking between multiple potentiometers. It is easier to change a setting with electronic potentiometers and accurately change it back.

Using industry standard IC packages, they are machine-insertable and offer far better resilience to contaminants encountered in a manufacturing environment. Single, dual and quad versions are available.

DPP Applications
Applications include optical networking, telecommunications, instrumentation, white goods, power supplies, power meters, temperature controllers, smart instruments, personal communication devices, office equipment, automatic test equipment, Internet appliances, cell phones, industrial process controllers and communication systems.

Catalyst Semiconductor offers a wide variety of I²C/SMBus I/O Port Expanders which provide additional I/Os for ACPI power switches, servers, sensors, fans, LEDs, and industrial control applications. This product line is categorized into two sections: Simple I/O Expanders and LED Blinkers.

All Catalyst I²C/SMBus I/O Port Expanders operate from 2.3V to 5.5V of supply voltage; 0Hz to 400kHz clock frequency; and are a second source for Philips Bus Expanders.