Slob...have you read the EL press release?...
"The IMP803 represents the first of a family of power efficient, low cost Electroluminescent (EL) lamp drivers made possible by our power management design experience and high-voltage process technology," said Barry Wiley, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. "We have achieved a die area that is 60 percent smaller than the competition, which opens new market areas and applications."
"Applications for EL backlighting include pagers, PDAs such as the 3Com(R) Palm Pilot(TM), automotive dashboards, cellular phones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and consumer appliances such as clocks, radios, and watches. On the horizon, we see expanded applications in toys and games. These markets bring EL technology out of the "niche" arena and require suppliers with IMP's high volume production experience gained by serving major global customers.
"EL lamp driver circuits operate in the 100 volt to 200 volt area, well within our high-voltage capability that extends to 700 volts. We actively encourage custom circuit discussions for high-volume users who need additional circuitry integrated on chip, beyond the high-voltage battery boost and AC drive bridge circuits. We intend to make IMP a major high volume supplier of power efficient EL lamp driver ICs in the mobile communication and personal electronic product markets."
Slob
You can assume it is 60% smaller than Sipex's DI process. DI process can't handle a lot of power, so IMP can handle a larger surface area (ie PDAs). Also I think IMPs consumes less power/area and the lamp brightness is more consistent from lamp to lamp. I won't be suprised if Sipex develops another foundry source for EL.
Another BIG note: IMP can do 700 Volts! That means it can deal with 120/240 ac house voltage....hmmmm |
