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White LED Driver in Tiny SC70 Package Delivers High Efficiency

and Uniform LED Brightness Design Note 315
David Kim

Introduction series from a Li-Ion battery or 5V adapter input. The

The LT1937 step-up white LED driver is an ideal solution
for small battery-powered portable devices such as cellu-
lar phones, PDAs and digital cameras. The LT1937 fea-
tures an internal 36V switch that is capable of driving up
to eight LEDs in series, but it is optimized for Li-Ion pow-
ered color display backlight applications that use two to
four white LEDs. The LT1937 guarantees a constant light
intensity and color in each LED, regardless of differences
in their forward voltage drops due to a constant current
step-up architecture that directly regulates the LED cur-
rent. The constant 1.2MHz switching allows for the use of
tiny external components and minimizes input and output
ripple voltagemeeting the noise level requirements of
products with sensitive wireless circuitry. The superior in-
ternal compensation of LT1937 lowers the output capaci-
tor requirement to a single 0.22F ceramic, saving space
and cost. The low 95mV feedback voltage and an efficient
internal switch minimize power losses in the LT1937. The
result is a typical efficiency of 84%. The LT1937 is avail-
able in the tiny SC70 or 1mm tall ThinSOTTM package.
Li-Ion Powered Driver for Three White LEDs
Figure 1 shows a white LED driver circuit that is intended
for small wireless devices. The constant current step-up
series LED architecture of this circuit has much better
efficiency than the alternative switched capacitor based
parallel LED architecture. The circuit is designed to pro-
vide 15mA of constant current to drive three LEDs in
L1
D1
22H
VIN
3V TO 5V
C1
1F LED 1
1.2MHz constant frequency and superior internal com-
pensation results in 0603 size ceramic input and output
capacitors and a tiny ferrite core inductor (a chip inductor
can be used to save even more space). The constant LED
current is set with the R1 resistor at the feedback pin. By
using a simple LED current calculation, ILED = 95mV/R1 or
R1 = 95mV/ILED, a resistor value selection table is easily
calculated (see Table 1). For accurate LED current, high
precision (1%) resistors are needed.
Table 1. R1 Resistor Value Selection
ILED (mA) R1 ()
5 19.1
10 9.53
12 7.87
15 6.34
20 4.75
Easy Dimming Control
The brightness of the LED can be adjusted using a PWM
signal, a filtered PWM signal, a logic signal or a DC
voltage. The brightness control using the PWM signal to
SHDN pin and PWM dimming waveforms are shown in
Figure 2. With the PWM signal applied to the SHDN pin,
the LT1937 is turned on or off by this signal. The average
,LTC and LT are registered trademarks of Linear Technology Corporation.
ThinSOT is a trademark of Linear Technology Corporation.
Conversion Efficiency
90
C2
0.22F 85

VIN SW LED 2 15mA

80
EFFICIENCY (%)

LT1937 LED 3 VIN = 3V

VIN = 3.6V
OFF ON SHDN FB 75
GND R1
6.34 70
DN315 F01a

C1, C2: X5R OR X7R DIELECTRIC

D1: CENTRAL SEMICONDUCTOR CMDSH-3 65
L1: MURATA LQH3C-220 OR EQUIVALENT
60
0 5 10 15 20
Figure 1. Li-Ion Powered Driver for Three White LEDs LED CURRENT (mA) DN315 F01b

07/03/315
 DC Voltage Dimming
LT1937
SHDN
DN315 F02a LT1937
PWM FB

1kHz PWM Signal R3 R2

91k 5.1k
VDC
FB R1
100mV/DIV 6.34
DN315 F03a

Filtered PWM Dimming

SHDN
2V/DIV

LT1937

200s/DIV DN315 F02b

FB

10kHz PWM Signal R3 R2

10k 91k 5.1k
PWM
FB R1
100mV/DIV 0.1F
6.34
DN315 F03b

SHDN Logic Signal Dimming

2V/DIV

LT1937
20s/DIV DN315 F02c
FB

Figure 2. PWM Dimming Control Using the SHDN Pin

RINC
LED current increases proportionally with the duty cycle
LOGIC
of the PWM signal, where 0% duty cycle sets the LED SIGNAL
2N7002 R1
current to zero and a 100% duty cycle sets it to full current. DN315 F03c

The typical frequency range recommended for PWM

dimming is for a 1kHz to 10kHz signal with at least a 1.5V
amplitude.
Figure 3 shows alternative LED brightness control meth-
ods using a DC voltage, filtered PWM signal and logic
signal. The DC voltage dimming control shown in Figure
3 is designed to control LED current from 0mA to 15mA
using the 0V to 2V DC voltage at the VDC input. As the
voltage at the VDC input increases, the voltage drop on R2
increases and voltage drop on R1 decreases, resulting in
a decrease of LED current. The filtered PWM dimming
works the same way except that the VDC input now comes
from a filtered PWM signal. The 10k, 0.1F RC filters the
PWM signal so that it is close to DC and the duty cycle of
the PWM signal changes the DC voltage level. The LED
Figure 3. Dimming Control Methods
current can also be adjusted in discrete steps using a logic
signal dimming method shown in Figure 3. R1 sets the
minimum LED current when the NMOS is off and RINC
increases LED current by reducing the resistor value when
the NMOS is turned on.
Conclusion
The LT1937 is a white LED driver optimized for driving two
to four LEDs from a Li-Ion battery input. With its 36V,
1.2MHz internal switch and superior internal compensa-
tion, the LT1937 is well suited for small wireless devices
requiring very small circuit size, high efficiency and uni-
form LED brightness.

Data Sheet Download

For literature on our DC/DC Converters,
http://www.linear.com/go/dnLT1937
call 1-800-4-LINEAR. For applications help,
call (408) 432-1900, Ext. 2759

dn315f LT/TP 0703 351.5K PRINTED IN THE USA

Linear Technology Corporation
1630 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035-7417
(408) 432-1900
FAX: (408) 434-0507 www.linear.com LINEAR TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION 2003