Laser drivers up the speed

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 21, 2003

Intersil has developed a new family of dual laser diode drivers optimised for low power, slim CD and DVD recordable disk drives used in laptop PCs.

Intersil has developed a new family of dual laser diode drivers (LDDs) optimised for low power, slim CD and DVD recordable disk drives used in laptop PCs.

Intersil's new Elantec EL683X family is comprised of dual-output four-channel LDDs that offer the performance, flexibility and power efficiency needed in portable drives supporting all popular disk drive formats, including DVD+R/W, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R/W, CD-R and CD-ROM.

"The latest addition to our market-leading portfolio of CD and DVD recordable products are specifically tailored for the small space and low power requirements of today's slim CD and DVD recordable drives", said Zhong Li, Director of Marketing for Intersil's Elantec optical storage products.

"The EL683X dual LDD family addresses our customers' need for higher performance, higher speed and pin-for-pin compatibility while providing the integration and power efficiency required for today's portable CD and DVD drives.

As with all of the products in our Elantec optical storage portfolio, they reduce overall component count, shorten data signal routing and address the continued migration to higher read and read/write speeds".

Each device in the EL683X family features dual output stages, one read and four write channels, and two on-chip 600MHz high-frequency modulator (HFM) oscillators that allow frequency and amplitude control by use of external resistors to ground.

The external resistors allow customers to accurately and independently set each amplifier transconductance by applying a voltage to the resistor without restriction on the voltage range, thus ensuring broad voltage DAC compatibility.

All devices in the EL683X family include a disable feature for power-up protection and power savings, and all but the EL6836 and 6838 incorporate low-voltage differential signal (LVDS) inputs on the fast switching lines.