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Maxim Integrated’s Automotive Backlight Driver with Integrated Boost Converter Sustains Full, Constant Brightness of In-Car Displays Even During Cold Crank Conditions | State

By Michael J. Moody 5 months ago

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) introduces the four-channel, low-voltage MAX25512 automotive LED backlight driver with integrated boost converter. It is the only integrated solution that retains full, constant brightness of in-car displays even during extreme cold crank conditions down to 3V input voltage. The single chip LED driver eliminates an external MOSFET and current sense resistor and integrates I2C communication to lower bill of material cost and reduce board space by 30 percent. The highly integrated LED driver includes four 120mA channels with the industry’s highest efficiency at 2.2MHz operation.

Today’s automotive start-stop systems increase fuel economy, but they can challenge the power delivery system to maintain the same level of display brightness during re-start. For example, features like display illumination upon entry can be affected by cold crank situations, with the engine drawing down the car

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Self-driving cars: A full explainer on the road to autonomy

By Michael J. Moody 5 months ago

Self-driving cars, frankly, have a long way to go. There’s been a ton of promise surrounding the technology, but the big disappointments fall on Level 4 autonomous technology. Don’t know what that is? You’ll want to read on.

I largely agree with former Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt’s view that “it’s a bug that cars were invented before computers.” In terms of sheer technical elegance, we never should have been at the controls in the first place. 

Imagine we hadn’t yet invented automobiles. Suppose I Iaid out a vision for using 3,300 pound machines to typically transport just our 175-pound selves in a process requiring we pay rapt attention to the use of a steering wheel and pedals to navigate roads composed of asphalt, brightly colored suggestions and poorly guided machines like ours which, even after years of refinement, killed 36,000 Americans each year. You’d send me packing. 

History aside, vehicles

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2020 is the wrong year to launch a car, but Czinger is moving full speed ahead

By Jaime E. Love 1 year ago


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Los Angeles-based startup Czinger has remained relatively quiet since it unveiled the 21C, a 3D-printed plug-in hybrid hypercar, in February. Its plans to present the model at the 2020 Geneva auto show were derailed when the event was canceled, and it decelerated its operations to comply with California’s COVID-19-related lockdowns, but work never stopped behind the scenes. We caught up with the brand to get a better idea of where it stands.

Jens Sverdrup, the young brand’s chief commercial officer, told Autoblog engineers began testing prototypes on the road and on the track in August 2019. “This is not one of these stories where you see new companies coming out with a mockup or a computer rendering; we have fully functioning cars, and we’ve spent a significant amount of money on them,” he said. Testing abruptly stopped in the spring, fine-tuning a 1,233-horsepower

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