Atmel’s new ATR0885 laser diode driver IC is intended for use in combined HD-DVD/Blu-ray, DVD, CD players and PC CD-ROM drives. HD-DVD and Blu-ray are new disc standards which will offer significantly more storage capacity than today's DVD standards. Since the new ATR0885 is available in very small packages, it is particularly suitable for small SLIM drives used in notebook computers, as well as for half-height drives used in desktop PCs and consumer DVD players.

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The ATR0885 contains three outputs, each of which can be used for either the connection of blue laser diodes with a wavelength of 405 nm (HD-DVD/Blu-ray), DVD laser diodes with a wavelength of 780 nm, or CD laser diodes with 650 nm. Competing products only have outputs predetermined for the blue laser functionality, whereas the ATR0885 lets the system designer freely select which of the three outputs shall be dedicated to blue laser functionality.

cost-efficient HD-DVD/Blu-ray/DVD/CD systems once required the use of four devices: three oscillator chips and one transimpedance amplifier, whereas the ATR0885 makes it possible to build an extremely cost-efficient blue laser system with only one IC. Blue laser diodes used for HD-DVD and Blu-ray systems need a voltage source which is capable of handling higher voltages than the 5 V commonly used for DVD and CD laser diodes. To meet this demand, each of the ATR0885's three outputs has a separate voltage supply pin providing up to 8 V.

For automatic power control, a transimpedance amplifier is integrated and supports all three output channels. The gain of each channel can be set separately by using three individual resistors. An integrated oscillator reduces laser mode hopping. Using one external resistor, a frequency range from 200 to 500 MHz can be set for all outputs. Three additional resistors allow a swing of up to 100 mA (peak-to-peak) for each output separately. The oscillator can optionally be set in a spread-spectrum mode to reduce electro-magnetic interferences.

Samples of the ATR0885 are available now in very small QFN24 Pb-free and green packages. Pricing starts at $2.60 in quantities of 10k.