Freescale’s Symphony Class D amplifier has been awarded Innovation of the Year in the Analogue ICs category by EDN magazine. The annual awards event recognises engineering excellence in unique, state-of-the art electronics products in 17 major categories.
Electronics industry professionals nominate innovative products and individuals and EDN's editors choose the finalists.
"Freescale's Symphony Class D digital amplifier with its innovative digital feedback technology is a real breakthrough, enabling OEMs to deliver rich, high fidelity audio in a dramatically smaller form factor while improving power efficiency from 50 to 90%," said Berardino Baratta, general manager of the Multimedia Applications Division of Freescale. "It is very gratifying that EDN recognised our exceptional engineering achievements in the amplifier chipset with their highest industry honour."
This Class D product extends Freescale's broad Symphony portfolio of semiconductors for audio applications, giving developers a comprehensive, digital audio solution. Design engineers can take advantage of the tremendous power efficiency improvements and cost savings associated with Class D technology while achieving the superb audio quality that consumers demand.
Traditionally, class AB amplifiers have been widely used in the audio industry, while Class D amplifiers have been limited to applications such as mini-HiFi systems and DVD receivers where high fidelity is a second priority to form factor. Now, owing to the reduction in heat enabled by the high efficiency of these devices, more audio channels are available, which provides a more satisfying listening experience in a smaller form factor.
Freescale designed its new Symphony solution to overcome the obstacles of Class D systems, namely electromagnetic interference (EMI) and power supply noise. Manufacturers have to meet EMI emission levels and ensure that the emissions do not disrupt AM/FM reception. Power supplies, particularly in automotive applications, are not ideal as a result of environmental conditions such as engine noise or selection of low cost power supply components.
To solve these challenges, Freescale's Class D digital amplifier implements PWM with realtime, digital feedback for power supply noise rejection. Now, designers can take advantage of the tremendous power efficiency improvements and cost savings associated with Class D amplifiers, while achieving the expected audio quality that consumers demand.
Freescale's Class D digital amplifier solution consists of the Symphony FSA95601 digital amplifier controller chip and the MC33851 output power stage chip. The FSA95601 is a high-performance, six-channel Class D digital amplifier controller that can process up to six channels of pulse code modulation (PCM) digital audio input data to produce the corresponding PWM outputs to drive external power stages. The Symphony solution also accepts a digital input directly from the DSP processor, which eliminates the need for a digital/analog converter for each channel of audio. This can significantly improve audio quality by removing unnecessary conversion steps and can help reduce cost by eliminating components.
The MC33851 two-channel H bridge power stage is designed for applications requiring 50 W to 100 W (bridged) per channel. When used with the Symphony FSA95601, the MC33851 slew rate control can reduce EMI significantly with no audio quality degradation. The MC33851 also provides advanced protection features such as under-voltage, over-voltage and over temperature warning and provides advanced turn-on/off audio click and pop suppression.
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