24 Channel LED driver with 12-bit PWM

[brad]

This chip has a few more channels than one that Chuck suggested a few months ago, but basically does the same thing.

The TLC5947 chip is a 12-bit PWM constant current LED driver with 24 Channels. Why is this cool?

Well I am glad you asked, it is the perfect chip to drive an RGB LED matrix display!

I ordered some samples from the texas instruments website today, so I will let you know of my findings. I am planning on using one of these in the redesigned LEDBOY system.

imagine that, 12 bit's per channel! So that means that each RGB Pixel has 12-bits for red, 12-bits for blue and 12-bits for green. That is a total of 36-bits.

36 bit colour! That means each pixel can be any one of 171,798,691,840 colour combinations!

The chip has serial input and tri-state parallel outputs. very nifty indeed

[Digg]

Has anyone used this chip? If so what package and how did you mount i?. Ive never had a chip with a thermal pad before. Any information would be a great help.

[Mitchy]

12bit - doesn't that mean that its 2^12 = 4096 steps?

3 Colors on a LED, that makes 4096 x 4096 x 4096 = 68,719,476,736 combinations. Or am I missing something?

[brad]

oops my mistake!