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09 November 2009
Wolfson Microelectronics’ WM8910 is a low power DAC to extend playback time in portable audio apps.
Incorporated within the WM8910 is a control write sequencer to ensure ease of system design, and a ground-referenced headphone amplifier to improve ‘pop and click’ performance and reduce external component count, allowing consumer electronics designers to push boundaries and develop highly differentiated end products at a reduced cost.
The WM8910 features Wolfson’s innovative SmartDAC technology, a low power DAC capacitor switching architecture, which enables DAC to headphone power consumption of less than 4.5mW. Sitting alongside this is Wolfson’s Class W amplifier technology, an evolution of class G, which includes an adaptive dual drive charge pump and DC servo circuit architecture.
The Class W headphone amplifier technology intelligently tracks the actual music signal level and uses an adaptive dual drive charge pump to not only optimise power dissipation, but also eliminate the need for large DC blocking headphone capacitors, resulting in significant savings in PCB space and the audio subsystem bill of materials (BOM).
Audio performance is enhanced further with the integration of Wolfson’s innovative SilentSwitch technology, which extends its ‘pop and click’ suppression capability by incorporating sophisticated clamp and sequencer circuitry. With this feature, unwanted noise at the headphone amplifier output is reduced during power-up and mute/un-mute by clamping the output to ground. Using an integrated sequencer with programmable delay times to power-up and power-down parts of the WM8910 significantly reduces ‘pops and clicks’, as well as reducing time to market by lowering software driver development time.
The WM8910 provides the core for a distributed ultra low power audio subsystem, and its inherent flexibility offers the system designer the option to use the latest digital microphones through an integrated digital microphone interface. Analogue line inputs are supported, with bypass paths to the class W headphone and line output also included in the WM8910. It is available for sampling now in a 40-pin 5mm x 5mm QFN package.
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