Cypress’s EZ-Color™ High-Brightness LED Controllers Named To EDN’s Hot 100 Products of 2007

EDN magazine has recognized the EZ-Color™ High-Brightness (HB) LED controller family from Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) in the 2007 Hot 100 Products issue. Products that appear in EDN’s annual Hot 100 Products issue are chosen by its editors from the hundreds of newsworthy items that grace the pages of EDN in print or online.

The unique EZ-Color architecture works in tandem with PSoC Express™, the industry’s first embedded visual design tool, to enable unprecedented ease-of-use and performance for lighting systems. Until now, LED design has required a complex set of calculations to deliver consistent color, having to account for differing LED performance specifications based on manufacturing bins and the LEDs’ degradation (such as in output flux, wavelength etc.) over different temperatures. With PSoC Express, designers simply select a color from a gamut presented on-screen. Pre-loaded manufacturers’ bin specifications and temperature feedback algorithms are automatically applied to the selected design and programmed into the EZ-Color Controller. This can save anywhere from weeks to months of design time for growing applications requiring precise light-blending, such as white lighting, architectural lighting, signage, rechargeable flashlights, entertainment lighting, emergency vehicle lighting and more.

"Our editorial team covers new product introductions on a daily basis and we see a lot of worthy products" said EDN Editorial Director Maury Wright. "We look back once a year and choose the introductions that we believe will have the greatest significance to the design engineer and create the Hot 100 list"

"We are honored that EDN has included the EZ-Color HB-LED controllers in its 2007 Hot 100 Products" said Babak Hedayati, senior vice president of worldwide marketing and applications for Cypress. "We believe that the EZ-Color solution can revolutionize the LED lighting landscape by enabling lighting designers without programming experience to create new and exciting LED innovations"

About the EZ-Color Family
Cypress’s new EZ-Color family of high brightness (HB) LED controllers pairs with PSoC Express™ software to deliver a complete design solution for growing applications requiring precise light-blending, such as white lighting, architectural lighting, signage, rechargeable flashlights, entertainment lighting, emergency vehicle lighting and more. The two biggest problems that HB LED engineers face today are having to account for differing LED performance specifications based on manufacturing bins and the LEDs’ degradation (such as in output flux, wavelength etc.) over different temperatures. With PSoC Express, designers simply select a color from a gamut presented on-screen. Pre-loaded manufacturers’ bin specifications and temperature feedback algorithms are automatically applied to the selected design and programmed into the EZ-Color controller. This can save anywhere from weeks to months of design time for a complex design.

The EZ-Color controllers are also powered by Cypress patent pending PrISM™ (Precise Illumination Signal Modulation) technology. The PrISM modulation technology significantly reduces low-frequency flicker and radiated electro-magnetic interference (EMI)-common problems with HB LED designs. In addition to technological and ease-of-design advantages, EZ-Color controllers can support up to 16 LED channels, compared to four or five channels for competitive devices. The additional channels can mean a savings of dozens or even hundreds of controllers in very large designs, saving on design complexity, power consumption and board space. Designers also have the flexibility to add additional functionality to the EZ-Color controllers, including battery charging, motor control and other features. More information on EZ-Color, education materials on HB LED color mixing, and a free download of PSoC Express 3.0 software are all available at www.cypress.com/EZ-Color."

The EZ-Color family is supported by the CY3261A-RGB Evaluation Kit. The evaluation kit showcases EZ-Color’s flexibility and ease of use for high-brightness LED color mixing applications and employs temperature compensation for consistent color. Included with the evaluation kit is an interactive graphical interface enabling quick color mixing via a CIE diagram or by directly controlling each HB LED. The kit is available on the OnLine Store at www.cypress.com for US$149.

About EDN and EDN.com
EDN serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide" EDN.com delivers a three-dimensional view of the electronics industry via news coverage, strategic business information, and in-depth technical content. (www.edn.com)" EDN is published by Reed Business Information (www.reedbusiness.com/us), the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S" and a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL) - a world-leading publisher and information provider operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business industry sectors.

About Cypress
Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the PSoC® Programmable System-on-Chip™, USB controllers, general-purpose programmable clocks and memories. Cypress also offers wired and wireless connectivity solutions ranging from its WirelessUSB™ radio system-on-chip, to West Bridge™ and EZ-USB® FX2LP controllers that enhance connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets. Cypress serves numerous markets including consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Cypress trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.



Cypress, the Cypress logo, PSoC and EZ-USB are registered trademarks, and EZ-Color, PSoC Express, PrISM, Programmable System-on-Chip, WirelessUSB and West Bridge are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.