Micrel Introduces New Dual White LED (WLED) Driver Product Family Greatly Extending Battery Life in Portable Products

SAN JOSE, CA, Mar 29 (MARKET WIRE) --
Micrel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCRL), an industry leader in analog, high bandwidth
communications and Ethernet IC solutions, today announced that it has
introduced the MIC2860, the latest in its product family of high
efficiency White LED (WLED) drivers that greatly extends battery life in
today's portable and consumer products. The device is designed to drive
two WLEDs and features a typical dropout of 50mV at 30mA per channel. The
IC is aimed at portable display backlighting, keypad backlighting and
camera flash in mobile devices. The MIC2860 is available in volume
quantities with pricing starting at $0.30 for 1K quantities. Samples can
now be ordered on line on Micrel's web site at:
http://www.micrel.com/ProductList.do.

"The MIC2860-2 WLED Driver gives our customers a very high efficiency,
yet cost effective solution for situations where only two WLEDs are
required for backlighting in portable devices," noted Andy Khayat,
Director Portable Business Unit, Micrel.

The device's low dropout linear architecture provides the highest
possible battery life in consumer applications by eliminating switching
losses present in traditional charge pumps or inductive boost circuits.
This allows the WLEDs to be driven directly from the battery and has the
added benefit of eliminating inductive or charge pump switching noise
from the system. The two channels have better than +/-0.5 percent current
matching, which ensures uniform display illumination under all
conditions. The maximum WLEDs brightness can be externally preset by a
resistor and then dimmed using either a PWM signal or a single wire
digital control. The MIC2860-2D single wire digital interface accepts
digital programming pulses providing 32 dimming steps, while the
MIC2860-2P accepts a PWM dimming signal. The MIC2860-2D is available in
Thin SOT-23 and SC-70 six pin packages with a junction temperature range
of -40degC to +125degC.

About Micrel, Inc.
Micrel, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of IC
solutions for the worldwide analog, Ethernet and high bandwidth markets.
The Company's products include advanced mixed-signal, analog and power
semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management,
Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs. Company customers
include leading manufacturers of enterprise, consumer, industrial,
mobile, telecommunications, automotive, and computer products.
Corporation headquarters and state-of-the-art wafer fabrication
facilities are located in San Jose, CA, with regional sales and support
offices and advanced technology design centers situated throughout the
Americas, Europe and Asia. In addition, the Company maintains an
extensive network of distributors and reps worldwide. Web:
http://www.micrel.com.

Contact:
Julieanne DiBene
Marketing Communications
1-408-474-1276
Julie.DiBene@Micrel.com

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