
AAT1236
High Efficiency White LED Drivers
for Backlight and Keypad
1236.2007.02.1.1
15
I
2
C Software Protocol Example
The AAT1236 I
2
C programming protocol is shown
in the following two examples, detailing the device
address, register address and data bits. Figure 5
shows the I
2
C transfer protocol.
Example 1:
Turn on Group A with 15% from the max current
setting and turn on Group B with 51% from the max
current setting.
1. Send a start condition
2. Send the AAT1236's I
2
C device address (0x36)
with the R/W bit set low
3. Wait for the acknowledge (ACK) bit within the
clock cycle
4. Send the BR_CTRL register address (0x00)
5. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
6. Send the BR_CTRL Data (0x4B)
7. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
8. Send the CH_CTRL register address (0x01)
9. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
10. Send the CH_CTRL Data (0x1F)
11. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
12. Send the stop condition
Example 2:
Turn on A1 and A3 with 43% for the max LED cur-
rent setting and turn on Group B with 100% for the
max LED current setting. Figure 6 shows the I
2
C
transfer protocol.
1. Send a start condition
2. Send the AAT1236's I
2
C device address (0x36)
with the R/W bit set low
3. Wait for the acknowledge (ACK) bit within the
clock cycle
4. Send the BR_CTRL register address (0x00)
5. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
6. Send the BR_CTRL Data (0x05)
7. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
8. Send the CH_CTRL register address (0x01)
9. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
10. Send the CH_CTRL Data (0x1D)
11. Wait for the ACK bit within the clock cycle
12. Send the stop condition
Channel Disable
Tie all unused channels to AGND. On start-up
these channels will be automatically disabled.
LED Selection
Although the AAT1236 is specifically designed to
drive white LEDs, the device can also be used to
drive most types of LEDs with forward voltages
ranging between 2.0V and 4.7V. Since the A1, A2,
A3, and B1, B2 input current sinks are matched with
low voltage dependence, the LED-to-LED bright-
ness will be matched regardless of the individual
LED forward voltage (V
F
) levels. In some instances,
it may be necessary to drive high-V
F
type LEDs.
The low dropout (~0.1V @ 20mA I
LED
) current sinks
in the AAT1236 make it capable of driving LEDs with
forward voltages as high as 4.7V from an input sup-
ply as low as 3.0V. LED outputs A1-A3 and B1-B2
can be combined to drive high-current LEDs without
complication, making the AAT1236 a perfect appli-
cation for large LCD display backlighting and key-
pad LED applications.
Figure 5: I
2
C Transfer Protocol for Example 1.
Figure 6: I
2
C Transfer Protocol for Example 2.
S
T
A
R
T
Device Address
(Write)
A
C
K
Register Address
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
Data
A
C
K
SDA
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
A
C
K
Register Address
Data
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
A
C
K
A
C
K
S
T
O
P
S
T
A
R
T
Device Address
(Write)
A
C
K
Register Address
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
Data
A
C
K
SDA
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
A
C
K
Register Address
Data
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
A
C
K
A
C
K
S
T
O
P