Xenon flash application design based on NCP5080 integrated with IGBT driver and photo sense function

Nowadays cameras are more and more popular in PDAs, GPS devices, and cellphones. As camera pixel increases to 5Mpixel, higher quality imaging together with photo flash function is required to be integrated in portable devices. There are two traditional ways for flash application, the first is white LED (WLED) based flash, which has advantage in space, but require longer flash duration to tens or hundreds milliseconds, so it's more suitable for still picture shooting. Unlike WLED has very narrow spectrum, Xenon flash has wider spectrum with excellent color balance (light spectrum closer to sunlight) in the visible region. Spectrum is also stable with tube aging.

Currently Xenon flash tube from factory is very small, allowing integration without sacrificing portable devices' size. Because of its good performance, Xenon tubes are widely used as camera strobes in digital still camera and more and more popular in cellphones.

This paper presents how to design Xenon flash application based on NCP5080 which is a high voltage boost driver integrated with IGBT driver, photo sense function, thermal shutdown, transformer primary side current limit and flash control input. The reference circuit can be used in many different applications. Part numbers of important components are also provided. External component selection and layout recommendation for such application are also presented bellow.

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