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ON Semiconductor Wins “Top 10 DC-DC 2010” Award from Electronic Products China for its NCP5680 LED Flash Driver 

BEIJING, China – Sept. 17, 2010 – ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN) a premier supplier of high performance, energy efficient silicon solutions for green electronics, today announced that Electronic Products China (EPC) magazine has presented the company with a “Top 10 DC-DC 2010” award for its NCP5680 supercapacitor-optimized LED flash driver. The driver is capable of delivering up to 10 amperes (A) for photo flash and video light in ultra-slim camera phones and compact digital cameras. This is the eighth consecutive year that ON Semiconductor has won the award from EPC.

Products honored with this award bear innovative designs, help realize significant technology improvement, or make great achievement in price-performance ratio. “Capable of driving high power LEDs, the NCP5680 is ideal for flash light applications,” said the judging panel.

“To address the increasing global demands for high efficiency technologies, ON Semiconductor has always been at the forefront of developing innovative, energy-efficient solutions,” said Hemen Cheng, ON Semiconductor senior global sales and marketing director for Power Supply and Portable Segments. “Winning this award for the eighth year in a row is a testament to our leadership in innovations. The NCP5680 is a total LED flash solution that supplies comparable light energy to xenon flash, but with only half the height of comparable products and no need for an extra LED for video capture.”

To produce high-resolution pictures in low-light conditions, cameras of 5 megapixels or more require a high-intensity flash. Today’s WLEDs can deliver this level of light energy, but require up to 400 percent more power than a camera battery can provide. To support the battery, ON Semiconductor’s NCP5680 manages a supercapacitor to drive the LED flash to full intensity, supplying high-peak-current up to 10 A. The integrated driver in the NCP5680 also manages the supercapacitor to handle other peak-power needs – zoom, auto-focus, audio, video, wireless transmissions, GPS readings and RF amplification – extending battery life without compromising slim line design.

The NCP5680 integrates all circuitry required to charge the supercapacitor, manage in-rush current and control LED current - saving designers development time, board space and component cost. Fully programmable control of charging and discharging of the supercapacitor and unique overload protection ensures the right amount of light is provided for high-quality photography. The integrated driver can also power other high peak current circuits in portable systems, such as audio amplifiers, extending the useful battery operating time.

Flexible Control Through I2C Interface
The I2C registers in the NCP5680 allow users to adjust the output current and flash duration of each of the two LEDs in real time. This solution can therefore perform different lighting effects such as indicator light, pre-flash, and power flashlight for photographing and torchlight for video recording. When connecting to an ambient light sensor, the NCP5680 will automatically limit the flash duration to prevent photo over-exposure, thus preserving the photo quality. Additionally, the supercapacitor charging current is adjustable through an I2C register. NCP5680 can disable the charging operation during global system for mobile (GSM) transmission, in order to limit the current drawn from the battery.

Safety Protection Features
The NCP5680 has multiple built-in protection mechanisms, including flash time out, temperature detection, overload protection and short circuit protection. The device protects the flash circuitry from any faulty conditions of the driving circuit, as well as for the LED.

About Electronic Products China’s Top 10 DC-DC Award
Electronic Products China – one of China’s most authoritative electronics trade publications – is a sister publication of Electronic Products magazine published in the US. The magazine’s annual “Top 10 DC-DC” Award recognizes a range of DC-DC power products, including ICs. Products are put through a strict evaluation and recommendation process by an expert judging panel. Chip manufacturers’ DC-DC products are measured against a number of benchmarks including design innovation, price-performance and technological advancement.

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About ON Semiconductor
ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) is driving energy efficient innovations, empowering customers to reduce global energy use. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of energy efficient power and signal management, logic, discrete and custom solutions to help design engineers solve their unique design challenges in automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, LED lighting, medical, military/aerospace and power supply applications. ON Semiconductor operates a responsive, reliable, world-class supply chain and quality program, and a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers in key markets throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions. For more information, visit https://www.onsemi.com.

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