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Maxim Integrated Products (PINK OTC MARKETS: MXIM) introduces the MAX9744, the industry’s first 20W stereo Class D speaker amplifier to operate from a 4.5V to 14V power supply. The wide supply range minimizes the cost of portable designs by reducing component count and allowing the use of a smaller battery pack. The MAX9744 provides ample output power throughout the power-supply voltage range, making it ideal for MP3 docking stations, gaming consoles, and flat-panel televisions.

Additionally, the MAX9744 integrates 64-step analog and digital volume control. In analog mode, the volume range is ratiometric relative to VDD. To ramp up or down the volume digitally, the system microcontroller can program a 6-bit register through the MAX9744′s I²C interface.

External feedback resistors set the input gain, while the output has an internally set gain. When powered from a 12V supply, the MAX9744 combines these gains with the wide volume-control range, and delivers 20W per channel into 4Ω speakers.

Class D amplifiers are known for high power efficiency, and the MAX9744 does not disappoint with its 93% efficiency while delivering 20W into an 8Ω load. Achieving high 75dB PSRR, low 0.04% THD+N, and greater than 90dB SNR, this stereo amplifier offers Class AB performance with Class D efficiency.

Due to the switching nature of the output stage, most Class D amplifiers require large, costly output filters; exhibit poor THD+N; and radiate electromagnetic interference (EMI). The MAX9744, however, employs Maxim’s patented spread-spectrum modulation* to reduce the peaks of the fundamental and subsequent harmonics by spreading energy over a wider bandwidth. This device also offers a filterless modulation mode, which eliminates the large LC filters required by traditional Class D amplifiers. These two modulation schemes minimize design cost and space, and they eliminate the time-to-market problems associated with EMI radiation.

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Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. has successfully oscillated the world’s first AlGaN (aluminum gallium nitride) laser diode to emit ultraviolet light at 342 nanometers*, the shortest wavelength for an electrically-driven laser diode. This breakthrough will advance the practical application of UV laser diodes in a variety of fields, including biology and environmental science. Laser diodes in general are convenient, compact devices which have low power consumption and long lifetimes, and are environmentally friendly.

Hamamatsu’s achievement will be covered in an article in the September issue of Nature Photonics, a specialty publication of U.K. scientific journal Nature. From July 27 London time, this article will be available in the “advance online publication” section of the Nature Photonics website (see link below).

Emission of light by the shortest-wavelength UV laser diode

http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/index.html