"...Elantec Semiconductor today introduced its new EL6248C, a higher-speed laser driver designed to enable higher speed factors in the production of CD-R/W optical disk drives. As part of the Optical Pick-Up Unit (OPU), the technological heart of the CD drive, the EL6248C is one of the fastest and most powerful laser drivers and power monitor amplifiers on the market today.

The EL6248C features three current channels needed for the read, erase, and write laser drive power levels, compliant with the industry-standard Orange Specification for CD-R and CD-R/W write strategy disk formats. In addition, the EL6248C integrates an automatic power control amplifier to control the light energy coming from the laser diode and a high-frequency modulation oscillator to reduce laser read-noise and consequently the read-error rate. The results of this integration are reduced component count, shorter signal routing, and more compact OPU design. OEMs benefit by realizing lower solution costs, shorter design times and higher speed drives.

Pricing for the EL6248C is $2.50 in 10,000-piece quantities. The EL6248CM is sampling now in the 24-pin QSOP package. Production lead times are 8-10 weeks..." NULL