"...Elantec Semiconductor today announced the release of its EL6249C, a new cutting-edge laser driver designed to enable higher speed factors in the production of CD-R/W (compact disk-read/write) optical disk drives. The EL6249C joins the growing Elantec family of highly successful laser driver products that have enabled OEMs to deliver faster optical disk drives for the growing number of applications in PC data storage and combi drives, consumer audio recorders, and consumer video camcorders.

The EL6249C features four current channels needed for the read, bias, 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 EL6249C integrates an automatic power control amplifier to control the light energy coming from the laser diode, and a high-frequency modulation oscillator that is used 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 optical pickup unit designs. OEMs benefit by seeing lower solution costs, shorter design times and higher speed drives.

Pricing for the EL6249C is $2.50 in 10,000-piece quantities. The new ultra-thin 24-LPP package as well as the 24-pin QSOP package are sampling now. Production lead times for both package options is 8-10 weeks..." NULL