Infineon chips reduce power consumption in flat-screen TVs

NEUBIBERG: Infineon Technologies, warned of the growing demand for power in the consumer electronics sector and highlighted products capable of increasing energy efficiency. Compared to conventional CRT televisions, which need just 50-70 watts to deliver brilliant images, some of today’s LCD flat-screen TVs consume more than 300 watts of power.

The main reason for this high power consumption is the backlighting that this panel technology needs to deliver a contrast-rich image. However some models of television, including the Individual 46 and Individual 40 Selection DR+ sets from German TV maker Loewe, show that greater power economy is possible. These two LCD flat screens consume 165 and 150 watts respectively and currently head the LCD television energy efficiency rankings for models with screen sizes above 101 cm. These TVs contain a number of Infineon power supply chips that help to ensure that as little energy as possible is converted into heat.

“Electronic components in typical consumer electronics power supplies waste around 10 to 15 percent of the energy. By contrast, our chips perform around 25 percent more efficiently,” says Andreas Urschitz, who heads Infineon’s power management chips business. “The cost of this waste can really mount up, running to as much as Euros 40 a year for a TV set alone.”

According to market researchers iSuppli, the demand for large, flat-screen televisions will continue to grow. World sales of displays of this type will likely exceed 350 million this year and are expected to rise to almost 600 million in 2011, accounting for 65 percent of all TV sets sold.

Infineon’s power supply chips are used to convert mains AC voltage into DC voltage and to produce a number of different DC voltages as constantly as possible.