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Intersil Introduces World's First Digitally Programmable Gain and Slope Temperature Compensation IC

Intersil's ISL21400 Enables Simple and Flexible Calibration of Voltage and Temperature in Applications like RF LDMOS and Laser Diode Biasing.

Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog semiconductors, today introduced the ISL21400 Digitally Programmable Tempco Voltage Reference as part of the newly formed pinPOINT family of precision analog products. This product allows users to digitally set the temperature slope and DC voltage of its output to accurately compensate for temperature drifts elsewhere in the system.

The performance of most analog circuits changes with temperature. Historically, much more expensive components have been required to minimize the impact of such temperature drift in higher performance systems. With the ISL21400, an engineer can now very simply generate a compensation voltage that can effectively cancel out the native drift of his system in the analog domain, allowing the use of lower cost components.

The other common approach to dealing with analog temperature drift is to cancel it out in the digital domain using a microprocessor. In this case, depending on the magnitude of the temperature drift problem, designers are sometimes forced to use higher resolution A/D converters than they would otherwise require. Intersil's ISL21400 allows the problem of temperature drift to be addressed cost-effectively in the analog domain without losing the simplicity of digital programming.

The ISL21400 offers a 1.2V reference absolute reference accuracy of +/- 2% and gives the user 8-bit control of slope and output voltage level plus three different gain settings that are applied at the output buffer of the device. All settings are stored in on-chip EEPROM memory avoiding the need for reprogramming the part each time the system is powered down.

Packaged in a cost effective SO-8 form-factor and drawing just 250uA of current over the industrial temperature range, the part is suitable for a broad range of different applications where precision over temperature is important -- primarily in the industrial and communications markets.

Pricing and Availability

The ISL21400 is available now in an 8-MSOP package and is priced at $1.25 in 1,000-unit quantities. More information on the ISL21400 is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0%2C1477%2CISL21400%2C0.html

Note to editors: To view a high-resolution downloadable photo of the ISL21400, visit Intersil's photo room at: http://www.intersil.com/pressroom/photoarchives.asp.

About Intersil's pinPOINT(TM) Precision Analog Product Line

Intersil's new pinPOINT(TM) Precision Analog product line features a wide range of low-power devices that provide unwavering signal accuracy over time and temperature. The family of parts includes precision voltage references, precision op amps, comparators, instrumentation amplifiers, current sensing amplifiers and data converters. The pinPOINT (TM) voltage references offer the industry's highest performance at the lowest power consumption, while the amplifier families feature true precision across the entire common mode voltage range. All of Intersil's pinPOINT(TM) op amps are specified over the full automotive temperature range (-40C to 125C). For more information about Intersil's pinPOINT(TM) product line, visit the pinPOINT(TM) website at www.intersil.com/pinpoint.

About Intersil's Voltage Reference Portfolio

Intersil has a wide portfolio of voltage references ranging from 0.6V to 5.0V output options. Standard voltage reference performance is pushed to unprecedented highs with a portfolio of products that feature the highest accuracy in the industry at power consumption levels that are the lowest in the industry. Unlike familiar band-gap and buried Zener technologies, these low-noise voltage references provide at least four times the power savings. To learn more about Intersil's voltage reference portfolio, visit the Voltage References page at www.intersil.com/vref/.

About Intersil

Intersil Corporation is a leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog semiconductors. The Company's products address some of the industry's fastest growing markets, such as, flat panel displays, cell phones, other handheld systems, and notebooks. Intersil's product families address power management functions and analog signal processing functions. Intersil products include ICs for battery management, hot-swap and hot-plug controllers, linear regulators, power sequencers, supervisory ICs, bridge drivers, PWM controllers, switching DC/DC regulators and power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high-performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and radiation-hardened applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the Company's web site and career page at www.intersil.com.