Improving battery life with ultra low-power codecs

Portable consumer electronic device manufacturers are challenged to develop cost-efficient, high-performance, feature-rich audio solutions with longer battery life. At the same time, manufacturers are forced to reduce development time to be the first to introduce new products in the market. With the recent development of ultra low-power codecs with embedded mini-DSPs and powerful graphical programming tools, manufacturers can low meet these complex requirements.

The ultra low-power consumption and processing capabilities of these devices provide low-power audio solutions for systems requiring separate codecs, as well as for systems that incorporate base band or application processor chips with embedded analogue I/O. The graphical programming environments and extensive software libraries permit applications to be developed in a fraction of the time required by conventional programming environments.

With respect to low-power operation, many of these new generation ultra low-power codecs can operate the analog and digital cores from a single 1.5V to 1.8V supply. It's possible to further reduce power by operating the digital cores at voltages as low as 1.26V. Many devices have low-power operating modes. However, additional power-tuning options enable designers to tailor their power based on the individual configuration and processing options used in the record and playback paths. This allows designers to minimize power tuning to be dynamically optimized based on the number of input and output channels, output drive requirements, sample rate, desired SNR performance for the input and output, and processing features used.

With this capability, as shown in the figure below, the codec power consumption can be tuned to provide optimum performance for different audio reproduction modes (progress, messaging tones, voice communication and music reproduction), different I/O configurations (handset vs. headset operation) and different signal processing requirements (low-noise vs. high-noise communication environments). Power tuning controls permit the additional configuration options for conversion-less analogue bypass operation modes, PLL vs. PLL_less operation, or Class D vs. AB headphone drive configurations. These configuration controls are managed through an I²C or SPI bus.

Power consumption increases as SNR and voltage supply increases. Users can tune the power consumption to their application and system requirements.