Wolfson Microelectronics plc:

Wolfson Extends High Input Voltage ADC Range

Monday, April 10, 2006

Edinburgh, UK, 10 April 2006 - Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE:WLF.L) has introduced a new high input voltage ADC with an extended clocking scheme, to interface to a wider range of host processors.

The Wolfson WM8781 complements the existing WM8782, which was one of the first ADCs on the market to accept 2Vrms analogue input signals directly. The device offers a low cost stereo, high performance audio ADC solution for recordable media applications such as DVD players, Personal Video Recorders, Set-Top Boxes and studio audio processing equipment. Wolfson has designed the solutions specifically to reduce overall system cost by minimising the number of external components. As they are hardware controlled, software development effort is also reduced, and the wide ADC sampling frequency of up to 192kHz allows for a greater range of analogue input signals.

The WM8781 offers the additional capability of a 384fs Master mode, for host processors generating this clock frequency, as well as supporting Master or Slave mode clocking schemes.

Stereo line level inputs in the WM8781, along with two control input pins, allow operation of the audio interface in three industry standard modes; I²S, RJ and LJ. An internal op-amp is integrated on the front end of the chip to accommodate analogue input signals greater than 1Vrms. A stereo 24-bit multi-bit sigma-delta ADC is used with 128x, 64x or 32x over-sampling, according to sample rate. Digital audio output word lengths from 16-24 bits and sampling rates from 8kHz to 192kHz are supported. The device also has a high pass filter to remove residual DC offsets.

Availability

The WM8781 is available now in a 20-pin SSOP package.

About Wolfson Microelectronics

Wolfson Microelectronics plc is a leading global provider of high performance, mixed-signal semiconductors for digital consumer electronics applications.

Renowned worldwide for its audio and imaging technologies, Wolfson devices can be found at the heart of many of the world’s highest profile consumer products, including mobile phones, MP3 players, gaming consoles, DVD players, DVD-RW, LCD-TV and multi-function peripherals. If a digital product can capture an image or play a sound, Wolfson’s vision is to supply a product that will allow it to perform these tasks better.

Headquartered in Edinburgh, UK, Wolfson has sales and engineering offices in the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. Wolfson Microelectronics plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: WLF.L).

For more information about Wolfson Microelectronics, please visit www.wolfsonmicro.com or sign up for Wolfson eNews at http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/enews/.