40W LED Flash For Smartphones Coming Soon, Get Ready To Be Blinded

Been frustrated with the quality of flash light from your smartphone? Get ready to be blinded (literally) by the next generation of LED flash coming for smartphone cameras. STMicroelectronics has #-Link-Snipped-# their new chip STCF04 which serves as integrated camera flash and even as a torch giving a brightness of more than 40 Watts.

#-Link-Snipped-#

Typical camera flashes uses a Xenon strobe, which needs a high voltage for a brief flash but our smartphones uses LED flashes which take up to 2W power. With the new chip, STMicroelectronics is set to change our night time/indoor imaging by giving us a flash quality of professional cameras with lower voltage consumption. The chip stores the charge from the battery of the phone in its capacitor and then illuminated the LEDs with the charge when required.

The chip can even control the level of flash automatically depending on the surrounding using light sensors and gives a brightness control option for the torch light with up to 12 levels. The intelligent chip has also in-built temperature sensors, safety timers and even some features leading to protection against short-circuit.

The chip is now available as sample for device manufacturers and STMicroelectronics is expected to begin its commercial production by March. Cost? The 3 millimetre square chip isn't as costly as expected and will not add more than $2 to the cost of your smartphone. So it's now time to say goodbye to darker and blurrier images.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-#