Patent ID: 8169150

Claim:
A chipset for powering and controlling a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) strings, the chipset comprising: a controller integrated circuit comprising a pulse width modulating (PWM) functionality and a data transfer interface circuitry; and at least one dissipative active element array integrated circuit comprising a plurality of dissipative active elements, each of the dissipative active elements constituted of a respective field effect transistor, said at least one dissipative active element array integrated circuit packaged to be thermally separate from said controller integrated circuit, said at least one dissipative active element array integrated circuit arranged in a multi-chip module with said controller integrated circuit, wherein the PWM functionality is arranged to individually pulse width modulate a current flow through each of the LED strings, and wherein each of said plurality of dissipative active elements is associated with a particular one of the plurality of LED strings and is arranged to limit the current flow of the pulse width modulated current that flows through the particular LED string to a value, said value responsive to a value output by said controller integrated circuit via said data transfer interface circuitry.