Tip - ULN2003 High Power Driver [101] | General Electronics | Electronics

http://digital-diy.com/general-electronics/101-tip-uln2003-high-power-dr...

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9/9/2013 5:31 AM

Tip - ULN2003 High Power Driver [101] | General Electronics | Electronics

http://digital-diy.com/general-electronics/101-tip-uln2003-high-power-dr...

What's Inside?
The picture on the right is what the ULN2003 looks like internally. Pins 1:7 are inputs, while pins 10:16 are high current sink drivers. Between the I/Os is an independent Darlington pair (the 'Darlington pair' behaves like a single transistor with a high current gain). When an input is driven high, the corresponding output will basically become an earth. Alternately, when the input pin is low, the output pin adopts a high impedance. This allows external high-current circuits to be driven by small micro-controllers. There are seven channels ready to be used, and as mentioned earlier, the ULN2003 can sink up-to 500mA between all the channels.

Operation
There is only one power connection, a common ground (Pin 8). Here's an example of driving a high power LED with logic voltages via the ULN2003 (note the LED is being driven by a 12 volt source, but controlled by the logic voltage);

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9/9/2013 5:31 AM

Tip - ULN2003 High Power Driver [101] | General Electronics | Electronics

http://digital-diy.com/general-electronics/101-tip-uln2003-high-power-dr...

3 of 3

9/9/2013 5:31 AM