Abstract

As battery-powered devices such as laptops, tablets, and smart wireless speakers continue to integrate more advanced features, power efficiency has become a critical design consideration. To address this challenge, Texas Instruments (TI) has developed the Y-Bridge power architecture—an remarkable enhancement to conventional Class-D audio amplifier design. This advanced architecture is implemented in TI’s latest TAS2781 and TAS2783 devices, which are digital-input Class-D smart audio amplifiers featuring integrated digital signal processing (DSP) and speaker protection algorithms. This application note provides an in-depth overview of the Y-Bridge architecture, detailing how this intelligently manages power supply selection to optimize voltage headroom, thereby improving overall amplifier efficiency and reducing battery power consumption. The application note also explores practical implementation scenarios and outlines the key advantages of the Y-Bridge design over traditional Class-D amplifier designs.