Technology trends for LED driver chips for lighting

As LEDs continue to evolve, their utility or ability to produce light output from power supplies will only continue to increase. Second, LED lighting is environmentally friendly and does not require the handling, exposure, and disposal of toxic mercury vapors commonly found in cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs). Finally, incandescent bulbs often need to be replaced after about 1000 hours of use, while fluorescent lamps can last up to 10,000 hours. However, these figures are dwarfed by the fact that LED lighting can provide more than 100,000 hours of life.

Heat dissipation, reliability and safety requirements need to be considered

As is known to all, the operating temperature of the LED driver module is high, and the module has poor heat dissipation conditions, resulting in the LED driver circuit always operating at a higher temperature, which leads to a series of problems such as reduced reliability of the LED application and shortened service life. Have to focus on; reliability and safety are easily overlooked, especially before the implementation of the relevant regulations, in order to reduce costs, some LED lighting manufacturers will omit reliability and safety aspects of the circuit; but this is precisely The fundamental development of the LED lighting industry is also the embodiment of the LED driver chip manufacturers' design capabilities. The solutions provided by different chip manufacturers have greatly increased the cost of adding these circuits.

Yu Zhongwei, product director of Taiwan's Accumulation Technology Co., Ltd., believes that the trend of standardization should be noted, such as the US Energy Star and Japan PSE specifications. In addition, dimming functions are gaining more and more attention, such as traditional thyristor dimming, 1~10V dimming, and DALI dimming. Finally, the requirements for the drive solution are derived from solving the heat dissipation problem. In addition to cost considerations and lighter weight requirements, it is also necessary to take into account better electrical characteristics (efficiency, power factor, electromagnetic interference, output ripple, etc.). .

LEDs require a rich power conversion and drive solution

Lin Zhiyan, technical marketing manager of ON Semiconductor's lighting market, said that LEDs are essentially low-voltage devices. Depending on the color and current, the forward voltage drop may vary between 2 and 4.5 V, and the LEDs need to be driven with a constant current. Make sure to provide the required luminous intensity and color. At the same time, LED applications are diverse and require different power supplies, such as high-voltage AC-DC, medium-voltage DC-DC, and low-voltage DC-DC.

This requires the use of suitable power conversion and LED drive schemes to drive LEDs, such as switch drivers, linear drivers, linear constant current regulators (CCR), and high voltage switching power supply solutions, power factor correction (PFC), depending on the application. Controllers, even novel lighting management integrated circuits (LMICs), to meet specific application needs, provide energy efficiency and high reliability, helping to take advantage of the long life of LEDs.

Accumulation Technology also believes that the market has not blindly pursued the "one-time satisfaction" scheme, but has learned that there are conflicts between various characteristics. For example, under the traditional single-stage output architecture, power factor and output ripple cannot be optimized at the same time. compromise. Therefore, Accumulation Technology's strategy is to propose different solutions to different needs of customers. In terms of architecture, when the market has been unilaterally inclined to isolate solutions in recent years, accumulation believes that the non-isolated architecture can not ignore the irreplaceable advantages of specific applications, so it continues to develop diverse products. In addition to active power factor correction products, thyristor dimming and four-stage dimming products, the accumulation has been actively pursued towards a more cost-effective solution.

Offline power drive promotes applications

Tony Armstrong, director of product marketing at Linear Technology's Power Products Division, said that especially in driving HB (high-brightness) LEDs, by using a conversion topology that meets the input voltage range and the required output voltage and current requirements, Liert's LED driver ICs provide enough current and voltage for many different types of LED configurations.

In particular, driving an LED with an off-line power supply can make the application grow exponentially, because this form of power supply can be easily obtained in both commercial and residential buildings. Although the LED lamp replacement accessory is relatively simple and easy for the end user to install, the new requirements for the LED driver IC have been greatly improved. Since LEDs require a well-regulated constant current source to provide a constant light output, powering the LEDs with AC input power requires some special design methods to meet some very specific design requirements. To this end, Linear Technology recently introduced an innovative off-line single-stage active power factor correction (PFC) isolated flyback LED controller, the LT3799.

Compatibility and integration control become a bright spot

Lance Zheng, director of marketing for Marvell Green Energy, pointed out that in 2011, the entire lighting market grew by more than 40%, and 2012 became a key year for the LED market to take off. Compatibility and integrated control will be the two highlights of technology development.

The first is compatibility, and the existing lighting architecture is based on traditional lighting technologies such as incandescent technology. Due to space constraints, to replace these bulbs and configurations, LED lamps require the same size of bulb to match the lighting control device (such as an already configured TRIAC dimmer). In order to cope with this problem, the drive board area in the bulb needs to be reduced and compatible with various dimmers.

Followed by integrated control functions. By adding wireless control technology to the LED driver circuit at a very low cost, new features such as color temperature adjustment, mode illumination, and scene control can be brought about. These cool features are based on LED technology and help increase user acceptance of LED lighting technology.

The era of perceived lighting is coming

Sajol Ghoshal, director of the Austrian microelectronics sensor-driven lighting division, pointed out that the main factor driving the continuous development of LED lighting technology is regulations. At present, the construction of new power plants has become very expensive, so governments around the world are looking for ways to significantly reduce energy consumption over the next decade. A relatively high proportion of energy consumption in a building comes from lighting. Therefore, new regulations that force a reduction in energy consumption will affect the design and installation of lighting systems. The EU is planning to phase out inefficient bulbs and has also enacted regulations for commercial lighting.

Historically, lighting is a rough-controlled electrical load that can be further refined with a simple switch for manual control. For example, the US California Parliament Act 32 regulations require buildings to reduce energy consumption by half by 2018. Other building codes, such as TItle 24 in California, even put forward more specific requirements, such as requiring daylight capture through windows and skylights to reduce energy consumption, and requiring buildings to be equipped with automatic lighting control systems. Currently, low-cost passive infrared detectors are rarely used in rooms. Controlling lighting through building systems can significantly reduce energy consumption and provide users with highly optimized lighting to enhance the comfort experience. In this respect, there is clearly a long way to go.

Therefore, the use of LED power and flexibility to achieve lighting control in the next generation of lighting systems will be the main trend. This solution allows the lighting system to adjust the brightness and color of the LED itself to suit the environment as the environment changes. For example, when there is enough daylight in the room or the room is left unattended for a long time, the method can automatically reduce a lot of energy consumption.

Intelligent dimming solution

NXP Semiconductors is also an active promoter of intelligent dimming. Zhang Weichao, marketing manager for lighting products in Greater China, said that for LED lighting driver manufacturers, the design solution needs to maximize performance, including PFC, THD, efficiency, output constant current accuracy and other key features, while reducing board space requirements. Reduce design complexity and system cost. At the same time, with the development of LED residential and commercial lighting applications, the demand for dimming is increasing, but the thyristor dimming used by incandescent lamps will still exist, so the design of the driver IC needs to face a wider dimming. Compatibility issue.

At the same time, future lighting solutions tend to be smarter dimming. Considering the factors of energy saving, the biggest breakthrough in the field of lighting is to improve the application mode of lighting, namely, intelligent, wireless lighting control, or "smart lighting." Smart lighting marks a fundamental change in our relationship with light – at home, in the office, and even outdoors. Linking wireless IP to energy-efficient lighting technology in a safe, small, and low-cost solution transforms the way we design, control, and manage lighting. For each bulb with an IP address, this complete hardware/software solution enables IP connectivity so that an advanced lighting system can be built that is easily controlled by devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs.

The intelligent lighting network includes lights, switches, sensors, remote controls, and optional IP control via a webmaster for smartphones, tablets and PCs. These lights can be network IP controlled via the 6LoWPAN-based JenNet-IP stack protocol.

Better than traditional control solutions, the JenNet-IP SW stack allows the system to be controlled from smartphones, tablets and PCs. These functions can be implemented through a low-cost gateway that can be controlled either over the Internet or over a local area network (LAN). The chip iCFL or iSSL solution is suitable for everything from home users to professional users with management systems.

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