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Three LED drivers which can be used for illumination, but whose main task is the transmission of information (data) via the light of the LEDs, are explored in this paper. The converter circuits need no capacitors for the energy transformation and avoid an inrush current. The lack of necessity of electrolytic capacitors reduces cost and space. Dimming the illumination is also easy to achieve. The control concept of the converters and the generation of pulsing of the LEDs for transmitting the information (data) are explained. The converters can also be expanded to more stages to drive more LEDs with different types of information. All three converters are explained in detail; all presented circuits are built up and simulated with LTSpice. Several data transmission concepts are applied and demonstrated through simulations.

This paper proposed a single-stage AC-DC converter based on boost circuit and CLCL-T resonant converter for improving the performance of the LED driver. In practice, the two-stage LED driver is not suitable for low-power lighting applications. To overcome the problems, by integrating the boost power factor correction (PFC) circuit and CLCL-T resonant DC–DC converter, the proposed LED driver exhibits high efficiency and high reliability. The CLCL-T resonant converter can achieve soft-switching on the power switch and rectifier diode and reduce the switch losses at high frequencies. Operation principle, performance analysis and design considerations for the proposed LED driver are analyzed and discussed. The results indicate that the proposed single-stage LED driver is superior in terms of efficiency, volume and number of components. Finally, a 100-W experimental prototype is implemented, and the experimental results verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed LED driver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three LED drivers which can be used for illumination, but whose main task is the transmission of information (data) via the light of the LEDs, are explored in this paper. The converter circuits need no capacitors for the energy transformation and avoid an inrush current. The lack of necessity of electrolytic capacitors reduces cost and space. Dimming the illumination is also easy to achieve. The control concept of the converters and the generation of pulsing of the LEDs for transmitting the information (data) are explained. The converters can also be expanded to more stages to drive more LEDs with different types of information. All three converters are explained in detail; all presented circuits are built up and simulated with LTSpice. Several data transmission concepts are applied and demonstrated through simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, various light-emitting diode (LED) lighting systems are being developed because LEDs are one of the most used lighting sources for work environments, buildings, homes, and public roads in terms of some of their applications. Similarly, they have low energy consumption, quick responses, and excellent optimal performance in their operation. However, these systems still need to precisely regulate lighting, maintain stable voltage and current in the presence of faults and disturbances, and have a wide range of operations in the event of trajectory changes or monitoring tasks regarding the desired voltage and current. This work presents the design and application of two types of robust controllers (structure-at-infinity control and geometric control) applied to an LED driver using a buck converter. The controllers aim to follow the desired trajectories, attenuate disturbances at the power supply input, and compensate for faults in the actuator (MOSFET) to keep the capacitor voltage and inductor current stable. When comparing the results obtained with the two controllers, it was observed that both present excellent performance in the presence of constant disturbances. However, in scenarios in which variable faults and path changes are implemented, the structure-at-infinity control method shows an overimpulse of output voltage and current ranging from 39 to 42 volts and from 0.3 to 0.45 A, with a margin of error of 1%, and it can generate a failure in the LED driver using a buck converter. On the other hand, when using geometric control, the results are satisfactory, achieving attenuating constant disturbances and variable faults, reaching the desired voltage (40 v to 35 v) and current (0.3 to 0.25 A) with a margin of error of 0.05%, guaranteeing a system without overvoltages or the accelerated degradation of the components due to magnetic conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the study of the parameters and characteristics of the developed high-performance electronic control circuits for special-purpose LED lighting systems based on a two-stage forward converter (driver) with an output power of more than 200 W. Operation of the developed driver in the output power range of 13 to 202 W and the supply voltage range of 160 to 250 V was investigated. The maximum efficiency of the developed power supply system at the voltage of 240 V and the output power of 140 W is 89.9%. For the chosen topology, further voltage increase may increase the efficiency, but lead to accelerated degradation of the driver components. The results of the experimental studies of the developed drivers showed the drivers efficiency in the range of 84 to 90% at a load of 52…202 W with a power factor above 0.97 and a nonlinear current distortion factor less than 23.4% over the entire studied range of supply voltages. The high efficiency of the developed driver in a wide range of output power suggests the possibility of using the driver in lighting systems that provide additional power supply to energy storage systems (batteries), including those ensuring operation in the absence of mains power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DC-DC converters used in LED driver applications are desired to operate with high efficiency at high switching frequencies. Class-E resonant converter, which is simple in structure and easy to implement, is especially suitable for high-frequency and low-power applications because the directly grounded switch can operate under soft switching conditions. However, when the input voltage and output power vary over a wide range in variable frequency control, the soft switching conditions are lost. To eliminate this drawback, the class-E resonant converter with synchronous rectifier is proposed as an LED driver. Although designed to operate at the fixed switching frequency, this converter structure is controlled using a hybrid method in which variable and fixed frequency switching techniques are used together because the efficiency decreases as the load becomes lighter. The converter incorporates all the advantages of conventional class-E resonant converter, while the hybrid control highlights the advantageous aspects of both variable and fixed frequency switching. To verify the validity of the driver, a prototype circuit that can operate in the 25–50 V input voltage range and whose load is a 20 W LED module is constructed. A control algorithm where the operating parameters such as switching frequency, duty ratio and synchronization angle of the converter are estimated using the polynomial regression technique is developed for closed-loop control of the driver. The driver is dynamically tested against varying input voltage and reference current across a wide range. Test results confirm the validity and feasibility of the driver, and it is observed that the polynomial regression-based control algorithm effectively and robustly follows the reference current. Furthermore, while power control of the LED module is effectively carried out throughout the entire input voltage range from 0 W to 20 W, the power switches are turned on under soft switching conditions.

Regulating LED current and voltage is critical to maintaining a constant luminous flux in AC- or DC-powered LED lighting circuits. Today, users require constant current drivers that can provide a wide range of output voltages to drive different numbers of series-connected LED arrays. This work proposes an LED driver by combining an isolated SEPIC converter operating in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) and a modified Vienna rectifier. The proposed LED driver offers a single-switch control structure by adding a Vienna rectifier to the integrated SEPIC-FLYBACK converter. This driver structure provides many advantages over traditional bridge rectifier structures. The prototype circuit was tested in an 18 W continuous current mode (CCM) to verify its feasibility. As a result of the values obtained from both simulation and prototype circuit models, it has been shown to provide many of the following advantages: 95% high efficiency, high reliability, 4% low total harmonic distortion, 97% high power factor, and 70 V low switching voltage. This work meets class C 3-2 and IEC 61000 standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel hybrid Luo-Cuk converter designed for LED lighting systems combines elements from both Luo and Cuk topologies. By integrating the input branch of both topologies, the converter, employing a single switch, can generate two distinct types of outputs simultaneously. One output follows a Luo-type, while the other adopts a Cuk-type . Through a series connection of the outputs from Luo and Cuk topologies, the voltage gain of the converter has been notably enhanced. The converter's output can be effectively regulated using a single controller. To validate the consistency between the topology's performance and theoretical analysis, simulation and prototype results have been provided.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have become an effective lighting solution because of the characteristics of energy efficiency, flexible controllability and extended lifetime. They find use in numerous lighting systems for residents, industries, enterprises and street lighting applications. The efficiency and trustworthiness of the LED systems considerably based on the thermal mechanical loading improved several degradation schemes and respective interfaces. The complication of the LED systems limits the theoretic interpretation of the core reasons for the luminous variation or the formation of the direct correlation among the thermal aging loading and the luminous output. Therefore, this paper designs a new hybrid Henry gas solubility optimization with deep learning (HHGSO-DL) algorithm for LED driver system design. The presented HHGSO-DL technique mainly concentrates on the derivation of empirical relationships among the design parameters, thermal aging loading and luminous outcomes of the LED product. In the presented HHGSO-DL technique, bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) algorithm is executed for examining the empirical relationship and its hyperparameters can be tuned by the HHGSO algorithm. In this work, the HHGSO algorithm is derived by the integration of traditional HGSO algorithm with oppositional-based learning (OBL) concept. The performance of the HHGSO-DL technique can be investigated on LED chip packaging and LED luminaire with thermal aging loading. The extensive results demonstrate the promising performance of the HHGSO-DL technique over other state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, various light-emitting diode (LED) lighting systems are being developed because LEDs are one of the most used lighting sources for work environments, buildings, homes, and public roads in terms of some of their applications. Similarly, they have low energy consumption, quick responses, and excellent optimal performance in their operation. However, these systems still need to precisely regulate lighting, maintain stable voltage and current in the presence of faults and disturbances, and have a wide range of operations in the event of trajectory changes or monitoring tasks regarding the desired voltage and current. This work presents the design and application of two types of robust controllers (structure-at-infinity control and geometric control) applied to an LED driver using a buck converter. The controllers aim to follow the desired trajectories, attenuate disturbances at the power supply input, and compensate for faults in the actuator (MOSFET) to keep the capacitor voltage and inductor current stable. When comparing the results obtained with the two controllers, it was observed that both present excellent performance in the presence of constant disturbances. However, in scenarios in which variable faults and path changes are implemented, the structure-at-infinity control method shows an overimpulse of output voltage and current ranging from 39 to 42 volts and from 0.3 to 0.45 A, with a margin of error of 1%, and it can generate a failure in the LED driver using a buck converter. On the other hand, when using geometric control, the results are satisfactory, achieving attenuating constant disturbances and variable faults, reaching the desired voltage (40 v to 35 v) and current (0.3 to 0.25 A) with a margin of error of 0.05%, guaranteeing a system without overvoltages or the accelerated degradation of the components due to magnetic conductivity.

For low-power applications, this paper presents the development and design of a compact and ultra-highly efficient half-bridge LLC resonant converter. By using Galium Nitride (GaN) devices and high-efficient magnetics, the efficiency and power density of resonant converters can be improved. Compared to Silicon MOSFETs, GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (GaN HEMT) have a lower output capacitance and gate charge, resulting in lower driving loss and shorter dead times. Consequently, the proposed LLC converter based on GaN devices has excellent performance characteristics such as ultra-high efficiency, low switching losses, compact size, high voltage endurance, high operating temperature and high operating frequency. Furthermore, the proposed resonant converter features soft switching properties that ensure that the switches and diodes on the primary side are always switched at zero voltage and current. By doing so, LLC resonant converter switching losses are significantly reduced by up to 3.1%, and an overall efficiency of 98.5% is achieved. The LLC resonant converter design with GaN HEMT has great advantages over Si MOSFET solution regarding efficiency, overall losses, switching loose and power factor correction. A 240 W, 240 V to 60 V half-bridge GaN HEMT LLC resonant converter is simulated with a switching frequency of 75 KHz, along with the comparative analysis of the Si metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) solution. Moreover, the design and analysis of highly efficient magnetics with a power factor of 0.99 at full load is presented. A 240-Watt single stage LED driver with power factor correction is also designed to verify and compare the performance of proposed LLC resonant converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunability of correlated color temperature (CCT) and dimmability are the two major sought after features of functional solid-state lighting. This paper presents a low-cost, efficient, single-inductor-dual-output buck driver that facilitates CCT-control and dimming of a light emitting diode (LED) module composed of cool-white and warm-white chips. The proposed driver is designed based on two familiar integrated circuits (ICs), namely LM2596 and NE556. LM2596 serves as the main switching regulator and amplitude modulation (AM) controller whereas NE556 serves as the constant-frequency, dual-output pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controller. The exponential model of LED is exploited for improved estimation of the design parameters of the LED module and the driver circuit. The developed driver prototype is tested for its electrical, photometric, and colorimetric performances. The driver offers a full-load efficiency of about 90% for a 12-W test LED module. Under different operating modes, the LED system can produce warm, cool, or neutral white light and at the same time, the produced illuminance can be varied over a wide range. Moreover, the light flicker is imperceptible since the PWM frequency is set according to IEEE-1789 guideline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considered in this paper are the parameters and characteristics of the developed highly efficient electronic control systems for powerful LED modules (drivers), built on the basis of a single-stage flyback converter with a nominal power close to 200 W. The results of experimental tests show that, at the nominal load, the minimum efficiency of the developed driver reaches 88.2% with the power factor above 0.97 and the coefficient of total harmonic current distortion close to 23.4%. With the maximum value of the efficiency factor of the developed system 90.3% and the supply voltage 240 V, the power factor is higher than 0.99, and the total harmonic current distortion is 3.6%. The values of current harmonics of the driver do not exceed the maximum allowable values defined by the current standards. Used driver construction topology enabled to reduce the cost of the final product due to the unification of the component base, which increases the availability and manufacturability of the design. The use of a modern element base made it possible to ensure the deviation of the output current from the set one by no more than 1% over the whole range of the operating voltage of the supply (180...250 V), which allows using the developed driver in intelligent lighting systems and lighting systems with a combined power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel electrolytic-free quasi-Z-Source Ćuk LED driver for automotive applications. Compared to the traditional Ćuk converter, the first merit of the novel converter is higher gain, which makes it apt to switch between multiple applications. Secondly, the proposed converter combines the inherent characteristics of LED load to operate in a wide range in Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM), so the inductors can assist in energy storage, and only small capacitance is required. Thirdly, inductors can be integrated and use only one core, and capacitors are electrolytic-free, which will benefit integration and long life. All merits are important to automotive application. Detailed analysis and design steps are presented. Then, with the help of the simulation software Saber, several key parts of the converter are simulated. Finally, a prototype controlled by the micro control unit stm32f103c8t6 is built, and the feasibility is verified by the experiment results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the application and design of a high-power factor isolated Ćuk converter-based LED driver are realized for up to 50 W power. For the power switch of the PFC isolated Ćuk converter, traditional Si and silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs, which are wide bandgap semiconductors, are used and compared. The application is conducted using a dsPIC30F4011 microcontroller including PI voltage control. A current sensor is added to limit maximum current. Moreover, PI control parameters are selected by genetic algorithm to avoid a complex mathematical procedure for controller design. The power LED model derived in this paper is used for the PI parameter selection process. In addition, the input side inductor of the converter is operated in discontinuous conduction mode, and the switching frequency of the power switch is 57 kHz. With the experimental setup, the total harmonic distortion (THD) of grid voltage and current, power LED voltage and current, switch voltage, and input side inductor current are shown for both the SiC and Si MOSFETs and compared. It is concluded from the application that the SiC-based driver gives better results than the Si-based driver on the basis of THD and efficiency. Further, both applications provide limits of IEC61000-3-2 C class standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent emergency lighting is a safety device whose lamp is always on and continues to operate when a mains failure occurs. The circuit has to charge the battery and drive the lamp while the grid is present and keep the lamp running from the battery in case of mains failure. This might require up to three different converters: front-end converter, electronic ballast, and battery charger. Since an emergency lamp must be on for as long as the local regulations require during a grid failure, efficiency is key. This article presents a permanent emergency lamp based on a series resonant current regulator that operates both as a ballast and as a battery charger. In this circuit, the power converter is placed in series with the LED array, operating as a controllable nondissipative impedance. A methodology based on the study of energy balances during resonant operation intervals is presented, aiming to design and build a laboratory prototype with low component count and high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A buck-type LED driver together with automatic current sharing and high step-down voltage conversion ratio but without complex control is proposed. The proposed LED driver can not only achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn-on by adding only one resonant coupled inductor, which resonates with parasitic capacitors of active switches, but also can obtain lower voltage gain and better conversion efficiency. In this paper, the operating principles and design considerations of the proposed converter are discussed in detail. In addition, the number of LED strings can be extended to more than four channels. Finally, the theoretical analysis and performance of the proposed LED driver are verified by simulations and experiments using a field-programmable logic gate array (FPGA) named EP3C5E144C8N as a circuit control kernel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A flicker-free resonant LED driver with high power factor (PF) and passive current balancing is proposed and analysed in this paper. The proposed LED driver are composed a buck power factor correction (PFC) unit and a resonant dc-dc unit by sharing an active switch. Based on this topology, the low output current ripple can be achieved via small voltage ripple on bulk capacitor and fast voltage-mode control loop. By the charge balance for resonant capacitor, the output current of each LED string can be balanced. In a half line cycle, owing to the small voltage ripple on bulk capacitor of pre-stage output, the duty cycle of active switch is almost constant. Therefore, when the inductor current of buck PFC unit operates in discontinuous conduction mode, high PF can be realized. Moreover, as the resonance is existed between resonant capacitor and leakage inductor of transformer, the diodes in resonant dc-dc unit can achieve zero-current turn-off. Thus, the efficiency can be improved. Finally, an 82W LED driver prototype with three-output is built to verify the studied results.

This paper proposes a high-performance isolated single-ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) that is integrated with a non-dissipative snubber for a light-emitting diode (LED) driver. The proposed LED driver employs the snubber circuit to minimize any switching overvoltage caused by parasitic leakage inductance of the high-frequency transformer in the isolated SEPIC converter. This paper also presents a detail theoretical analysis of the proposed LED driver including its operating modes and design calculation. The experimental results of the proposed LED driver at the rated power of 18 W shows that it has a high-power factor, low harmonics, employs non-electrolytic capacitors, low switching stress, high reliability and high efficiency.

This article presents a two-stage automotive LED driver architecture delivering independently regulated output currents to multiple LED strings. The system consists of a multiphase noninverting buck–boost front-end stage, which allows for a wide battery voltage range, followed by high-frequency immittance-network-based LCL-T resonant converters, which operate as current sources over wide output voltage ranges. The two-stage buck–boost + resonant (BB+resonant) architecture takes advantage of the buck and boost capability of both stages, and the flexibility in setting the intermediate bus voltage to minimize losses. Advantages of the BB+resonant architecture include the use of lower voltage rated devices and soft switching in the resonant stage, leading to reduced losses and size. Experimental results are provided for a prototype consisting of a 250-kHz two-phase front-end stage and 2-MHz LCL-T resonant stages delivering independently regulated 1 A currents to four LED strings with $N = 1$ $-$ 18 LEDs. The measured system efficiency is greater than 88% over wide input (8 $-$ 18 V) and output (3–50 V) voltage ranges, with a peak efficiency of 93%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a digital primary-side controller for a flyback light-emitting diode driver with superior line regulation, high power factor (PF), and low total harmonic distortion (THD) was proposed. Conventional constant on-time control is hampered by input current distortion, leading to high THD. To achieve high PF and low THD, a digital switching frequency limiter with quasi-resonant control was proposed. In addition, owing to the turn-off delay of the MOSFET and propagation delay of the feedback signals, a primary-side-controlled flyback converter experiences poor line regulation. To achieve superior line regulation, delay compensation was proposed and analyzed. A digital controller was realized using a field-programmable gate array and was applied to an input voltage of 90-264 Vac and an output current of 1 A in a hardware prototype to verify the feasibility of the proposed control solution. The experimental results indicate that line regulation was within ±3%, PF was higher than 0.95, and THD was lower than 5% at universal input voltage.

Cascaded boost-buck PFC (CBBPFC) converters offer a wide voltage conversion ratio and a near-unity power factor but require a large output electrolytic capacitor, leading to poor reliability and power density. In this paper, a coordinated two-stage operation and control strategy is proposed to significantly minimize the capacitor requirement without any other hardware changes. In a conventional CBBPFC converter, the boost and buck stages either operate independently nor complementally. In contrast, the proposed method operates the two stages in a concerted manner, so it is possible to use the dc-link capacitor with certain voltage fluctuation to buffer the power imbalance between the AC input and DC output. A new coordinated control strategy and a fluctuation-ratio based design consideration are developed to coordinate the operation of the two stages, further complement the system design. A 200W CBBPFC prototype based on the design concept exhibits a maximum reduction of the output capacitor by 83%, a peak efficiency of 95.8%, and a power factor of 0.99.

The lightning surge robustness of a light-emitting diode (LED) driver based on a flyback converter has been experimentally investigated. It is demonstrated that the surge failure in the driver results from the burnout of the super-junction vertical double-diffused MOS (SJ-VDMOS). The high residual surge voltage causes the SJ-VDMOS to go into breakdown, resulting in a large number of impact ionizations. It is also shown that the impact ionization centers in the device are enlarged and shifted toward the bottom of trench gate with the increased surge stress. As a result, the generated holes preferentially flow along the p-body region near trench gate, finally triggering the parasitic BJTs and destroying the device. Next, a low-cost protection scheme that includes both a first-stage discharge network and a novel SJ-VDMOS with higher surge robustness is proposed to improve the lightning surge capability of the LED driver, increasing the robustness by more than a factor of 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new hybrid dual-loop control system for the DC/DC LLC resonant converter, operating as a downstream DC/DC converter in a two independent stage offline LED driver. The outer loop employs a PI controller to maintain the average LED current regulated at the reference value and reject parametric variation. The inner loop implements an adaptive periodic disturbance rejection (APDR) subsystem, thus conceiving the hybrid PI\&APDR controller. The APDR subsystem is designed to strictly reject the bus voltage ripple and limit its transmission to the LED current. Experimental results show the proposed controller feasibility in achieving good tracking behavior, reduced output current ripple under different bus voltage ripple amplitude and frequency, robustness against parametric variations, and simple implementation and design. For the sake of completeness, the proposed PI&APDR is compared with the conventional proportional resonant controller employing experimental results and extra analysis based on simulations.

One of the most efficient lighting technology is based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Common LED drivers with AC-input (50-60Hz) usually require a bulk electrolytic capacitor to decrease low-frequency ripple in the output. However, the critical element that limits the lifespan of the LED driver is the electrolytic capacitor. An isolated off-line LED driver is proposed in this paper, in which the required output capacitance is reduced so that the electrolytic capacitor can be omitted from the driver structure. The driver’s configuration and controlling method provide a high input power factor. Just a single switch and therefore a single controlling IC have been used in the proposed structure. The input power factor correction is implemented utilizing a boost-based method, and a novel structure is introduced for dc/dc conversion section. Power factor correction and dc/dc conversion are performed employing a simplistic and single controlling system. The output current feeding the LEDs is a high frequency pulsating current. Calculations, simulations and experimental waveforms of a laboratory prototype are presented to confirm the validity of the proposed driver.

In the field of non-isolated light-emitting diode (LED) driver, the omnipresent buck-based LED constant current driver shows poor efficiency in occasions of high step-down ratio due to the marginal operating duty cycle. In order to overcome such drawback and to provide an alternative topological scheme for an LED driver, a Watkins-Johnson topology-based solution is proposed in this paper, by improving the original circuit structure into a dual low-side power switch version and introducing a feedback network for regulating the output current to a constant level. Theoretical analysis, including accurate model construction, steady-state analysis, dynamic analysis, and design consideration, is conducted. Also, an experimental prototype is realized to drive all kinds of LED arrays for acquiring electrical parameters and evaluating performance. The innovative points include invoking the low-side-ize approach to realize the power circuit transformation, and furthermore, theWatkins-Johnson topology is first applied to the constant current power supply. The proposed LED driver holds salient features of low-terminal current ripple, ease of driving, high-voltage conversion ratio tolerance, and inherent energy recovery functionality. The application scope covers low-voltage dc input or automotive lighting use.

In energy efficient system designs, LED lighting leads to reduction in global energy demand. This paper proposes a high brightness, high efficiency, dimmable LED driver based on linear current regulator technology for DC grid distribution systems. The proposed driver has excellent characteristics like highest lumen per watt, long lifetime, high reliability, compact, low cost, both environmental and user friendly which makes it suitable for lighting applications. Steady state and small signal model of the proposed driver are performed which helps in minimizing ground current and accurate compensator design, respectively. These two modelling approaches result in the optimization of both footprint and cost of the driver. The performance of the proposed 20W driver is modeled using real-time simulation in spice software. Experimental prototype is developed to validate the performance of the proposed driver for different dimming levels and achieves a maximum efficiency of 97%.

A buck-type LED driver together with automatic current sharing and high step-down voltage conversion ratio but without complex control is proposed. The proposed LED driver can not only achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn-on by adding only one resonant coupled inductor, which resonates with parasitic capacitors of active switches, but also can obtain lower voltage gain and better conversion efficiency. In this paper, the operating principles and design considerations of the proposed converter are discussed in detail. In addition, the number of LED strings can be extended to more than four channels. Finally, the theoretical analysis and performance of the proposed LED driver are verified by simulations and experiments using a field-programmable logic gate array (FPGA) named EP3C5E144C8N as a circuit control kernel.

In this paper, current-mode boundary conduction mode (BCM) of a high-efficiency LED driver with high power factor, utilizing low-voltage film capacitors, is presented, and its theoretical design and considerations are discussed. The 1.5-stage driver consists of a forward-flyback and buck converter. Higher efficiency was reached using the reduced redundant power processing approach. Most of the processed energy is transferred to the output through flyback, while the rest removes the low harmonic ripple in the output current through the forward-buck path. An acceptable amount of odd harmonics is injected into the input current by using current-mode BCM control method, further reducing bus capacitance. To validate these principles, a laboratory prototype has been built and experimental results of a high-current 85 W (29.5 V/2.9 A) lamp with 50 Hz, 185–255 V power supply are provided. The results show that output current ripple is low, and the input current harmonics are within the standard regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate and effective reliability prediction of light emitting diode (LED) drivers has emerged as a key issue in LED applications. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the reliability of electrolytic capacitors or other single components while ignoring circuit topology. In this study, universal generating function (UGF) and physics of failure (PoF) are integrated to predict the reliability of LED drivers. Utilizing PoF, lifetime data for each component are obtained. A system reliability model with multi-phase is established, and system reliability can be predicted using UGF. Illustrated by a two-channel LED driver, the beneficial effects of capacitors and MOSFETs for the reliability of LED drivers is verified. This study (i) provides a universal numerical approach to predict the lifetime of LED drivers considering circuit topology, (ii) enhances the modelling and reliability evaluation of circuits, and (iii) bridges the gap between component and circuit system levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the number of switching devices and the switching loss of the LED driver, this paper presents a novel single-stage AC-DC LED driver based on LCLC resonant converter. The topology can reduce the number of switching devices by combining the power factor correction converter with the resonant converter. On the other hand, it can reduce the switching loss by using LCLC resonant converter, which can realize ZVS and ZCS simultaneously. In this paper, the structure is analyzed in detail and the LTspice IV software is used on the simulation. Finally, the correctness of the analysis is verified by experiment.

In order to reduce the size and cost of a medium-power light-emitting diode (LED) driver, a novel single-stage LED driver integrating a boost converter with a half-bridge LLC resonant converter has been proposed. This topology is composed of a boost power factor correction circuit operating in a discontinuous conduction mode and an isolated LLC circuit unit with soft-switching characteristics. The proposed LED driver only adopted two switch components, thus benefiting from control simple and without employing an extra switch driver and a control circuit. The operating principle and characteristics of the proposed LED driver are analyzed in detail. In addition, experimental results of a laboratory prototype for supplying a 100-W/70-V LED lighting systems from 220-V/50-Hz ac line voltage are presented to verify well the correctness of the theoretical analysis and parameters’ design.

Electronic load can be used to test the characteristics of LED driver in the field conditions. In this work, a new electronic load for LED driver is designed, which could simulate the nonlinear volt-ampere characteristics of LED module. In order to study the real-time control performance of the system when setting the working current, a PID controller and a fuzzy-PID controller were designed based on the flexible online programming and control of LabVIEW software. At the same time, the mathematical model of the electronic load is calculated based on the theoretical volt-ampere characteristic curve of the LED module. The results show that the combination of fuzzy logic and PID control can make the design of the new electronic load get better control effect and meet the needs of practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an LED driver circuit which is wide-range continuous dimmable for high power lighting application. The proposed LED driver is based on single-inductor–multiple-output (SIMO) dc–dc converter. A pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control strategy is applied on the LED driver to control the brightness of LEDs flexibly and precisely, with which the dimming frequency can be increased significantly, and the dimming ratio for all branches can be adjusted separately. PWM dimming would cause the inductor current overshooting when dimming switch alters from off to on, which makes the LED current varying. To suppress the inductor current overshooting, a sampling–holding circuit is adopted in the feedback loop of the proposed LED driver. A prototype of the proposed LED driver is fabricated and tested. The measurement results show that the dimming frequency can be increased to 10 kHz, the dimming ratio can be set from 5% to 100% with a minimum pulsewidth of 5  $\mu$ s, and the inductor current overshooting is suppressed from 150% to approximately 0%. The proposed LED driver can output more than 80 W and achieve a conversion efficiency of 97%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional ac-dc LED drivers fail to achieve high efficiency and optimized bus voltage over a wide range of input voltage. In order to obtain the better performance in high-line and low-line conditions simultaneously, a flexible mode LED driver is proposed. The proposed driver can operate in half-voltage input mode at high-line input to achieve relatively low-bus voltage and high efficiency. Meanwhile, the proposed driver can operate in full-voltage input mode at low-line input to cut down the diode loss and switch loss; thus, high efficiency can be also achieved. Meanwhile, zero-voltage switching characteristic of the active switches can be fulfilled in both modes. In addition, the proposed LED driver can achieve electrolytic capacitor free. The detail structure, operational principle, and design considerations are examined in detail. Finally, the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed LED driver are verified by an experimental prototype with rated power of 100 W. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fully integrated switched-capacitor (SC) dc–dc converter is designed for powering up an active-matrix light-emitting diode (AMLED) microdisplay system. The stacking-transistor technique with three voltage conversion ratios is utilized to handle the lithium-ion battery range of 2.6–4.2 V and to reduce the switching loss. A 101-phase interleaving scheme is adopted such that, first, output voltage ripple $\Delta V_{{\rm{O}}}$ is significantly reduced; second, no external output capacitor is needed; and, third, SC power-cells are physically cascaded to encircle the LED array and drivers to reduce conduction loss. Two test chips were designed in the 0.18-μm 1P6M CMOS technology. The first chip is a test chip comprising the SC converter only. The output voltage is 4.2 V, and the measured maximum $\Delta V_{{\rm{O}}}$ is 52 mV. The measured power density is 74.4 mW/mm2, peak efficiency is 81%, and maximum output power is 258 mW. The second chip is a system chip integrating the SC converter with the AMLED array and drivers using flip-chip packaging. The converter delivers a maximum power of 216 mW with a 78% peak efficiency in the SC mode and a 91% peak efficiency in the linear regulator mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel topology combining reconfigurability and hybridization is presented. Reconfigurability allows the proposed converter to operate in three different operating modes, yielding a wide range of step-up conversion ratios. The combination of two charge-pump cells and an inductor allows to reduce the average inductor current if compared to a standard equivalent boost converter. A prototype with integrated MOS, drivers, and logic but external passives was built. Experimental results show that with $\mathbf {f_{s} }=\text{300}\,$ kHz, $\mathbf {V_{in} = \text{6}}\,$ V, and $\mathbf {I_o = \text{70}}\,$ mA, the converter can cover conversion ratios in the range from $\text {2.5}$ to $\text {10}$ , with a maximum output voltage equal to $\text {60}\,$ V. Peak efficiency is $\text {91}$ %. When the output current is increased to $\text {100}\,$ mA peak efficiency is $\text {92.8}$ %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an extendable full‐colour light emitting diode (LED) display based on field‐programmable gate array implementation. The LED display panel system includes memory management, image format conversion, serial parallel interface (SPI) interface, local scan techniques, LED driver and pulse width modulation (PWM) data control. To reduce I/O ports, data transmission system uses SPI interface to send the PWM data to the LED panels. A novel local scan technique, which could use a lower frequency for data transmission and achieve higher frame rate for LED display, is proposed. Each display module contains local memories for data self‐scanning to LED. The display continues even if there is no new data input. The advantages are that the display rate does not care about the speed of data transmission. Only motion area, rather than complete frame, required sending data to display, which can greatly improve data bandwidth. This is very useful for high‐resolution display system since even low data rate can achieve the fast display refresh. This approach is a module‐based design, which can easily be extended to any size with auto re‐configuration without using embedded processor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A buck-type light-emitting diode (LED) driver is proposed herein. The proposed LED driver automatically possesses current sharing and high step-down voltage gain. Without complex control, the proposed LED driver, with a single input and multiple outputs, can achieve automatic current sharing of four-channel LED strings, even under the different number of LEDs of each LED string. Furthermore, as compared with the traditional four-phase interleaved buck converter with a single input and a single output having current sharing required, the proposed circuit has the duty cycle up to 0.5, not 0.25, meaning that under the same input voltage the latter has a wider output voltage range than that of the former. Above all, if the proposed circuit with N outputs, then it still has the duty cycle up to 0.5, not one over N as shown traditionally. Moreover, as compared with the current sharing based on the differential-mode transformer, the proposed circuit has no magnetic resetting loop required. In this paper, the operating principles and design considerations of the proposed converter are discussed. Finally, the theoretical analyses and performances of the proposed LED driver are verified by simulation and experiment.

This paper is concerned with the derivation of a discontinuous conduction mode boost PFC rectifier as a driver for high-power LED lighting applications. The proposed driver is operated in the current mode regime while emulating a resistance towards the line, thus attaining a near unity power factor and low total harmonic distortion of the line current. Theoretical analysis is reported and conditions for the low LED flicker are derived. A method of design for minimum THD is also suggested. Simulation and experimental results are reported.

With advances in solid-state lighting, visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising technology to enhance existing light-emitting diode (LED)-based lighting infrastructure by adding data communication capabilities to the illumination functionality. The last decade has witnessed the evolution of the VLC concept through global standardisation and product launches. Deploying VLC systems typically requires replacing existing light sources with new luminaires that are equipped with data communication functionality. To save the investment, it is clearly desirable to make the most of the existing illumination systems. This paper investigates the feasibility of adding data communication functionality to the existing lighting infrastructure. We do this by designing an experimental system in an indoor environment based on an off-the-shelf LED panel typically used in office environments, with the dimensions of 60 × 60 cm2. With minor modifications, the VLC function is implemented, and all of the modules of the LED panel are fully reused. A data rate of 40 Mb/s is supported at a distance of up to 2 m while using the multi-band carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP) modulation. Two main limiting factors for achieving higher data rates are observed. The first factor is the limited bandwidth of the LED string inside the panel. The second is the flicker due to the residual ripple of the bias current that is generated by the panel’s driver. Flicker is introduced by the low-cost driver, which provides bias currents that fluctuate in the low frequency range (less than several kilohertz). This significantly reduces the transmitter’s modulation depth. Concurrently, the driver can also introduce an effect that is similar to baseline wander at the receiver if the flicker is not completely filtered out. We also proposed a solution based on digital signal processing (DSP) to mitigate the flicker issue at the receiver side and its effectiveness has been confirmed.

This paper presents electrolytic capacitorless AC/DC LED driver. It adopts Boost–Buck topology, through modulation of the conduction time T on and the change of input current reference, to reduce the instantaneous input and output power difference, so a smaller film capacitor can be used instead of the electrolytic capacitor. Therefore, LED driver power life has been effectively improved. The Buck converter operates in the inductor current discontinuous conduction mode to achieve constant output current by controlling the peak current. The control IC is fabricated in TSMC 0.35- μ m 5-V/650-V CMOS/LDMOS process, and verified in a 72-V/150-mA circuit prototype. The test results show that when the range of input voltage is 175–264 Vac, the efficiency of the system is 83%, the voltage linear regulation is ± 1 %, the load regulation is ± 0. 5 %, and the electrolytic capacitor is replaced by 470-nF CBB capacitor under the condition that the power factor is above 0.7. Therefore, the design of the control chip in the LED driver has a very good application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel integrated-stage light-emitting diode (LED) driver based on Flyback and resonant converters. The Flyback converter realizes power factor correction in the discontinuous conduction mode. The resonant converter is operated as a dc–dc converter to support the LED loads. Moreover, the resonant converter can clearly decrease the drain–source voltage of the active switch and exhibits zero-voltage-switch characteristics. Therefore, a cost-effective MOSFET can be chosen as the main control component that can decrease the cost of the whole system. Compared to a single-active-switch converter (such as Class-E converter), the number of passive components in the resonant converter can be limited to four. Therefore, the power density of the system can be improved drastically. In this paper, a 100-W prototype is presented under the experimental condition to validate the proposed integrated-stage LED driver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a self-oscillating boost converter with a blocking diode is proposed to meet the desire for simple, cost-effective, high performance, and highly efficient LED drivers. As compared with traditional self-oscillating converters, the proposed converter demonstrates several appealing advantages including design simplicity, robustness, soft-switching characteristics (zero-voltage switching and zero-current switching), tight current regulation, and high efficiency over a wide line/load range. The control stage is implemented with a compact and low-cost industry standard controller, which assumes multiple roles in switching and LED current regulation. A type III compensator with anti-windup is designed to limit the maximum LED current at startup and to achieve tight LED current regulation at steady state. The efficiency and desired transient/steady-state performances are verified with SPICE simulation and a prototype circuit, which demonstrate a maximum efficiency of 95.9% and 2.3% ripple factor for the LED current. The robustness of the proposed driver is verified under a range of power supply voltage and different numbers of LEDs at the load side. In addition, the circuit is modified to implement high efficiency pulsewidth modulation dimming between 5% and 95%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are coming strongly into the lighting market due to their advantages over conventional lighting solutions: energy efficient, controllable in both light and color, long lifetime, lack of a warm-up period, and high power density. Some of these advantages will make LED light sources to be more than just a light bulb, being able to transmit data, control light color, hue, and intensity or even detect people in indoor environments. Nevertheless, these advantages attributed to LED capabilities are, in reality, achieved thanks to the LED driver. This paper reviews the current state-of-the-art strategies to drive LEDs from ac power grids with special emphasis into removing the most limiting component from the point of view of the lifetime, which is the electrolytic capacitor, while achieving a flicker-free performance of the light output of the LED driver. Moreover, it focuses on analyzing the required regulations, challenges, and applicability of LED drivers in both single-phase and three-phase ac power grids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-frequency high voltage gain discontinuous conduction mode coupled-inductor boost LED driver based on planar component is presented in this paper. GaN switch is adopted with lower conducting resistance and higher switching speed. Zero voltage switching (ZVS) is achieved at the same time to reduce high switching loss caused by high switching frequency. Compared with the previous work, the voltage gain is higher and efficiency is higher because of ZVS. This paper focuses on high efficiency; therefore, resonant gate driver is adopted and efficiency is increased by 0.6%. In terms of the coupled-inductor, planar component is used and parameter optimization is also proposed to realize lower loss, including wingding loss and fringing loss caused by the air gap. A 500 kHz 36 W prototype has been designed to demonstrate theoretical analysis. In addition, comparison of drive loss between the resonant gate driver used in this paper and conventional driver implemented by Si8271 is made, revealing advantages of the resonant driver. Obtained efficiency was up to 92.1% at full load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]