A series of design ideas to help designers of LED driver circuitry benefit from the company’s recently introduced LinkSwitch-II family of AC-DC power conversion ICs has been announced by the leader in high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, Power Integrations. The new design ideas (DI-184, DI-185 and DI-186), demonstrate that LinkSwitch-II ICs are well suited for power supplies and ballasts driving high-brightness LEDs. LED ballasts that are simpler to design, lower-cost, and more durable than existing converter technology are enabled by the devices’ highly accurate constant-current performance and low external component count.
Utilizing a transformer winding to sense the output current rather than relying on lossy, expensive secondary-side components to provide feedback and regulate the output, LinkSwitch-II features Power Integrations’ advanced primary-side regulation (PSR) technology. Resulting in simpler, more reliable and lower-cost designs with extremely good active and standby energy-efficiency performance, this cuts system component count by up to 30 percent.
Maintaining output current within a +/- 10% range even if load voltage drop, magnetic component tolerance and temperature conditions vary during manufacture or operation, Power Integrations’ PSR technology ensures highly accurate performance. The constant-current drive enabled by LinkSwitch-II ensures that each LED in a series-connected string provides similar light output. This eliminates the current-sharing problem inherent with parallel-connected diodes, and reduces LED binning costs and optical mixing complexity in lighting fixtures.
LED arrays powered by LinkSwitch-II, unlike many halogen and CFL lights, work with traditional AC-based triac dimmers, as well as more modern remote-controlled dimmers. The high standby efficiency of LinkSwitch-II is particularly important with remote dimming; when it is turned off, LinkSwitch-II absorbs only 30 mW of standby power while waiting to re-energize the lights.
All LinkSwitch-II family members are produced in halogen-free, RoHS-compliant packaging.