How to enhance the reliability of LED lighting systems?

In order to create a smart lighting system with energy saving and high efficiency, the use of MCU and dimmable driver for environmental sensing and high-efficiency dimming is a popular design trend in today's LED lighting systems. In addition, the simulation of optics and heat dissipation is also It is an indispensable development link to ensure the reliability and safety of LED products.

Circuit design and system simulation are the two key successes to realize LED intelligent lighting system. In the circuit design, if you add a microcontroller (MCU), you can not only monitor the LED device 24 hours a day, but also report the abnormal situation instantly, and can also perform lighting equipment. Group control to adjust the energy to make the lighting system more intelligent; and to enhance the stability of the LED light source, the introduction of the dimmable driver into the circuit design can solve the problem of light source flicker and improve energy efficiency.

On the other hand, it is crucial to verify the viability of the product through the simulation process of optics and heat dissipation. This will not only ensure product safety, but also accelerate the development of the product and enhance the market competitiveness during the simulation process. .

Realize the wisdom lighting system MCU role to eat heavy

With the increasing popularity of LEDs, applications are becoming more diverse, and the business opportunities of smart lighting systems are more and more expected by the industry. In order to create an LED intelligent lighting system, the introduction of the MCU can realize functions such as automatic brightness adjustment, automatic color conversion, environment sensing, and group system control, enriching the application of LED lighting and improving energy efficiency.

Zhu Weixen, senior application engineer at Infineon, said that MCU can enable LED lighting to realize intelligent lighting system, fully improve energy efficiency and enrich LED multi-application.

In the past, LED lamps lacked control and changes. Even though LEDs are more durable than traditional halogen lamps and incandescent lamps, the LED light output will be degraded by aging and temperature under long-term use, resulting in easy power in the fixture. Damage, the reliability is greatly reduced, and the defects that cannot be dimmed also result in inefficient energy use. The above factors will eventually shorten the LED service life, and at the same time, the application will be more tedious due to the inability to change the light.

Zhu Dansen further pointed out that in order to achieve dimming control, color conversion and high efficiency of energy use, the introduction of LED lamps into the MCU can make more changes in indoor lighting, outdoor lighting, decorative lighting, and emergency lighting, such as controlling LED lights. During the day, adjust the brightness according to each different time period to save energy, or remote group control through the digital addressable illumination interface (DALI) in the MCU, and monitor whether the LED device is still functioning at any time to facilitate the notification of the project. Quick maintenance of personnel, these new applications make LED lights no longer just open and close, but also have more flexible use.

It is understood that Infineon has seized the XC835 and XC836 MCUs for the LED smart lighting market. The biggest difference between the two MCUs is that the XC836 supports DALI and can be used for LED lamps. The remote control of the smart system, while the XC835 is not supported. In addition, both models support touch control and are characterized by high heat resistance (150 ° C) and high reliability. At present, this series of MCUs are mainly used in small and medium-sized fluorescent tubes such as T4 and T8 and bulbs commonly used in the entertainment decorative lighting market.

For the entertainment decorative lighting market, due to the colorful content of entertainment performances, not only the intelligent automatic dimming, but also the service life, luminous efficiency and lighting stability of LED lighting fixtures are also required, so the dimmable driver is to solve the above. The problem began to be designed in the lighting system.

LED lighting efficiency efficiency dimmable driver

Governments are increasingly demanding energy-saving requirements, stimulating the need for dimmable LED lighting to increase temperature. To achieve high-performance dimming and solve flicker problems, Texas Instruments has released two highly integrated phase dimmable AC pairs. DC (AC-DC) LED lighting driver for dimming requirements for retrofit Bulbs, Ballast, Downlight and Spot Light.

Xiao Yizhou, senior application engineer for power application products in analog products market development in Texas Instruments, said that the LEDs with built-in dimmable power driver ICs will soon replace the traditional dimmable bulbs.

Although traditional light bulbs can also be dimmed, they are more power-hungry and have a shorter life, resulting in the need to maintain regular light bulbs. Introducing the dimmable power supply to drive the integrated circuit (IC) LED lamp, not only taking into account the advantages of LED saving 80% of the traditional lamp, and the service life of at least 20,000 hours, it can also dim, improve energy efficiency and accelerate Energy-saving LED lighting completely replaces traditional light bulbs.

For the flag-saving energy-saving LED lighting market, Texas Instruments has introduced the TPS92070/LM3448 dimmable series. Its high current accuracy feature allows customers to accurately define the upper and lower limits of current, eliminating the time cost of customer calibration. Due to its high-performance structure, it can reduce the surrounding parts supporting the driver IC, further reducing the cost of customers.

Xiao Yizhou further pointed out that at present, Texas Instruments' series of dimmable driver ICs are mainly sold to Japan, Europe and the United States. However, due to different safety standards, the required driver IC specifications are not the same. For example, because the structure of the TPS92070 is designed to be isolated and safe, it can meet the safety requirements of the United States. The main shipment in Japan is the LM3448 without isolation design, and the isolation design has an impact on the overall cost of LED lamps. For 2%, everything depends on customer needs.

Xiao Yizhou said that under the requirements of relevant energy-saving regulations, currently developed countries such as Japan, Europe and the United States have adopted a large number of LED lamps with dimmable driver ICs, while developing countries such as China have no relevant regulatory requirements. The lower cost, non-dimmable LED luminaires are used.

As for Taiwan, although there are no relevant regulatory requirements, there are already lighting manufacturers that have introduced dimming driver ICs. Most of their applications are still dominated by the entertainment lighting market. General indoor lighting, outdoor lighting and emergency lighting have not begun to spread. In the future, if energy conservation regulations are further developed, it is believed that energy-saving LED lighting will be more prevalent.

In addition to the advantages and disadvantages of the choice of dimmer architecture, in order to accelerate the time-to-market of LED products and reduce the overall development cost, it has become a relevant industry to verify the feasibility of the product by using optical simulation and thermal simulation before the product is officially opened. An important weapon to defeat the enemy.

Accelerated LED development has a step-by-step optical / thermal simulation is essential

Zhuang Shiren, general manager of Luming Technology, said that through optical and thermal simulation, LED products can be brought to market as soon as possible, and quality and reliability are ensured.

Since the LED product design has to undergo many tests and verifications, if the optical simulation and heat dissipation simulation are not done, the quality will be paralyzed after mass production. In order to solve this problem, the use of dedicated simulation software with 3D (3D) model for accurate analog analysis and verification of LED has become an important part of LED lamp development, to ensure the quality of future LED products.

In order to create a smart lighting system with energy saving and high efficiency, the use of MCU and dimmable driver for environmental sensing and high-efficiency dimming is a popular design trend in today's LED lighting systems; in addition, the simulation of optics and heat dissipation is also It is an indispensable development link to ensure the reliability and safety of LED products.

Circuit design and system simulation are the two key successes to realize the intelligent LED lighting system. In the circuit design, if you add a microcontroller (MCU), you can not only monitor the LED device 24/7, but also report the abnormal situation instantly. It is also possible to control the lighting equipment to adjust the energy and make the lighting system more intelligent. To enhance the stability of the LED light source and introduce the dimmable driver into the circuit design, the problem of light source flicker can be solved and the energy can be improved. Use efficiency.

On the other hand, it is crucial to verify the viability of the product through the simulation process of optics and heat dissipation. This will not only ensure product safety, but also accelerate the development of the product and enhance the market competitiveness during the simulation process. .