LED chip is the core technology of LED lamp, and the entire industry has also put a lot of effort on this part. However, no one can deny the importance of LED drivers. LED drivers/power supplies are usually considered as the short board of LED lamps, which may probably determine the service life of the lamp. However, it is LED lighting circuit design that determines the quality of LED drivers. Overall, volume and cost are two major factor of judging the LED lighting circuit design, but some manufactures and inspection institutes also see PFC as an important reference indicators, as well.
Observing from the whole LED lighting system, there is no doubt that LED chips and packaging accounted for a fairly high proportion of the overall production cost. LED lighting circuit design is not the most important part, but is a key point to determine the energy efficiency of a LED lighting product. On the other hand, the LED industry also faced with other strict requirements on cost, lifetime and volume. Under the circumstance of facing multiple pressures, system makers would like to shift these pressures to semiconductor producers.
Different applications, different LED lighting circuit designs. Normally, LED lighting applications can be divided into three types: indoor lighting, outdoor lighting and automobile lighting. Although they can be further divided, but internal circuits will be slightly different among LED lighting applications from the same type. Only in the aspects of operation temperature, system volume, reliability and production cost, there will be large variations. For example, indoor lighting applications, like residential lighting and commercial lighting, will consider more about production cost and system volume. Outdoor landscape lighting is more concerned about the operation temperature and reliability. For automotive lighting, although operated under DC, electrical safety needs to pay more attention on.
LED outdoor lighting applications should have a higher IP level and stronger in resisting the stressed environment. But at present there is no cleared unified standard in the outdoor lighting area. It is suggested that LED outdoor lighting applications still have a long way to go to obtain further improvements. In addition to environmental factors, as a matter of fact, LED outdoor lighting applications are usually high powered due to the multiple LED chips used on their light-emitting boards. Series connection will definitely increase the operation power, while parallel connection will increase the input voltage, which is infeasible for LED lighting applications. Thus solutions for LED Panel Light outdoor lamps should be comprehensive to meet the design requirements.