Development Trend of General Lighting LED Technology

LED downlights and retrofit bulbs already have higher luminous efficacy than existing technologies (incandescent, halogen, and compact fluorescent lamps); LED costs are expected to continue to decline in the next few years, reducing the cost of LED bulbs and lamps; and 2010 LED prices have accelerated (13% to 24% per year) compared to the 2010 study.

In terms of policies, many countries have introduced policies to encourage the development of the LED lighting industry. For example, China's National Development and Reform Commission recently released the "Semiconductor Lighting Energy-saving Industry Plan", which plans to have a market share of more than 20% of LED functional lighting products by 2015, and the output value of LED lighting energy-saving industry will increase by about 30% annually. 50 billion yuan (72 billion US dollars); and, by 2015, incandescent light bulbs above 60W for general lighting will be completely eliminated.

Challenges of General Lighting LED Drivers

Wide range of general lighting power, LED general lighting includes: residential (3W-15W), such as 60WA-19 bulbs at 800lm; commercial and architectural decorative lighting (15W-75W), such as 2,800lm 4ft long T8 tubes ; Outdoor and infrastructure (75W-250W), such as 13,000lm 150W metal halide lamp.

These LED drivers encounter a number of challenges: energy efficiency is critical, as the fixed bulb shape results in limited heat dissipation; space within the bulb is limited, especially for higher power bulbs that require larger heat sink area; LEDs are changing rapidly, with Numerous options; materials that make up the driver electronics must be reduced to increase the remaining space; drivers need to be optimized to match different lighting and power requirements.

LED driver challenges are also LED configuration (number of LEDs/drive current) that affects topology selection; bulb type affects heat sink design and greatly affects system selection, such as energy efficiency goals, available space; affects the choice of isolated or non-isolated topology Factors include: LED selection, safety regulations, mechanical design expertise and technology; rapid innovation by LED manufacturers to introduce new LED configurations and designs (high voltage LED/multi-LED package).