Infineon drives innovation in LED lighting

NEUBIBERG, GERMANY & PALM SPRINGS, USA: At the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC), Infineon Technologies AG introduced its specific off-line driver IC for high-efficiency LED bulbs with dimming for residential lighting.

With a flexible architecture that supports very cost-effective 40W/60W/100W incandescent bulb replacement and all typical consumer lighting applications, the ICL8001G sets a new benchmark with respect to integration, performance, features, and total system cost.

The ICL8001G enables up to 90 percent efficiency, supports a broad variety of already installed wall dimmers, and is the only primary controlled off-line LED drive solution with integrated Power Factor Correction (PFC). It achieves a power factor exceeding 98 percent.

With an increasing number of countries banning incandescent lamps in favor of energy saving alternatives, LED lamps are expected to emerge as a favored replacement. Advantages of a well-designed LED bulb include 85 percent greater efficiency compared to an incandescent bulb.

This higher efficiency can have a significant impact on carbon footprint, as lighting represents nearly 20 percent of energy use (Source: EuroStat). LED bulbs also are instant-on, are easily controlled in smart lighting systems, are rated high in quality of light and have an exceptionally long life (approximately 50,000 hours).

Driver boards based on the ICL8001G implement an innovative primary control technique to manage the power consumption of LEDs. Using just 25 components for a 10W LED (60W equivalent) lamp, which is a 50 percent reduction compared to alternatives and a cost reduction of approximately 30 percent, the PCB area of the reference design is just 20mm x 70mm. At that size the PCB can easily be embedded within the common screw-in form factor of a lamp bulb. All components are assembled on a single-sided PCB, contributing to further cost reduction.

“There is a wide acceptance of the efficiency advantages of LED lighting,” said Sandro Cerato, Vice President & General Manager, ASIC & Power IC at Infineon Technologies. “With the ICL8001G Infineon offers innovation for lighting applications as it significantly reduces costs while improving the performance of the system, thereby helping use of available electricity in a more efficient manner.”

The outstanding features and performance figures of the ICL8001G allow engineers to meet current and future regulatory standards for energy efficiency and power quality. Today’s requirements are significantly outperformed and enable product manufacturers to use the ICL8001G to design top green products. This is particularly useful when LED lamps are installed in a higher number of fixtures in a single location.

The Infineon driver solution operates with many phase cut dimmers and maintains high efficiency (> 80 percent) over the complete dimming range, unlike many existing solutions where dimming reduces efficiency to about 30 percent. Consumers generally are not aware that lowering light intensity with today’s fixtures does not actually reduce the energy consumed.

Other features of the ICL8001G include isolated driver output for efficient thermal management; digital soft-start and an integrated Start-Up cell for instant on; cycle by cycle current limitation; short circuit, over voltage protection and over temperature detection.

Samples of the ICL8001G and demonstration boards are now available, with production volume available within standard lead times. Pricing for the ICL8001G is US $0.88 in 10K quantities.

The ICL8001G is an off-line switched mode power IC extending Infineon offering of a comprehensive range of LED driver solutions characterized by robustness and cost-effectiveness, meeting the evolving and expanding requirements of lighting applications.