Fairchild’s Global Power Resource Center delivers total solution for energy-efficient LED street lighting

SAN JOSE, USA: Fairchild Semiconductor’s China-based Global Power Resource Center (GPRC) has developed a complete LED street lighting solution that provides high efficiency and outstanding thermal performance -- as well as high reliability -- to increase the lifetime of street lamps.

The performance-optimized solution validates Fairchild’s strong energy-efficiency reputation by reducing power consumption in order to meet and exceed the increasing demand for greener electronics. This demand has been driven by consumers as well as governments and regulatory standards worldwide – including China’s central and provincial authorities and ENERGY STAR’s Solid-State Lighting (SSL) guidelines.

Fairchild’s new solution features advanced critical conduction mode (CrCM) PFC, high-efficiency DC-DC and constant current control. This total solution includes two sub-solutions, either parallel or serial, within the same PCB layout delivering up to 91.26 percent and 92.6 percent efficiency respectively from AC input to the LED side, under 220V input voltage.

"Our China GPRC team assists customers by providing solutions that overcome thermal management challenges normally associated with LED street lighting, and by achieving high efficiency and decreasing power consumption," said Benjamin Tan, Fairchild’s regional vice president of Sales and Marketing, China and South East Asia. "High system efficiency depends on the performance of each section of the design. Our leading edge PFC controller and LLC ICs ensure minimum power loss and deliver higher efficiency."

The parallel solution features independent current regulation for each LED string. Therefore, if one string has an open circuit the other strings can still function normally. For the serial solution, independent open circuit protection for each string enables the other LEDs to still work normally even if one LED string experiences an open circuit. If an LED short circuit happens, the constant current circuits ensure all the other LEDs work normally in both parallel and series sub-solution.

This new solution significantly lowers component count by more than 20 for the parallel layout and 86 for the serial layout compared to conventional solutions. Fewer components, robust protection functionality and high LED fault tolerance capability make the solution very reliable.

Fairchild’s GPRC engineers deployed a range of parts from the company’s comprehensive portfolio to develop this total solution such as the FAN7930, an active power factor correction (PFC) controller designed for boost PFC applications operating in CrCM; the highly integrated Fairchild Power Switch (FPS), the FSFR2100 offers everything necessary to build a reliable and robust resonant half-bridge converter.

In addition, Fairchild’s LED lighting solutions are available for applications with output power requirements ranging from <7W up to >100W. These include:

* PFC Controllers that include both standalone and PFC/PWM combo controllers as well as Critical Conduction Mode (CrCM) and CCM technologies, designed to increase system efficiency, reduce system noise, and offer a range of protection features for medium and high power designs.

* PWM Controllers that include standalone and highly integrated solutions with MOSFETs like the Asymmetrical Half Bridge, FSFA2100, the LLC Resonant Half Bridge, FSFR2100, and the stand-alone LLC Resonant Controller, FAN7621.

* Primary-Side-Regulation (PSR) PWM controllers, such as the FSEZ1307, FSEZ1317 and the FAN103, that enable precise constant current (CC) regulation and simplified circuit design.

* And a broad portfolio of high voltage MOSFETs, rectifiers, and diodes.

"Working closely with our customers to develop practical solutions is central to everything we do at Fairchild," Tan added. "We are proud of the work our China GPRC team has done to bring this innovative, and energy-efficient, LED lighting solution to our customers. Fairchild’s latest IC technologies and system expertise, along with our ongoing support, will enable our customers to quickly deploy this new solution, bring new LED lighting products to market and provide a competitive advantage in the market place."

Fairchild's Global Power Resource Centers are a valuable resource for system design engineers, enabling them to quickly differentiate their designs and shorten time-to-market.

The centers were established to deliver innovative, efficient power management and mobile solutions targeting a wide range of applications both locally and around the world. This solution was developed at one of Fairchild’s GPRC locations in China. The company has other centers in the United States, Germany, South Korea and Brazil.