Marvell drives launch of Samsung's family of retail LED retrofit bulbs

USA: Marvell announced the Marvell 88EM8183 deep dimming single-stage AC/DC LED driver integrated circuit (IC) will power Samsung Electronics' new suite of LED retrofit bulbs.

Announced in February 2012, the 88EM8183 LED driver IC delivers the highest compatibility of wall dimmers, the lowest component count in the industry and supports many of the world's lighting standards, making it a premier solution for OEMs across the globe. Scheduled to be in retail stores next month, Samsung's new Marvell-powered products will include A19, bulged reflector (BR) and parabolic aluminized reflector (PAR) bulbs.

"With consumers increasingly adopting LED lighting in their homes, it is essential that OEMs address this demand by integrating advanced dimming capabilities into their most efficient bulbs," said Kishore Manghnani, VP of Green Energy Products at Marvell.

"By leveraging Marvell's 88EM8183 driver, Samsung Electronics now produces high-performance, low-cost LED bulbs that offer deep dimming capability and are fully compatible with more than 150 different types of wall-box dimmers around the world. We believe there is no solution on the market that provides the same widespread dimmer compatibility and affordable price point that our LED driver IC provides."

The highly integrated Marvell 88EM8183 LED driver IC is designed to achieve smooth, deep dimming down to 1 percent LED current, which represents significantly improved performance when compared to competitive solutions capable of dimming down to just 10- to 20 percent of current.

The 88EM8183 IC also is compatible with many different types of (TRIAC) wall box dimmers from a wide variety of global manufacturers. The architecture of the 88EM8183 LED driver IC allows a high level of integration, which greatly reduces the bill of materials (BOM).

By reducing the components count needed for an LED driver by more than half, the Marvell solution requires dramatically less board space, which allows OEMs and ODMs to bring LED lighting to a diverse range of lamp form-factors, including A19, PAR and BR, without compromising dimming performance.