Drive IC factory competes for high integration program targeting dimmable LED lighting

Light-emitting diode (LED) driver IC suppliers are actively rushing into the dimmable LED lighting market. Unless the dimming LED lighting system, the cost challenge of dimmable LED lighting systems is increasing, so chip vendors are working hard to develop software and hardware functions such as temperature compensation, drivers, and programmable registers. A highly integrated dimming solution to assist LED lighting system operators in reducing the overall bill of materials (BOM) cost of dimming products.

Dimming scheme crazy integrated LED driver IC factory fight price cuts

Girish Ramesh, senior product marketing manager at Atmel, said that in view of the rising demand for dimming driver ICs for LED lighting applications such as general lighting, residential lighting, commercial lighting, architectural lighting and scene lighting, the company has recently Introduced a high-integration solution combining soft and hardware functions such as temperature compensation, driver, programmable register, etc. It is estimated that compared with competitors' products, LED lighting system quotient can be based on the rated power of different fixtures. Save $0.50 in BOM cost.

Compared with the price of non-dimming LED driver IC has dropped below 0.4 US dollars, the current price of dimmable LED driver IC is still higher than 1 US dollar. However, under the aggressive cost reduction of various LED driver IC manufacturers, the unit price of dimmable LED driver ICs in 2013 is expected to drop to less than $1.

It is understood that Atmel's latest dimmable LED driver IC high integration solution through the built-in temperature compensation and driver software, will save the temperature compensation microcontroller (MCU), and can achieve the driver function Power diodes, inductors and output capacitor components. In addition, the programmable scratchpad makes it easy to control and monitor fault detection systems.

Not only Atmel, Texas Instruments recently introduced a highly integrated dimmable LED driver IC solution that reduces component count and product size for off-line AC-to-DC (LED) lighting and cartridges. Down Light and E14, GU10, A19, PAR20/30/38, MR16 and AR111 bulbs. The company's simple hysteresis input current control scheme eliminates complex loop compensation and is highly compatible with transformers; and integrates an active low-side input rectifier (Rectifier) ​​to increase efficiency while simplifying design and reducing BOM cost.

Thanks to LED driver IC manufacturers pushing high integration solutions, the price difference between LED dimming driver ICs and non-dimming solutions has been greatly reduced, and it is expected that LED dimming driver ICs will rise sharply in 2013.

The price difference with non-dimming schemes is closer to the demand for LED dimming driver ICs

In addition to improving integration, LED lighting driver IC manufacturers also use simplified printed circuit board (PCB) design to achieve price reduction. At present, the unit price of dimmable LED lighting driver IC has dropped sharply, and the price difference with non-dimming driver scheme has also been rapidly reduced to less than 0.3 US dollars, which is expected to attract a large number of LED lighting fixtures and bulb manufacturers.