LED Lighting
High brightness (HB) LED technology has progressed rapidly in recent years and with a continual improvement in cost per Lumen, this technology is finding its way into many general purpose applications. The lifetime of LED systems is significantly higher than traditional incandescant or neon lighting.
To achieve a uniform intensity and long lifetime, a current source is required to drive the HB LED’s. With most electrical energy sources being voltage sources, a power converter is needed to create a constant current source for the LED. In addition, heat generated by these LED’s must be carefully managed to ensure that the LED semiconductor junction temperature remains below a certain level (normally 150°C).
We are developing many reference designs for different types of LED lighting systems. Our first is RD005 which drives three Luxeon K2 LED’s from a Power over Ethernet front end.
More LED reference designs will be coming soon.