Analysis of the current status of major LED driver power ICs in 2011

LED driver IC mainly controls the current. Without a good driver IC , the advantages of LED lighting cannot be realized. When the LED lighting application market was lower than expected and the price of LED products showed an excessively fast decline, major LED driver IC manufacturers were extremely active, pushing new products, holding technical seminars, and frequently exposing themselves. The Chinese LED lighting market, which is expected to reach over 100 billion US dollars in 2015, has become a hot spot for them to take the initiative and make early layouts.

LED driver IC suppliers such as Texas Instruments , Taiwan Macroblock, ON Semiconductor , NXP , PI, Maxim, and Holtek Semiconductor have stepped up their efforts to enter the Chinese market. For a while, the war was raging and many players were vying for supremacy. How can LED driver IC manufacturers hold on to business opportunities and maintain their position amid the smoke of war?

Market Capacity

1. The growth of LED driver IC is worth looking forward to

As the name implies, LED driver IC is a driver chip used in LEDs . It is mainly used to control the current passing through the LED to achieve the effect of making the LED glow. Benefiting from the continuous expansion of LED applications, the development of LED driver ICs has also continued to improve, the industry scale continues to expand, and the growth potential is worth looking forward to.

The principle of LED light emission is to convert electrical energy into light, that is, to apply current to compound semiconductors, and through the combination of electrons and holes, the excess energy will be released in the form of light to achieve the effect of light emission. Since the brightness of light emission is determined by the current, the stronger the current passing through the LED, the brighter the brightness. Therefore, the stability of the current will affect the quality of LED light emission. Generally, the method of controlling the LED current adopts the method of supplying a fixed voltage and adjusting the current intensity passing through the LED in the form of resistance. This is the lowest cost solution. The disadvantage of this is that the resistance not only increases power consumption and fails to achieve the effect of power saving, but also increases heat energy and reduces the life of the LED. At the same time, when the voltage of the power supply source changes, the current passing through the LED cannot be adjusted in time, which may cause the LED light emission to be unstable.

As the requirements for controlling LED current increase, the demand for LED driver ICs has also emerged. It is estimated that with the substantial growth in the application of LED backlight sources and the continuous improvement in the resolution of large LED billboards, the use of LED driver ICs that can provide precise current will become the mainstream of the market.

2. LED driver IC market revenue reached nearly $3.5 billion in 2015

According to market research firm Strategies Unlimited, the LED driver IC market revenue will increase from nearly $2 billion in 2010 to nearly $3.5 billion in 2015, with an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%. The agency also pointed out that LED driver ICs required for LED backlights will be the main growth force in the market, with popular applications including edge-lit TVs and monitors , and LED lighting is the next potential application.

不过Strategies Unlimited 也指出，LED驱动市场规模扩大的同时，可能伴随产品价格的下滑;此外，AC-LED产品虽使得所需驱动IC数量缩小、甚至不需要驱动IC，但并不会对预测期间的该市场营收产生显著冲击，甚至有助于加速LED照明产品市场渗透率成长。Strategies Unlimited估计照明用LED驱动IC市场成长率，在2010~2015年间可达40%；该领域技术所面临挑战包括可调光（dimming）技术、省电效能、 功率 因子（power factor）与价格。

1. Major suppliers are mainly international IC manufacturers

LED driver IC controls the light quality of LEDs in electronic products, so the quality and stability of the chip are very important. In comparison, international manufacturers have better design capabilities, higher brand awareness and quality assurance, and occupy a larger market share. In terms of price, since the cost of LED driver IC accounts for a very low proportion of the terminal electronic product, manufacturers usually do not take price as the primary consideration. The main consideration is whether the product characteristics and product reliability can meet the requirements. Moreover, after the LED driver IC passes the electronic product certification and enters the supply chain, it is generally not easy to change the supplier.

2. The world's top 10 LED driver IC suppliers account for 55% of the output value

. Statistics show that the world's top 10 LED driver IC suppliers account for 55% of the total output value, and about 30 integrated circuit suppliers and their affiliated manufacturers share the remaining 44%.

With the acquisition of National Semiconductor by Texas Instruments, Texas Instruments is now the top supplier of LED driver ICs. Texas Instruments (TI) had a 17% market share in 2010. National Semiconductor (NSC) ranked second. Although National Semiconductor has been acquired by Texas Instruments, it will not be fully integrated into Texas Instruments until the end of 2011. Therefore, the two companies will remain independent of each other in 2011. Mitess said that after the merger of TI and NSC, they will firmly occupy a quarter of the LED driver IC market.

In terms of technology, with its advanced high-voltage BCD process, it is able to manufacture on wafers with a diameter of 200 mm or more. In the future LED driver market, Texas Instruments will play a vital role
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3. Taiwanese companies are coming on strong and accelerating the layout of LED driver ICs

It is understood that with the rapid expansion of LED, companies are competing for the driver IC market. In Taiwan, leading manufacturers such as TSMC , UMC, Hon Hai, and Delta Electronics are competing to deploy their own LED driver IC factories to master the key components of LED light sources and backlight modules.

In addition, in order to expand their business scope, the vertical integration layout of the two leading panel manufacturers in China, Chimei and AUO, has expanded from LED to LED driver IC, and Macronix Technology has continuously launched new technology products to promote its brand.

Relevant data shows that in 2011, the overall demand for LED driver ICs in Taiwan will reach 270 million, and shipments will increase by 128.4%. As Taiwan IC design companies gradually get their product technologies in place, they will have stronger shipments compared to international IC manufacturers with better supply chain flexibility and lower prices. Therefore, it is estimated that in 2011, Taiwan's driver ICs will reach 130 million, a significant increase of 128.4% from 57.4 million in 2010, which is better than the 52.2% growth of international chip suppliers in the same period.

4. Can the domestic LED driver IC suppliers rise?

"First of all, Taiwan's Macroblock's driver ICs have a dominant position in the market. As price cuts become more common, Macroblock will also lower its prices. As long as it is slightly reduced, other customers will accept it," said Mr. Zhang. Currently, Macroblock's driver ICs are used in LED display screens of some large companies in Taiwan and abroad.

Will there be one dominant player or a hundred contenders in the future? Who will dominate the LED driver IC market? Chen Bangyong of Silan Microelectronics said that he expects that local driver and control IC suppliers in mainland China will gradually move from being dispersed to being centralized. With the rapid improvement of local LED display driver and control IC performance indicators, they can now compete with overseas products.

He said that since mainland China's local IC suppliers have good services and lower prices, the market share of mainland China's local ICs in the driving and control fields of LED displays is expected to further increase.

Regarding the Chinese market, National Semiconductor's Asia Pacific Marketing Manager Li Zhiyuan quoted iSuppli's forecast on China's LED driver IC market. At a time when the global economy and electronics industry are in recession, China's LED driver IC market is growing rapidly. It is expected that in 2013, China's LED market will reach US$139 million.

Industry insiders predict that in the next 3 to 5 years, leading driver IC companies will emerge in China, forming a tripartite situation.

5. Major companies compete with each other in their products

Macroblock Technology: 16-bit LED display driver MBI5035

The low-power green energy product MBI5035 developed by Macroblock helps LED display manufacturers use fewer power supplies and fans. The reduced number of fans also reduces the noise during cabinet operation, making it more suitable for indoor use. The low turn-on voltage of only 0.2 volts makes the driver less likely to overheat, lowering the ambient temperature and helping to extend the life of the LED.

About 35% of the power consumption of general LED display drivers on the market is consumed in the form of heat, resulting in a waste of electricity. According to statistics, if a 100 square meter LED display cabinet uses MBI5035, the power loss will be reduced by 35%. MBI5035 uses PrecisionDrive? technology developed by Macroblock, which displays accurate colors and has good current uniformity. With the staggered time delay design between output channels, it can avoid surge current and reduce EMI interference. Its package is compatible with Macroblock's traditional MBI5024 and can be quickly upgraded to MBI5035. Only by optimizing the power supply design, you can quickly introduce energy-saving display .

NXP: New LED driver UBA3077

NXP UBA3077 uses CMOS 50 Power Management (PM) process and is specially designed for high voltage integration in digital environments. It perfectly combines power characteristics with complex digital processing technology and provides first-class performance.

UBA3077 consists of three independent channels, each integrating its boost converter and power supply, so that the application design is not affected by the additional heat dissipation caused by the mismatch of LED string voltage. In addition, UBA3077 adopts HV QFN 40 package, which can achieve good heat dissipation through PCB .

The UBA3077 uses integrated MOSFETs for the boost converter and power supply, helping designers reduce application size and external component costs.

UBA3077 has highly linear and precise dimming function. By supporting low current dimming, it can achieve deep dimming at less than 1% light output, which is beneficial to improve picture quality. With up to 94% power efficiency, designers can use UBA3077 to design thinner, lower power and better heat dissipation LCD panels, creating brighter picture quality with better contrast ratio.

Toshiba: LED driver IC "TB62D901FNG"

Recently, Toshiba exhibited the LED driver IC "TB62D901FNG" for lighting that it is developing. The product is planned to be used in office lighting and street lights, etc.

This product supports three LED current constant current methods. Two of them are the "critical mode" method that focuses on power efficiency and the "off time fixed" method that focuses on reducing the number of parts. It also supports the third method called "frequency automatic adjustment".

This automatic frequency adjustment method is a method that emphasizes the stability of LED current. In addition to changes such as LED manufacturing errors and input voltage instability, this method can also stably control the average LED current without changing the number of external components when changing performance parameters such as the number of LEDs and operating voltage. In addition, the number of LEDs can be changed within the range of 50-200% of the original design.

This IC has various protection functions such as overheat protection, overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, low input voltage protection, and ISEN terminal open protection. The operation of the IC can be stopped by controlling the EN signal. The current consumption during standby is 0.8mA (maximum). It adopts SSOP16-P-225-0.65B package.

Rohm: 1W high heat-resistant high-power white LED chip

In response to the recent surge in demand for LEDs for lighting, Rohm has added the 1W high-heat-resistant, high-power white LED "PSL01 Series" to its LED product line. This product maintains a high efficiency of 110lm/W even when a large current of 350mA passes through it. Due to the use of heat-resistant ceramic packaging, it can work normally even in an environment with a temperature of up to 130°C, making it the most suitable for lighting fixture design.

The PSL01 series of 1W high-power white LED chips launched by Rohm Semiconductor Group has the following features:

1. It can maintain a high efficiency of 110lm/W when a large current of 350mA passes through;

2. Using heat-resistant ceramic packaging, it can work normally at 130°C;

3. In addition to the ceramic package, gold-plated wiring is also used, which will not change color due to sulfurization, and can keep the light beam stable. After 300s of power-on, the light beam change rate can be controlled to about 10%;

4. Suitable for use in lighting fixtures.

PI USA: Launches multiple LED driver ICs for lighting

Power Integrations, the industry leader in high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, has announced the addition of seven new LED driver ICs to its popular LinkSwitch-PH product family. The new devices (LNK413-LNK419) are designed specifically for industrial and commercial applications where high efficiency and system life are outstanding requirements. They are suitable for lighting applications ranging from 3 W bulbs to 55 W fluorescent lamp replacement lamps. With efficiencies up to 88%, the new devices use a PWM dimming single-stage controller with power factor correction (PFC) and precise constant current (CC) power conversion. The integrated PFC and CC functions allow multiple drivers to be connected in parallel at the same time, providing efficient driving for outdoor lights and street lights, and also adopt functional redundancy design.

The LinkSwitch-PH device integrates the PFC/CC controller, a 725 V MOSFET and the MOSFET driver into a single package, which greatly simplifies the circuit layout and design, eliminating the parasitic components between the controller and the MOSFET . The new IC can eliminate up to 25 components used in traditional isolated flyback designs, achieving ultra-high reliability at low cost, including high-voltage large-capacity electrolytic capacitors and optocouplers, which are most likely to limit the service life of LED lamps.

Renesas Electronics: Mass production of white light LED driver ICR2A50106FT

全球最大微控制器（ MCU ）厂商瑞萨电子（Renesas Electronics）日前发布宣布，因 液晶电视 LED背光市场呈现显著增长，该公司已于当（24）日开始量产一款使用于液晶电视的白光LED驱动IC新产品R2A50106FT，其样品价格为160日元（约合13元人民币），并计划于2012年5月将月产量提升至200万颗的水平。

Renesas said that the R2A50106FT contains a newly developed boost control circuit, which can reduce power consumption by up to 20% compared to Renesas' current products. In addition, the R2A50106FT has eight built-in constant-current driver channels, eliminating the need for an external power control chip. Each channel can drive a maximum LED current of 160mA, which can simplify the design of high-grayscale LED backlight systems and effectively reduce the number of parts used.

Dahl Technology: LED bulb driver IC with supply current up to 1.5A

The latest new LED bulb driver IC has a supply current of 1.5A. This LED driver IC uses a step-down DC-DC converter. It integrates a switching element (power MOSFET). The on-resistance is 0.35Ω (maximum) and the maximum switching frequency is 1MHz.

Therefore, external passive components can be small, thereby reducing the packaging area of ​​the printed circuit board. Four external components are required. The input voltage range is +6 to 30V. The maximum supply current of the LED light string can be adjusted using an external resistor. The maximum error of the output current is ±5%. The maximum conversion efficiency is 98%. Dimming supports two methods, namely, the method of using PWM signal duty cycle control and the method of using DC voltage control.

Price Trends

Driver IC prices are stable and declining amid the pain

Price reduction is undoubtedly the main theme of the current LED market, and driver IC is no exception. Since the beginning of this year, in the price war, many companies complained that the price of raw materials has risen again and again, while the price of products has fallen again and again, making it difficult to do business in the LED market. Industry insiders have said that the development speed of the LED industry from January to August this year was slower than expected, and prices fell sharply.

LED driver IC companies are vying for the top spot. Industry insiders predict that the overall price trend of LED display driver and control ICs should be stable with a slight decline.

"The profits of local general-purpose ICs are already very slim, so they will basically remain stable. The price drop is mainly reflected in overseas products, especially high-end products. Since these products are gradually competing head-on with local ICs, in order to win market share, the high prices of non-general-purpose drive and control ICs developed to improve the performance of LED displays will gradually become affordable."

The smoke of price war has made the industry talk about "price" with fear. The industry estimates that the pain of driver IC will probably last for 6-12 months. In the composition of LED display screens, driver IC, which originally plays a very key role, accounts for a very low proportion of the cost.

It is worth noting that as chip prices continue to fall and performance continues to improve, some smaller LED display IC design companies are unable to cope with the cost and technology, and have already or are about to withdraw from the market. In the future, service-oriented companies will gradually emerge, while some small customers or small design companies will face the risk of being eliminated.

"Ultimately, we still have to lower product prices." An engineer from an LED driver IC company said, "First, we lower prices in advance to seize the market first. Then, when everyone else lowers their prices, the company will focus on service, ship products in a timely manner, and maintain long-term customer cooperation."

In fact, the fierce and disorderly market competition caused by the fierce competition among many players has brought about a price pain period for the industry that will last for about a year. Some powerful companies have occupied the market by reducing costs through vertical integration and supporting production.