LED power supply life is the key

UE is a rapidly developing power supply manufacturer, with Huawei, Lucent, UTStarcom, TCL Group, Inverter, Datang Telecom and VTech Group as its customers. With the development of LED industry, UE has also begun to enter the LED industry. The Ten Cities Ten Thousand Lights Plan currently being promoted by the country has greatly developed the application of LED street lights, but recently many LED street light projects have had quality problems, which has added some concerns to the promotion of LED street lights. In this situation, we interviewed Lv Xin, the regional manager of UE, a manufacturer of LED power supplies.

Eliminate the bottleneck that restricts LED power supply life from design

When talking about how to ensure the quality of LED power supply, Lv Xin said that the quality of the product should be considered from the beginning of design. The reliability of LED street light power supply is mainly affected by temperature. Excessive temperature reduces the life of the electrolytic capacitor inside the power supply, causing the power supply to fail quickly. It can be said that the electrolytic capacitor is the bottleneck that restricts the life of the LED power supply. The LED chip and the power supply are installed together, generally in a small space, with poor heat dissipation. The LED chip and the power supply are both heating elements, which makes the ambient temperature higher. Therefore, the ambient temperature can be reduced by improving the heat dissipation conditions of the LED street light system, improving the luminous efficiency of the LED and improving the efficiency of the power supply, thereby extending the life of the electrolytic capacitor.

In response to the above problems, UE mainly improves the efficiency of the power supply to minimize the heat generated by the power supply. And adopts the best components to ensure the quality of the power supply. In addition, we are developing electrolytic capacitor-free LED street light power supply to fundamentally eliminate the bottleneck that restricts the life of LED power supply.

Don’t blindly pursue efficiency, LED power supply life is the key

The requirements for LED street lights are the light efficiency produced by each watt of power consumed. The efficiency of the power supply is only one part of the whole system. Blindly pursuing efficiency will ignore the most important point, how to make the street lights work well for 5 or even 10 years.

The energy-saving characteristics of LED lighting systems are mainly determined by LED chips and power supplies. LED chips themselves have low energy consumption characteristics, saving more than 75% energy compared to incandescent lamps. The improvement of LED power supply efficiency can better demonstrate the high-efficiency characteristics of LED light sources. However, low-efficiency LED power supplies themselves consume a lot of electricity, and cannot highlight the energy-saving characteristics of LEDs in the process of powering LEDs. Therefore, the development of high-efficiency LED power supplies is an inevitable trend in the development of LED lighting systems and is also the goal pursued by manufacturers.

Power factor correction (PFC) is generally performed to meet the requirements of harmonics and energy saving. Generally speaking, for a given load power, the higher the power factor, the smaller the input current. However, not all power supplies must be power factor corrected, because the additional power factor correction circuit also consumes power, which may increase the overall power consumption. Moreover, in lighting applications, according to the provisions of the European Union's International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), LED lighting systems less than 25W do not require power correction. If it is higher than 25 W, power factor correction (PFC) is required. In the United States, the Department of Energy's "Energy Star" project solid-state lighting standards have mandatory requirements for PFC. Regardless of the power level, the residential application part requires a power factor higher than 0.7, while the commercial application part requires a power factor higher than 0.9. Therefore, whether the LED power supply needs power factor correction should be determined based on the specific user and cost.

LED street lamp power supply is the key development product

Lv Xin introduced that the efficiency of the LED driver power supply developed by UE has reached 94.7% and the power factor has reached 0.99, which has ranked among the top levels in the industry.
The power factor of 0.99 is sufficient to meet the power supply harmonic requirements. There is still room for improvement in the efficiency of the power supply, which depends on the development of topology and high-performance components; at present, the life of the LED power supply is still difficult to reach 100,000 hours, which cannot match the life of the LED chip. Therefore, the characteristics of high efficiency, energy saving, long life and high quality are the development trend of LED power supplies and the focus of research.

So far, UE has developed a series of 3~300W LED power supplies, covering commercial store lighting, residential, office, workshop, landscape and street lighting applications. UE will continue to develop existing areas, and focus on the development of LED street light power supplies as a key product. We will expand and strengthen LED power supplies through technological innovation and develop independent intellectual property rights.

The main feature of LED lamps is the lack of unified standard customization mode

LEDs have been widely used in the lighting field in recent years. There is no unified standard for the connection between LED chips and driver power supplies. The power, voltage and current levels of LED lamps vary greatly, which determines that it is impossible for LED power supplies to have unified specifications. In addition, the space of LED lamps is limited, the heat dissipation conditions are poor, and the energy consumption of the power supply affects the ambient temperature of the lamps. Therefore, the design of LED power supplies needs to match the actual structure of the user's product, which has resulted in many LED power supplies being customized by customers, and this customized operation mode will become the main market feature of LED power supplies.

Strengthen technological innovation to ensure that LED power products are in the leading position in the industry

Regarding the current situation of mixed LED power supply market, uneven product quality and serious counterfeiting, UE said that UE's primary task is to ensure the quality of LED power supply products, focus on developing high-end products, take major customers as the main development goal, establish long-term cooperative relationships, and strive for orders from municipal units. At the same time, strengthen technological innovation to ensure that LED power supply products are in the leading position in the industry.

Apply for intellectual property rights in a timely manner, occupy relevant key technology fields, eliminate counterfeiting, and exclude competitors. At present, UE has obtained authorization for 2 invention patents, 5 utility model patents and 29 design patents. In addition, 6 invention patents have been publicized.

UE's development strategy focuses on technological innovation and has always been at the forefront of LED power supply development.

LED lighting industry is becoming a key industry at present, and the competition in LED power supply market is becoming more and more fierce. The implementation of standards such as Energy Star 5.0 and UL8750LED lighting safety will help improve the reliability of LED power supply, improve the quality of industry level, and promote the healthy development of the market. At the same time, strict standards will inevitably lead to rising costs and higher technical barriers, making it difficult for some poor quality LED power supply products to enter the market.

UE has always been at the forefront of power supply development, and its technology has always kept up with the current advanced level. Therefore, the introduction of these standards is both a challenge and an opportunity for UE.

Regarding the future development of UE, Lv Xin said: Focus on technological innovation and enhance brand awareness. Cooperate with municipal units to establish LED lighting application demonstration bases to expand influence in the industry. Expand sales channels, improve the marketing network system, and seize market share. Deploy patents in inventions, utility models, appearance designs, new methods, new materials, etc., increase intellectual property protection, and raise the threshold for LED power supplies to enter the market.