Looking at LED lighting design and component selection through testing and certification

　　As one of the most promising high-tech industries in the 21st century, LED lighting has attracted much attention in terms of product design, R&D, application, testing and certification. Although the testing and certification of LED products is the last link for products to enter the market, it has important guiding significance for the product design stage. Reasonable product design can enhance product reliability, reduce EMC problems, and pass product testing and certification faster, laying a foundation for products to win the market and long-term development of enterprises.

　　At the recent LED Industry Summit Forum, Electronic Components Technology Network interviewed Mr. Nie Pengxiang, who shared his views on the current development of the LED market; the important role of electronic product testing and certification in promoting product quality, and the deep understanding of product design and component selection on product reliability, failure analysis and electromagnetic compatibility; he can help engineer friends re-examine the importance of reliability analysis and component selection, and guide engineers to reduce the occurrence of EMC problems from the source of design and improve the quality of the entire product.

　　LED lighting basics: standards, quality systems, testing and certification

　　For a product to successfully enter the market, it must first meet two basic requirements: one is safety requirements, such as CE certification. The other is market access requirements. In addition to safety and basic market access requirements, European and American countries have higher-level requirements for products entering the market. Taking LED lighting products as an example, these also include whether the product is easy to use, whether customers are satisfied, and whether it complies with sustainable development (such as energy saving, environmental protection, and recyclability). These requirements ultimately need to be tested by professional organizations to be recognized. Therefore, product testing and certification play an important role in market access and product quality assurance.

　　In recent years, the Chinese LED market has become increasingly hot. From the initial application in the field of signal display to the current large-scale lighting applications such as street lamps and indoor lighting, it seems that the LED industry has matured and has reached the stage of large-scale promotion and practical application. Mr. Nie has a different view on this. From a global perspective, the development of the LED market is still in its infancy. Many standards and applications are not mature. Excessive publicity of the maturity of the LED market may damage the development of the LED industry. In this regard, the US energy-saving lamp market has had a failed case. At that time, due to the low reliability of energy-saving lamp product quality, consumers lost confidence in the product, thus affecting the development of the energy-saving lamp industry.

　　With the lessons learned from this failure, the US government seems to be particularly calm in this wave of LED promotion. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has promoted LED knowledge to people through various channels, and at the same time has constrained corporate self-discipline, warning companies not to exaggerate product performance, so as not to mislead consumers about LED products. The lack of standards is also an obstacle to the development of the industry. Except for the United States, which has commercial evaluation standards for LED products, other countries have not yet established them. China is no exception, and China's LED standards are still non-mandatory and the standards of local governments are not unified. How to regulate the LED market, establish perfect standards and mechanisms, and prevent the overheated market from bringing adverse effects to the development of the industry is currently the focus of attention of industry insiders.

　　When Chinese companies enter the international market, they often encounter various technical barriers in addition to tariff barriers. Among them, the most common ones for electronic products are the US UL certification and the EU CE certification. Since domestic companies have limited knowledge of these certifications, they feel at a loss when they are certified, which affects the export of products. As a comprehensive, professional, and nationwide third-party testing, inspection, and verification organization, CTI helps Chinese companies speed up the product certification process, shorten the time, speed up the process, and reduce costs.

　　Reliability and failure resistance start with component selection

　　Some lighting company bosses often have a headache about the lifespan and warranty period of LED products. The return rate of products after they are put on the market is very high, which damages the reputation of manufacturers, and makes repair and disposal even more difficult. This truly reflects the objective facts that domestic LED products have uneven quality and poor reliability. It can be said that the quality of LED products is the biggest bottleneck restricting the development of the industry. Reliability is not just a problem for LED products, but also exists in all electronic products.

　　The success or failure of reliability design has a decisive effect on the quality of the product. It is implemented throughout the design and production process of the product. Mr. Nie said that the current domestic LED application products are not innovative enough. Many products are imitations of foreign products a few years ago, and the quality does not meet foreign standards. Some companies imitate some better products and use the same manufacturer from chips to components. As a result, the products they make are still unreliable. It can be seen that reliability cannot be achieved by simple imitation.

　　Product reliability is closely related to circuit design and component selection. Product reliability design starts with components. The reliability certification and selection of components are very important links. The quality assurance provided by suppliers is only for general situations, and each complete product has its own specific application environment. Factors such as temperature changes, current impact, and voltage levels must be considered specifically. According to different application scenarios, choosing appropriate components for design can lay the foundation for the good quality of the complete product.

　　In addition, when a product has a problem, failure analysis is also extremely important. From the failure analysis of the whole machine, we can find out the deficiencies in product design ideas and component quality, which is the key to helping companies deal with problems as quickly as possible and speed up product launch time. Reliability issues can basically be attributed to component failures, and a small number are caused by system compatibility and environmental interference. It can be said that the essence of failure analysis is component failure analysis. Therefore, the selection of components is crucial to product reliability.