Tips for Improving the Efficiency of LED Drivers

LED technology has a history of several years of development, and various new technologies have been emerging. However, no matter how the technical means develop, there is only one goal, which is to continuously improve efficiency and reduce power consumption and cost. This article carefully summarizes the experience of forum experts and summarizes some tips for improving LED driver power supply, hoping to be helpful to everyone.

Main current loop PCB should be as short as possible

LAYPCB experience and layout, this is nothing, the quick way is to look at more works of big manufacturers.

Optimize transformer parameter design to reduce eddy current losses caused by ringing.

This is more difficult. First, you need to master the basic knowledge of electromagnetism and design a reasonable transformer. The most important thing is patience. Even if you can only think of increasing the efficiency by 0.5%, you should try it.

Reasonable selection of switching devices

This is a balance between cost and performance. What kind of device should be used according to the customer's requirements, but it must be reasonable. If efficiency is required, COOL  MOS  and low VF output diodes are undoubtedly selected .

Optimized design of input EMI

If it passes the safety regulations, this part requires more consideration and it mainly depends on experience.

Choose an efficient topology

This is the beginning of solution selection, such as PWM and QR PFM. When customers put forward efficiency requirements, we need to evaluate what kind of topology to choose.

Choose a good electrolytic capacitor

Many people overlook this. The loss of electrolysis is very large. Teacher Chen Yongzhen has a detailed explanation in an article.

Startup Part Power Consumption Design

Under the premise of efficiency, we must consider that many chips currently have HV starting pins, and the starting current is getting lower and lower. This requires more understanding of new devices. Of course, there are also external circuit lossless starting, which is not suitable for LED driving.

Chip-assisted power supply optimization

This is pointed out in ST's L6562D application document. 15V is the best, but LEDs generally have a wide voltage output, so it is generally chosen to add a linear voltage regulator to make the chip work at 15V to reduce losses.

This article introduces 8 methods to improve LED driving. Each method is summarized from practical experience and has great reference value. I hope everyone can fully absorb the knowledge points in the article and flexibly apply them to their own designs.