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Current imbalance among parallel light-emitting diode (LED) strings could put excessive current and thermal stress on some of the LEDs in the systems, resulting in reduction in system lifetime. For LED road lighting systems, reliability is the paramount factor. This paper first explains how existing current-mirror (CM) circuits cannot cope with LED open-circuit faults and then describes a self-configurable CM circuit that can withstand open-circuit faults in LED systems with parallel LED strings. The ability to withstand open-circuit faults means that the LED systems can still function with reduced luminous output even if one LED string is cut off. The proposed circuit, which retains the feature of not requiring an auxiliary dc power supply, has been practically implemented and successfully tested in a 70-W LED system with three parallel strings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is a multidisciplinary subject that involves photometry, electric power, heat, and chromaticity which are interdependent on one another. So far, the photoelectrothermal (PET) theory has linked up the first three aspects. This research includes chromaticity into the dynamic PET theory so that even the correlated color temperature (CCT) and color rendering index (CRI) of phosphor-coated white LEDs can be dynamically predicted, thus overcoming the low bandwidth problem of some light measurement equipment. This dynamic modeling of CCT and CRI has been verified with favorable agreements between theoretical predictions and measurements of several LED samples. The outcome of this project offers a new research and development tool for practicing LED system designers to predict the instantaneous variations of CCT and CRI when the power varies in a LED system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While LEDs enjoy relatively long lifetime up to 10 years, the lifetime of traditional LED drivers using electrolytic capacitor as storage element is limited to typically less than 5 years. In this paper, an ac/dc LED driver without electrolytic capacitor is studied. Compared with other methods to eliminate electrolytic capacitor, the proposed driver has the advantages of almost unity input power factor and constant output current for LEDs. The operation principle, detailed design procedure of the main circuit, and control strategy are presented. The feasibility of the proposed converter has been successfully verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a dynamic photoelectrothermal theory for light-emitting diode (LED) systems. In addition to photometric, electrical, and thermal aspects, this theory incorporates the time domain into the generalized equations. A dynamic model for a general LED system is developed for system analysis. This theory highlights the fact that the luminous output of an LED system will decrease with time from the initial operation to the steady state due to the rising temperature of the heat sink and the LED devices. The essential thermal time constants involved in the LED systems are explained. The time factor is critical in understanding how much the luminous output will decrease with time and is essential to the optimal designs of the LED systems that are operated continuously (e.g., general lighting) or momentarily (e.g., traffic lights). Experiments on several LED systems at different time frames have been conducted, and the practical measurements confirm the validity of this theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current imbalance should be avoided when multiple LED strings are connected in parallel. In this paper, a dimmable LED driver with magnetic-amplifier postregulators for multistring applications is presented. Powered by a common master source, parallel LED strings are individually regulated by their corresponding adaptive slave sources for current balancing in this proposal. Without linear current regulators, the proposed driver offers relatively high efficiency. Its structure is simpler than multiconverter structures for red, blue, and green LED applications, and is particularly suitable for LEDs with wide parameter variations. The performance of the proposed driver is experimentally verified by a 16.5-W prototype with a load of three 5.5-W LED strings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a patent-pending passive offline light-emitting diode (LED) driver that has no controlled semiconductor switches, electrolytic capacitors, auxiliary power supply, and control board. It can provide a fairly smooth current from the ac mains to drive LED strings. The new circuit has the advantages of high input power factor, high energy efficiency and luminous efficacy, long lifetime, stable luminous output, and high robustness against extreme weather conditions. In addition, over 90% of the driver material is recyclable, leading to reduction of electronic waste. It is particularly suitable public LED lighting systems, such as road lighting systems. Experimental results based on a 50-W system are included in the paper to confirm the validity of the proposal. Due to the circuit simplicity, an energy efficiency exceeding 93.6% has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An investigation into the effects of the structures of both LED devices and systems on the luminous performance is presented. Single-chip and multichip LED structures and concentrated and distributed LED systems are studied and compared. Practical tests on both of the device and system levels have confirmed the theoretical predictions that parallel LED structures can lead to much lower thermal resistance and thus higher luminous output. The results of this paper contribute to new information for both LED device manufacturers and system designers toward the optimization of the LED technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photometric, electrical, and thermal features of LED systems are highly dependent on one another. By considering all these factors together, it is possible to optimize the design of LED systems. This paper presents a general theory that links the photometric, electrical, and thermal behaviors of an LED system together. The theory shows that the thermal design is an indispensable part of the electrical circuit design and will strongly influence the peak luminous output of LED systems. It can be used to explain why the optimal operating power, at which maximum luminous flux is generated, may not occur at the rated power of the LEDs. This theory can be used to determine the optimal operating point for an LED system so that the maximum luminous flux can be achieved for a given thermal design. The general theory has been verified favorably by experiments using high-brightness LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are solid-state devices with specific $v$ – $i$ characteristics. In this paper, we study the basic requirement of the driving circuits and discuss the proper approach to drive LEDs in view of their characteristics. We compare voltage source driving and current source driving, and discuss their relative advantages and constraints. We specifically introduce the use of circuit duality principle for developing new current-source-mode (CSM) drivers that are less known but are theoretically more versatile compared to their conventional voltage-source-mode counterparts. The study highlights the effects of the choice of driving circuits in terms of the number and size of circuit components used, duty cycle variation, sensitivity of control, nonlinearity and control complexity of LED drivers. We propose a CSM single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) converter, which demonstrates the advantage of having inductorless and easily controlled current-source drivers, and present a comparison of the CSM SIMO converter with the existing SIMO converters. We further illustrate that a high-voltage-step-down ratio can be naturally achieved by the CSM high-voltage-step-down converter without the use of transformers. This paper presents a systematic and comparative exposition of the circuit theory of driving LEDs, with experimental evidence supporting the major conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automotive light-emitting-diode (LED) drivers require special design considerations, which includes voltage step-up and step-down function, high energy efficiency, and fast current reference tracking capability. Unlike the conventional efficiency improvement methods, which is based on cumbersome circuit/component optimization and/or modification for a single operating point, this paper proposes a simple approach based on topology transition which can achieve a high efficiency for a wide input voltage range. In particular, the topology of the LED driver can change between buck, boost, and buck–boost converter according to the level of the input voltage. In addition, a novel current mode controller is proposed, such that 1) compatibility to different topologies, 2) seamless topology transition, and 3) fast current reference tracking can be concurrently achieved. The feasibilities of the proposed topology transition method and its control has been experimentally verified through a four-switch buck–boost converter prototype with 7–45 V input, 25 V/1 A LED strings output. It is shown that there is more than 5% efficiency improvement as compared to the conventional four-switch buck–boost converter. Full range (0%–100%) and precise (1% dimming precision) pulse-width-modulated dimming has also been demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper demonstrates that organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) of different structures can be characterized and modeled using a combination of the photo–electro–thermal (PET) theory and spectral power distribution modeling. The photometric, electrical, thermal, and chromatic properties of OLED devices are incorporated into a model framework so that the performance of the OLED of different structures can be compared. A concept of luminance uniformity over the OLED surfaces is also introduced for comparing OLED with large surface areas. Experimental results are included to verify the OLED models and compare the characteristics of two different OLED samples. Based on the same PET framework, some differences of OLEDs and inorganic LEDs are addressed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a nonlinear approach of controlling the luminous intensity and correlated color temperature (CCT) of white light-emitting diode (LED) systems with dual color temperatures. This LED system is made up of a warm color LED source (2700 K) and a cool color LED source (5000 K). The luminous intensity of each of these LED sources is individually controlled by pulsewidth modulation. The overall intensity of the LED system is due to the combined emitted flux of both LED sources. Its overall CCT is the mixed average CCT of both LED sources. This proposed method is based on the nonlinear empirical luminous and CCT models of the LEDs, which take into consideration the thermal effect of LEDs on its luminance and CCT properties. With reasonable approximation, the theoretical models are simplified into practical solutions, which are translatable into real-life applications. It is experimentally validated that the proposed approach is considerably more accurate than the existing linear approaches that do not consider color variations of LED sources. The idea is applicable to LED systems with multiple color temperatures and is not limited to white LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern high-power white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) composed of multiple blue LED chips and yellow phosphor coatings have been successfully commercialized because of their high-luminous efficacy. The multiple-chip LED packages usually come with flat structures that have large surface areas for considerable heat loss. Starting from the analysis and modeling of the blue LED chip, this paper introduces the thermal path through the phosphor layer to form the white phosphor-coated (PC) white LED device model for photometric, electric, and thermal performance analysis. The power distribution of the blue LED chip and that of the PC white LED device are compared. Based on this new analysis, the increase in the heat dissipation coefficient, equivalent thermal resistance, and power loss caused by the phosphor coating can be quantified. New equations suitable for device manufacturers to qualify their devices and design engineers to optimize LED system designs are derived. The analytical results are in good agreement with the practical mesurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generic red, green, and blue (RGB) LED system encompasses complex interactions of power, heat, light, and color, which pose a major challenge for achieving precise control over luminance and color-mixing in high-quality lighting applications. In this article, new nonlinear empirical models of a practical RGB LED system with closed-loop control are formulated. They enable precise prediction of luminous flux and color coordinates by using the three distinct reference voltages as the control variables for independent current regulation across the RGB LED strings. The proposed empirical models are experimentally verified by using a hardware prototype of a dc–dc single-inductor three-output LED driver with proportional–integral compensators and time-interleaving control scheme. The measured values of luminous flux and color coordinates agree closely with the predicted values from the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The color, electrical, and thermal properties of LED devices are highly dependent on one another. The peak wavelength of GaN-based white LED shifts in opposite directions under the influences of current and junction temperature change. This affects the correlated color temperature (CCT). Importantly, duty cycle control for LED dimming does not provide constant color (against conventional wisdom). An analysis model that links the peak wavelength, electrical, and thermal properties of LED devices is proposed. The color-shift trend of the LED with respect to the changes in its thermal and electrical operating conditions is described. The stabilized CCT performance of a dc or a bilevel-driven LED over a dimming range is found to be a result of the complex interactions between the selected current levels, duty cycle, thermal resistances of the heatsink and device, heat dissipation conversion ratio, and the physical parameters of the LED device. The predicted color variation is verified by experimental results, which demonstrate that the CCT stabilization of an LED with a dc drive requires less thermal energy than that with a bilevel drive. For a given thermal design, the reduction in CCT variation during light intensity change is possible via the combined adjustment of the current level and its duty cycle over the dimming operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple method is proposed to measure the heat dissipation of LEDs and fluorescent lamps in an open system that allows light energy to escape. Based on this method, a comparative study on the thermal and luminous performance of high-brightness LEDs and fluorescent lamps is presented. At rated power, T5 and T8 fluorescent lamps generate about 73%-77 % of their total power as heat, while three types of high-brightness LEDs dissipate about 87%-90% of input power as heat. Heat dissipation is an important factor particularly for air-conditioned buildings when overall energy efficiency is considered. T5 fluorescent lamps perform better than some existing LEDs in terms of luminous efficacy and heat generation in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical measurements based on integrating sphere are primary suitable for steady-state measurements and unsuitable for dynamic real-time measurements. This paper presents an alternative method using the combination of a photodetector system and the dynamic photo-electro-thermal theory for real-time optical measurements. It is demonstrated that the voltage output of a photodetector can be correlated to the optical power in real time. Such method has been successfully applied to analyze a phosphor-converted white light-emitting diode (PC white LED) using an extended dynamic model with separate calculations of optical power from the blue LED chips and phosphor layer. Both calculated and practical results are included to confirm the validity of the new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-emitting diode (LED)-based visible light communication (VLC) has recently been promoted by the lighting industry for providing services and information for consumers in shopping malls. Communication system designs require well-defined signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Being semiconductor devices, both LEDs and photodetectors are highly temperature-sensitive. This paper explores the electrical and thermal sensitivities of LED and photodetector together for VLC applications, and highlights the discoveries that the SNR of LED-based VLC could vary substantially over the full operating power range of the LED lighting systems. A new analysis of the SNR based on the photoelectrothermal theory has been developed. It can be used as the theoretical and design tool to predict such SNR variations. The validity of the new analysis has been confirmed with practical measurements that are consistent with theoretical predictions. The analytic approach can in principle be used as a design tool for LED-based VLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) having properties of high luminous efficacy and long life span are becoming a major light source for general illumination. To fully utilize the advantages of LED in lighting applications, the offline power supply that drives the LED should possess the following features: high efficiency, long life span, high input power factor, and (COC). In this paper, high efficiency is achieved by using a minimal power processing (MPP) configuration. Near perfect power factor correction (PFC) is achieved by a simple dual-output disc-ontinuous-conduction-mode (DCM) pulse-width-modulated (PWM) front-end converter. One output of the front-end converter is connected to the LED load using a control switch. The other output is connected directly to a dc storage capacitor cascaded with a downstream DCM PWM converter driving the same LED load to achieve COC driving. The power flow is controlled to achieve the required MPP that can also reduce the storage capacitance by balancing only the ac input ripple power and the dc output power without power recycling. Thus, the design requires no electrolytic capacitor, hence extending the system life span. The achievement of input PFC, MPP, and COC requires design tradeoff among design freedom, ease of control and component count. LED drivers having all these properties are developed, designed, and tested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) LED driver with precise dimming and full dimming range. Based on the coordination of a string-level scheme and a system-level dimming scheme, the proposed SIMO LED driver can overcome practical constraints of existing SIMO LED drivers such as limited dimming range and needs for high-current switches. The proposal can achieve dimming precision up to an accuracy of 0.8% and also full dimming range. It has the flexibility of using either phase-shift or synchronous pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) switching for dimming control. The proposed circuit and control operations have been practically verified with a 25-W off-line SIMO-driven LED system. Practical evaluations of its power quality and energy efficiency are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex nature and differences of the luminous and thermal characteristics of red, green, and blue (RGB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) make precise color control of RGB LED systems a great technological challenge. This paper presents a nonlinear model that includes coupling effects among LED devices for predicting color in RGB LED systems. A control method is included to demonstrate that this model can be used for precise color control. The proposed model and control method have been successfully evaluated in practical tests. The measurements agree well with model predictions. They form a new design tool for precise color control of RGB LED systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various ac/dc LED driver topologies have been proposed to meet the challenges of achieving a compact, efficient, low-cost, and robust multistring LED lighting system. These LED drivers typically employ a two-stage topology to realize the functions of ac/dc rectification and independent current control of each LED string. The choice of having two stage conversions involves additional hardware components and a more complicated controller design process. Such two-stage topologies suffer from a higher system cost, increased power loss, and large form factor. In this paper, a single-stage ac/dc single-inductor multiple-output LED driver is proposed. It uses only one single inductor and N + 1 active power switches (N being the number of LED strings) with reduced component count and smaller form factor. The proposed driver can achieve both functions of ac/dc rectification with a high power factor and precise independent current control of each individual LED string simultaneously. A prototype of an ac/dc single-inductor triple-output LED driver is constructed for verification. Experimental results corroborate that precise and independent current regulation of each individual LED string is achievable with the proposed driver. A power factor of above 0.99 and a peak efficiency of 89% at 30-W rated output power are attainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a survey on over 1400 commercial LED drivers and a literature review, a range of LED driver topologies are classified according to their applications, power ratings, performance and their energy storage and regulatory requirements. Both passive and active LED drivers are included in the review and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. This paper also presents an overall view on the technical and cost aspects of the LED technology, which is useful to both researchers and engineers in the lighting industry. Some general guidelines for selecting driver topologies are included to aid design engineers to make appropriate choices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a closed-loop nonlinear scheme for precisely controlling the luminosity and correlated color temperature (CCT) of a bicolor adjustable light-emitting diode (LED) lamp. The main objective is to achieve a precise and fully independent dimming and CCT control of the light mixture emitted from a two-string LED lamp comprising warm-white and cool-white color LEDs, regardless of the operating conditions and throughout the long operating lifetime of the LED lamp. The proposed control method is formulated using the nonlinear empirical LED model of the bicolor white LED system. Experimental results show that with the proposed closed-loop nonlinear approach, both CCT and dimming control of the bicolor lamp is significantly more accurate and robust to ambient temperature variations, ambient light interference, and LED aging than the conventional linear approach used in existing products. The maximum error in luminous flux employing the proposed closed-loop nonlinear approach is 3%, compared with 20% using the closed-loop linear approach. The maximum deviation in CCT is only 1.78%, compared with 27.5% with its linear counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a GaN light-emitting diode (LED) with sapphire structure and a thin-film LED without sapphire structure are characterized in the photoelectrothermal modeling framework for comparison. Starting from the analysis and modeling of internal quantum efficiency as a function of current and temperature of blue LED, this work develops the thin-film LED device model and derives its optical power and the heat dissipation coefficient. The device parameters of the two LED devices with different structural designs are then compared. Practical optical power measurements are compared with theoretical predictions based on the two types of fabricated devices. It is shown that the thin-film LED device has much lower thermal resistance and optical power loss. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For retrofit applications, some high-brightness light-emitting diode (LED) products have the same form factor restrictions as existing incandescent light bulbs. Such form factor constraints may restrict the design and optimal performance of the LED technology. In this paper, some critical design issues for commercial LED bulbs designed for replacing E27 incandescent lamps are quantitatively analyzed. The analysis involves power audits on such densely packed LED systems so that the amounts of power consumption in: 1) the LED wafer; 2) the phosphor coating; and 3) the lamp translucent cover are quantified. The outcomes of such audits enable R&D engineers to identify the critical areas that need further improvements in a compact LED bulb design. The strong dependence of the luminous output of the compact LED bulb on ambient temperature is also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of new color-mixing LED systems based on LED devices of different color temperatures, the need for a new modeling technique for LED systems with nonidentical LED devices becomes imminent. This paper presents a modeling technique for LED systems with LED arrays comprising nonidentical LED devices that have nonidentical optical-thermal-electrical properties. Based on a general 3-D photo-electro-thermal LED node model, LED devices of different kinds can be arranged in various array forms according to their system construction and design. By linking the system matrix to the correlated-color-temperature prediction, the proposed modeling technique provides an accurate prediction of the temperature distribution, luminous flux, and correlated color temperature of the LED systems. The temperature distribution and light output of the LED systems have been measured using an infrared imaging system and a spectrophoto-colorimeter with an integrating sphere. The modeling technique has been successfully demonstrated and experimentally verified on several LED systems comprising nonidentical LED devices. It is particularly useful as a modeling tool to study new color-mixing LED systems based on different types of LED devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although critical to the lifetime of LED, the junction temperature of LED cannot be measured easily. Based on the general photoelectrothermal theory for LED systems, the coefficient for the reduction of luminous efficacy with junction temperature is first related to the characteristic temperature of the LED. Then, a noncontact method for estimating the internal junction temperature Tj and junction-case thermal resistance Rjc of LED from the external power and luminous flux measurements is presented and verified practically. Since these external measurements can be obtained easily, the proposal provides a simple tool for checking Tj in new LED system designs without using expensive or sophisticated thermal monitoring equipment for the LED junctions. The proposed method has been checked with measurements on LED devices from three different brands with both constant and nonconstant Rjc. The theoretical predictions are found to be highly consistent with practical measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]