Elimination of an Electrolytic Capacitor in AC/DC Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Driver With High Input Power Factor and Constant Output Current

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power electronics Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 1598 - 1607
• Main Authors: Wu Chen, Hui, S. Y. Ron
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-03-2012; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: AC/DC LED drivers; Applied sciences; Capacitors; Capacitors. Resistors. Filters; Circuits; Converters; Dielectric, amorphous and glass solid devices; Direct energy conversion and energy accumulation; Driver circuits; Electric currents; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrical equipment; Electrical power engineering; electrolytic capacitors; Electronics; Energy accumulation; Energy storage; Exact sciences and technology; lifetime; Light emitting diodes; light-emitting diodes (LEDs); Optoelectronic devices; Power generation; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Various equipment and components; Windings; Input signal; Control system; lifetime; System design; Durability; Driver; Electrolytic capacitor; Experimental study; Capacitor storage; Light emitting diode; High power; light-emitting diodes (LEDs); Optoelectronic device; Converter; electrolytic capacitors; Feasibility; Power factor; AC/DC LED drivers; Reliability; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0885-8993; 1941-0107
• DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2010.2103959

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.