New 60V LED Drivers from Infineon Improve Efficiency, Light Quality and Operating Lifetime of Solid State Lighting Systems

With the addition of 60V devices to its portfolio, Infineon enables manufacturers to support as many as 18 LEDs in a light string, compared to a maximum of 12 LEDs in typically available 40V devices. This helps manufacturers to lower costs or achieve higher lumens in a lighting system.

“As the lighting industry’s transition to LED-based luminaires accelerates, with growth rates forecast at 30 percent across the next several years, manufacturers need to simultaneously innovate in engineering design while doing everything possible to gain competitive advantage in performance and cost,” said Dr. Christian Burrer, Head of Product Segment AC/DC and Lighting ICs at Infineon Technologies. “At Infineon, our goal is to provide a single point of supply for optimized and highly efficient power conversion and control elements of lighting system designs.”

The new drivers extend Infineon’s portfolio of switched-mode, buck (step-down) topology LED drivers for low voltage driven lighting applications, including indoor and outdoor systems in residential, commercial and industrial environments. They operate at up to 1 MHz switching frequency, which reduces manufactured cost and PCB space by reducing the size of external components needed in a design. Reduced size is also supported by the high efficiency and corresponding improved thermal performance of the drivers.

Benchmark features of the new devices include the following.

Typical DC/DC conversion efficiency up to 98 percent, which improves overall efficiency of a luminaire and reduces thermal load.

Current accuracy of 3 percent across the full 4.5V to 60V input range, which contributes to exceptional stability of light output.

The adjustable over temperature protection feature, which reduces light output when a threshold temperature is reached instead of turning off the light. With this feature, an LED light will always operate in a non-critical thermal range which leads to significantly longer lifetime.

Availability, Package, Pricing

Samples of the ILD6070/ILD6150 drivers will be available in March, at a cost of USD 1.50 and USD 1.80, respectively. High volume pricing, above 10k quantity, of the DSO-8 packaged devices is approximately USD 0.80.

Designers working with Infineon LED driver ICs can access the “Infineon Light Desk” design tool. The tool allows quick design and simulation of LED Driver circuitries for all types of LED applications, with optional redesign, and download of the design summary with specification, schematics and bill of material.

The new LED Drivers are being demonstrated in Infineon’s booth (#204) at Strategies in Light in Santa Clara, CA.