NXP Helps Consumers Go Green with Introduction of Next Generation Energy Saving CFL Lighting Solutions

“We designed our CFL drivers to enable consumers to go green without the frustrations of conventional CFL bulbs. With governments all over the world prohibiting the production of incandescent light bulbs, a new energy-efficient lighting solution was required, one that meets consumer expectations of cost, reliability, lifetime and overall user experience,” said John Croteau, senior vice president & general manager, Business Lines High Performance RF, Power & Lighting, NXP Semiconductors. “With 20 to 25 percent of the electricity produced in the world consumed in lighting applications, and over 5 billion energy saving bulbs to be sold in 2012 according to Datapoint Research, NXP‘s next generation of CFL lighting drivers break open the next ‘killer application’ for power management ICs. Backed by GreenChip technology, and NXP‘s ability to manufacture to scale, the economics are staggering.”

Quality, Efficiency and Superior Performance
NXP offers manufacturers solutions for dimmable and non-dimmable CFL drivers and controllers. Consumer perception of quality dimming starts at a dimming level of 10 percent light and traditional CFL lighting solutions can only be dimmed between 20 to 30 percent which is not ideal. While today‘s NXP ICs already achieve the 10 percent dimming threshold, the new NXP enabled lighting solutions achieve a level of deep dimming below 10 percent, making CFL lamps behave similar to incandescent bulbs. These CFL lamps will provide users with deep dimming performance; finally making energy-efficient lighting an option for mood lighting and advanced lighting designs.

GreenChip technology also accelerates the ramp up time, compared to standard CFL lamps, allowing the bulb to ignite faster. Consumers often complain about the reaction time between switching the light on to lamp ignition – currently an approximate delay of 0.5 to 1 second. NXP‘s CFL drivers have been demonstrated to improve the reaction time to within 100 milliseconds, therefore providing light immediately and meeting consumer expectations for instant light with no waiting and no frustrations.

Key features of CFL lighting include:

* Deep dimming with performance to levels below 10 percent
* Fast start-up with quick start for faster light output run-up
* Better energy efficiency with an average 5 percent higher efficiency
* Longer lifetime preheat feature that preserves the life of the lamp burner; while standard lamps based on discrete components reach an average 4 to 6 kWh, NXP IC based lamps demonstrate lifetime performance in the range of 12 to 15 kWh

The dimmable UBA2027 and non-dimmable UBA2211x families for CFL build on NXP‘s broad lighting portfolio. NXP IC-based solutions are fully supported by dedicated teams and tools. Design engineers benefit from seamless integration of CFL drivers into incandescent lamp form factors for easy migration to IC-based lighting solutions.