New 70W LED Driver powers multi-chip arrays

2nd December 2011

ES Admin

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Datasheet

It is an acknowledged trend that LED lighting is moving to higher power and this realized by either connecting LEDs in arrays or by wiring many LEDs in series. The required LED voltage grows proportionally to the number of LEDs in the chain or array.

Typical LED buck drivers already stretch their input voltage limits with 12 LEDs connected in series on the output. The same applies to some popular multi-chip arrays. At their rated current they often need driving voltages above 40V. It is then no wonder that drivers with higher input voltage limits than the usual 36V are in demand. However, if the driver is to keep its SELV (Safety Extra Low Voltage) rating, the input voltage can’t be higher than 60V.

Our new RCD-48 drivers can be used for inputs up to 60VDC and therefore can drive high brightness LED strings with up to 17 LEDs and all modern multi-chip arrays. The drivers are the „motor“ for high brightness lighting applications such as shopping malls, solar-powered street lighting or efficient 48V bus systems. With a very high efficiency of 96%, these drivers provide a significant contribution to the overall performance of lighting systems.

The RCD-48-modules are not only appropriate for driving long strings, they can also be used in lower output voltage ranges. For example, they could also be used to power only 1 or 2 LEDs from a 9V battery. Whether short or long strings – in exceptionally wide input voltage range of 9V to 60V means that only one part is needed – the RCD-48!

RCD-48-drivers are available with constant currents of 350, 500 700 or 1200mA. Therefore LED power ratings of up to 70W, corresponding to 350W of conventional lighting, are possible. Linear dimming down to zero with digital (PWM) as well as analogue control is standard. The PWM input permits easy connection to many computer-controlled lighting systems, while the analogue input allows easy manual dimming.

The ambient temperature range of the RCD-48 series is up to +85°C but all parts in the series will work down to -40°C. The modules available as PCB mounting or optionally with flying leads. With case dimensions of only 32.6 x 16.6 x 11.1mm (L x W x H) the modules are very compact. Whilst the powerful 1200mA version features a metal case with only 16g weight, the lower power models have sturdy plastic cases and weigh 13g. All drivers will be EN/UL-60950-1 certified (pending). The MTBF according to MIL-HDBK-217F is 1.7 million hours and all parts come with our standard warranty of 5 years.