LED driver requirements for area lighting applications
Many area lighting applications are outdoors and may be subjected to various severe temperature conditions, which affects the overall service life. The overall system design has an important impact on the service life, so it is very important to use a high-efficiency LED driver with less internal heating and lower loss, and the driver and the LED heat source must be thermally isolated in the design to enhance system reliability.
LED driver for area lighting applications
LED drivers for area lighting applications may also need to comply with certain specifications regarding power factor or harmonic content. For example, the IEC61000-3-2 standard of the International Electrotechnical Union (IEC) of the European Union puts forward requirements for the harmonic content of lighting equipment (Class C) with a power exceeding 25 W, which is equivalent to total harmonic distortion (THD) less than 35%; However, compliance with IEC61000-3-2 Class C harmonic content requirements does not necessarily mean that the power factor (PF) is higher than 0.9. Some markets (such as the United States) usually require PF higher than 0.9 and THD lower than 20%.
The main function of the LED driver is to limit current under a variety of conditions, and to protect the LED from surges and other fault conditions, and to provide a certain level of safety to avoid (electrical and/or mechanical) vibration and fire. For area lighting applications, the outdoor environment will bring temperature challenges to the LED driver, and may need to withstand 277 Vac, 347 Vac, or even 480 Vac, and other higher-than-standard AC input voltages.
