60V LED drivers improve efficiency, light quality of solid state lighting systems

Infineon Technologies AG is getting ready to sample two 60V DC/DC LED drivers with high power conversion efficiency and current accuracy to help ensure constant light output and adjustable over-temperature protection and protect light elements from damage through overheating.

The new ILD6070/ILD6150 drivers give lighting manufacturers the flexibility to produce multiple products using the same drivers, based on wide input voltage range (4.5 V to 60V), adjustable output current of up to either 0.7 A or 1.5 A, and support of digital or analog dimming inputs with a maximum dimming contrast ratio as high as 3000:1.

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.  

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. 

Key highlights:

• 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 for $1.50 and $1.80, respectively.  High volume pricing (above 10k quantity) of the DSO-8 packaged devices is approximately $0.80 each.