Design Considerations

What's new?
• LED lighting via Power Line Communication
• Microcontrollers with communication, control, and dimming capabilities
Microcontrollers with communication, control, and dimming capabilities
LED lighting designers are challenged with meeting their efficiency and reliability goals faster in
advanced LED lighting designs. LED lighting customers seeking the latest in innovative and affordable
LED lighting solutions can benefit from TI's broad product portfolio of LED drivers, AC/DC, DC/DC,
power management devices, wireless and wired interface control and embedded processors. LED
designers have the option of not only controlling the power stage, but regulating LED currents as well,
eliminating the need for multiple components and reducing system cost.
• Applications Processor: There are numerous advantages of using TI Microcontrollers in
lighting: control of up to 8 independent LED strings, advanced power algorithms, and the
additional flexibility in design and manufacturing for regional products. TI's Piccolo F28x
controller platform provides a cost-effective means to implement PLC technology. Along with
advanced DSP cores, the controllers integrate robust peripherals such as analog-to-digital
converters (ADCs), timers and pulse-width-modulation (PWM). F28x controllers offer a unique
combination of 150 MIPS of 32-bit control-optimized performance, system integration and
microcontroller (MCU) like ease-of-use.
• Interface: Lighting can be controlled via wireless in both the 2.4GHz and sub-1 GHz range.
Communication methods that are supported include: ZigBee, 802.15.4, DALI over SimpliciTI,
and 6loWPAN, as well as proprietary solutions. Supported wired solutions include RS-485 and
DMX512, KNX, and DALI via Power Line Communication
• Power Management: The general lighting application determines the LED string architecture
(total LED strings, quantity of LED's per string and current in each string) and the total power
required from the LED driver. This will determine the power architecture, required power factor
and topology implemented in the LED driver. For low power, single string applications
application like retrofit bulbs, down lighters and residential luminaires a single stage AC-DC
driver is a good solution. TI has the necessary LED Lighting Driver Controllers for these
applications. For multiple LED string (higher lumens) applications like troffers, mid-bay, high-
bay, area and street lights TI has solutions that can produce intermediate constant voltage plus
DC-DC converters for each string or solutions that can drive multiples strings with a single
control current. TI products for multi-string applications include a variety of LED Lighting
Driver Controllers for the AC front end conversion and TI's DC-DC controller and SWIFT™
family of synchronous, step-down DC/DC converters for the DC-DC LED constant current
conversion.
• Low-Power RF: TI solutions address the issue of lighting communications and control without
expensive re-wiring. The Chipcon line of products covers the spectrum of needs, ranging from
transceivers to complete System on chip (SoC) solutions, for most wireless lighting
applications.