Precise luminous flux and color control of dimmable red-green-blue light-emitting diode systems

A generic red, green, and blue (RGB) LED system encompasses complex interactions of power, heat, light, and color, which pose a major challenge for achieving precise control over luminance and color-mixing in high-quality lighting applications. In this article, new nonlinear empirical models of a practical RGB LED system with closed-loop control are formulated. They enable precise prediction of luminous flux and color coordinates by using the three distinct reference voltages as the control variables for independent current regulation across the RGB LED strings. The proposed empirical models are experimentally verified by using a hardware prototype of a dc-dc single-inductor three-output LED driver with proportional-integral compensators and time-interleaving control scheme. The measured values of luminous flux and color coordinates agree closely with the predicted values from the models.