Single-Phase LED Drivers with Minimal Power Processing, Constant Output Current, Input Power Factor Correction, and Without Electrolytic Capacitor

High-power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) having properties of high luminous efficacy and long life span are becoming a major light source for general illumination. To fully utilize the advantages of LED in lighting applications, the offline power supply that drives the LED should possess the following features: high efficiency, long life span, high input power factor, and (COC). In this paper, high efficiency is achieved by using a minimal power processing (MPP) configuration. Near perfect power factor correction (PFC) is achieved by a simple dual-output disc-ontinuous-conduction-mode (DCM) pulse-width-modulated (PWM) front-end converter. One output of the front-end converter is connected to the LED load using a control switch. The other output is connected directly to a dc storage capacitor cascaded with a downstream DCM PWM converter driving the same LED load to achieve COC driving. The power flow is controlled to achieve the required MPP that can also reduce the storage capacitance by balancing only the ac input ripple power and the dc output power without power recycling. Thus, the design requires no electrolytic capacitor, hence extending the system life span. The achievement of input PFC, MPP, and COC requires design tradeoff among design freedom, ease of control and component count. LED drivers having all these properties are developed, designed, and tested.