LED drivers eliminate heat sinks for smart lighting designs

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Power Integrations expanded its LYTSwitch-6 family of safety-isolated LED-driver ICs with new high-power-density devices for smart-lighting applications. The new LED drivers with PowiGaN technology enable designs that deliver up to 110 watts (W) with 94% conversion efficiency using a flyback topology. The drivers also use lossless current sensing, which contributes to the higher efficiency.

The high efficiency of the new LYTSwitch-6 ICs eliminates the need for heat sinks, which reduces ballast size, weight, and cooling airflow requirements. This makes them suitable for a smart residential and commercial fixtures, and low-profile ceiling troffers.

The 750-V PowiGaN primary switches provide very low RDS(ON) and reduced switching losses. This improvement, combined with existing LYTSwitch-6 features, increases power conversion efficiency by up to 3% compared to conventional solutions, said Power Integrations, which reduces wasted heat by more than one-third.

Existing benefits include fast transient response, delivering excellent cross regulation for parallel LED strings without additional regulator hardware, and flicker-free system operation. This simplifies the pulse-width-modulation (PWM) dimming interface.

Available now, the GaN-based LYTSwitch-6 LED-driver ICs are priced at $3.14 in quantities of 10,000. A reference design (DER-801) describing a 100-W three-way dimming LED ballast is available for download.