Fairchild Semiconductor's global power resource centre develops LED street lighting solution

Fairchild Semiconductor announced that its China-based Global Power Resource Center (GPRC) has developed a complete LED street lighting solution that provides high efficiency and thermal performance to increase the lifetime of street lamps.

The performance-optimised solution validates Fairchild's energy-efficiency reputation by reducing power consumption in order to meet and exceed the increasing demand for greener electronics.

This demand has been driven by consumers as well as governments and regulatory standards worldwide, including China's central and provincial authorities and Energy Star's Solid-State Lighting (SSL) guidelines.

Fairchild's new solution features critical conduction mode (CrCM) PFC, high-efficiency DC-DC and constant current control. This total solution includes two sub-solutions, either parallel or serial, within the same PCB layout delivering up to 91.26 percent and 92.6 percent efficiency respectively from AC input to the LED side, under 220V input voltage.

The parallel solution features independent current regulation for each LED string. Therefore, if one string has an open circuit the other strings can still function normally. For the serial solution, independent open circuit protection for each string enables the other LEDs to still work normally even if one LED string experiences an open circuit.

If an LED short circuit happens, the constant current circuits ensure all the other LEDs work normally in both parallel and series sub-solution.