Light-emitting diode (LED) driver IC suppliers are actively rushing into dimmable LED lighting market solutions. Unless the dimming LED lighting system, the cost challenge of the dimmable LED lighting system is also increasingly intensified, so wafer vendors are struggling to develop software and hardware functions that support temperature compensation, drivers, and programmable registers. A highly integrated dimming solution to assist LED lighting system manufacturers to reduce the overall bill of materials (BOM) cost of dimming products.
Dimming scheme crazy integrated LED Driver IC factory fight price cut
Girish Ramesh, senior product marketing manager at Atmel, said that due to the demand for dimmable driver ICs in LED lighting applications such as general lighting, residential lighting, commercial lighting, architectural lighting, and situational lighting, the company has recently Launched a high-integration solution that combines software and hardware functions such as temperature compensation, driver program, and programmable register. It is estimated that compared with competitors' products, depending on the rated power of different fixtures, it can be used as an LED lighting system supplier. Save 0.5/1 USD BOM cost.
Compared with non-dimmable LED driver IC unit price has dropped below 0.4 US dollars, at this stage the price of dimmable LED driver IC is still higher than 1 US dollar. However, under the active cost reduction of various LED driver IC manufacturers, the unit price of dimmable LED driver ICs in 2013 will be expected to drop below US$1.
It is understood that Atmel's latest dimmable LED driver ICs' high integration solution will eliminate the need for temperature-compensated microcontrollers (MCUs) and enable driver functions through built-in temperature compensation and driver software. Power diodes, inductors and output capacitor components. In addition, the programmable scratchpad can easily control and monitor the fault detection system.
Not only Atmel, Texas Instruments has recently introduced a highly integrated dimmable LED driver IC solution that can reduce the number of components and product size for offline AC-DC LED lighting, Down Light and E14, GU10, A19, PAR20/30/38, MR16 and AR111 bulbs. The company's simple hysteresis input current control scheme eliminates complicated loop compensation and is highly transformer compatible; it also integrates active low-side input rectifiers to increase efficiency while simplifying design and reducing BOM cost.
Thanks to LED driver IC manufacturers pushing high integration solutions, the price difference between LED dimming driver ICs and non-dimming solutions has been greatly reduced, which is expected to drive LED dimming driver ICs to increase rapidly in 2013.
Increase in demand for LED dimming driver ICs due to price difference with non-dimming solution
In addition to increasing the degree of integration, LED lighting driver IC manufacturers also use the simplified PCB design to achieve price reduction. At present, the unit price of the dimmable LED lighting driver IC has rapidly declined, and the price difference with the non-dimming driving solution has also rapidly reduced to less than US$0.3, which is expected to attract a large number of LED lighting fixtures and bulb manufacturers.
According to Wang Yongbin, marketing director of NXP Semiconductor Greater China Lighting Products Market (Figure 1), LED driver IC companies can reduce the complexity of circuit design and integrate more external components. The unit price of LED dimming driver ICs is about 1 The dollar's price fell to 0.45 to 0.6 US dollars, compared with non-dimmable LED driver IC price of about 0.3 - 0.4 US dollars, the spread has narrowed to 0.05 - 0.3 US dollars, from more than doubled in the past, narrowed to less than twice .
Current dimming and non-dimming lighting solutions account for 30% and 70% of global LED lighting driver IC shipments, respectively, and both have annual shipment growth rates of up to 100%. Wang Yongbin expects that the sudden drop in the price of LED dimming driver ICs will stimulate the production and output of dimmable LED lighting driver ICs in 2013.
In the past, the unit price of LED dimming driver ICs was relatively high. Therefore, the main applications were limited to commercial lightings with low price sensitivity such as shop windows, hotels, and bars; however, the price difference between LED dimming driver ICs was greatly reduced, plus energy saving and carbon reduction. Awareness of the rise, the end consumer acceptance of dimmable lighting systems is expected to greatly increase, will drive the LED dimming driver IC market penetration steadily.
Dimmable LED lighting systems will save more power than non-dimming lighting systems and gradually gain market favor.
Wang Yongbin revealed that aiming at dimmable LED lighting business opportunities, NXP is expected to introduce a dimmable LED lighting driver IC for MR16 bulbs in the second quarter of this year, allowing LED lighting system developers to use only 20 to 10 components. This overcomes the challenge of not directly connecting 220 volt (V) main power to the MR16 bulbs; it requires as much as a hundred or more solutions to be used by competitors to significantly reduce development costs.
It is also worth noting that smart lighting (Smart Lighting) that is more energy-efficient than traditional triac dimming (TRIAC) is expected to become the next step to excite dimmable LED driver ICs. The growth of the company's revenue is an important driving force, so LED driver IC manufacturers are aggressively robbing the market through turnkey solutions.
Storm smart lighting driver IC factory turnkey package battle
Smart lighting refers to the combination of wireless technology, sensors, driver ICs, and light source lighting systems to control lighting area, effective daylight, and daily on/off time to achieve significant energy and cost savings. Smart lighting has a rapid growth in visibility due to energy conservation, environmental protection, safety, and management flexibility. In particular, compared to traditional light sources such as fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, and high-intensity discharge lamps, LED light sources have more power-saving features, and thus have become the primary light source technology options for smart lighting.
Facing the rapid expansion of the smart lighting market, LED driver IC manufacturers such as NXP Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics are trying to assist LED lighting system customers to reduce development thresholds and BOM costs through a complete turnkey package. Lighting market opportunities.
Wu Yujun, marketing manager of STMicroelectronics Technology (Figure 2), said that compared to traditional TRIAC analog dimming, digitalized smart lighting has more power-efficient benefits and is attracting many LED lighting system vendors to rush into product development.
However, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Power Line Communication (PLC), Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) and other networking technologies built in smart lighting, as well as sensors that support humidity, pressure, and other functions, Need to match the corresponding application software, will become the lack of software development capabilities of LED lighting system business design level.
Wang Yongbin pointed out that it is different from the LED driver IC manufacturers who provide a single-chip solution. The company is launching a protocol that includes wafers, networking technology, Gateway, IP/chip, and cloud. Service packages, application software and other turnkey packages, where application software can be freely adjusted according to customer requirements of the lighting system to highlight product differentiation.
Wang Yongbin further emphasized that there are currently suppliers of communication protocols for chip and networking technologies in the field of smart lighting, so customers of lighting systems must explore and integrate their own communication protocols for chips and networking technologies from different vendors. The company's strength lies in its ability to provide customers with turnkey solutions for communication protocols for both wafer and networking technologies, helping customers accelerate the development of smart lighting products.
In addition, NXP has developed a wireless MCU for smart lighting and a development kit that simplifies the application of ZigBee, JenNet-IP, and IEEE 802.15.4 networking technologies, covering the hardware and software required for the design, such as wireless modules and plug-ins. Expansion board, universal serial bus (USB) connector, remote controller, Internet router with enhanced OpenWRT firmware, and complete software design kit.
Not only is NXP, STMicroelectronics has also provided a turnkey solution for smart lighting system customers with chip and networking technology communication protocols, and is compatible with wireless and wired communications such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, PLC, and DALI. In addition, the company has released a programmable digital controller to simplify the traditional power conversion and topology design in response to the diversified power conversion and control topologies of different smart lighting systems in the future; it also improves light quality and light perception through dedicated algorithms, and Improve energy efficiency through power conversion algorithms.
Under the influence of energy-saving and carbon-reduction waves, not only the demand for traditional TRIAC analog dimming has risen, but also the application prospect of digital-based intelligent lighting dimming is expected. As a result, LED driver IC manufacturers have rushed to launch high-integration and turn-key packages to increase their price-performance competitiveness.
Light-emitting diode (LED) driver IC suppliers are actively rushing into dimmable LED lighting market solutions. Unless the dimming LED lighting system, the cost challenge of the dimmable LED lighting system is also increasingly intensified, so wafer vendors are struggling to develop software and hardware functions that support temperature compensation, drivers, and programmable registers. A highly integrated dimming solution to assist LED lighting system manufacturers to reduce the overall bill of materials (BOM) cost of dimming products. 
