Elete executives: LED driver IC development prospect is still vast

In fact, as the development of LED technology is considered low power consumption? How to calculate the high life expectancy is not a measure of the same, each LED technology vendors for the future prospects of the industry is not the same point of view. This does not, in the senior expert Hong Bing said "LED general lighting will be in 3~5 years after the" popularization of technology power product marketing director TonyArmstrong said in an interview with non network reporter: "we expect over the next 7 to 9 years, the family LED lighting is also not popular".

But whether it is Hong Bing or Tony, or participate in the non - network and other special reports of the guests, there is a little bit of advice is consistent - for LED technology, the driver is still very necessary IC. Tony said, LED is a kind of sensitive semiconductor, any slight current changes will cause changes of the brightness of the product, if the lack of driver IC this link on the current technology, stable source characteristics of LED have greatly emphasised. And the change of current / voltage will also have a great influence on the service life of the product.

Product prices have been the biggest obstacle to LED lighting technology into ordinary families, how to reduce product costs? When do you expect to be able to truly LED lighting into millions of households?

Ling Li, director of product marketing TonyArmstrong:LED residential lighting power supply may still need more development, will become the mainstream. Residential LED lighting is the main obstacle to the cost and aesthetic problems.

Linear technology company engaged in LED drive business, the IC cost is only a small part of the production of traditional 70W incandescent lamp for total cost. However, our LED drive can help reduce the cost of replacing the LED lamp manufacturing, because these LED drives provide efficient conversion, which can minimize the size and cost of the LED lamp radiator.

We expect that over 7 to 9 years, home LED lighting will not be universal.

At present, it is generally believed that OLED and LED are two kinds of opposite technology, OLED because of higher brightness, thinner and other technical advantages are sought after by many enterprises. Does your company have OLED products, how to locate these two technologies?

Tony:OLED is a kind of electroluminescent LED, whose emitter is composed of an organic compound film. This film usually contains a polymer that allows the deposition of suitable organic compounds. These organic compounds are deposited onto a flat carrier by a simple "printing" process in line and column. The pixel matrix thus formed can emit light of different colors.

Such systems can be used in television screens, computer monitors, cellular phones and PDA, watches, advertising, information and instructions for the use of small portable system display. The OLED can also be used in light sources for general space lighting and large area light emitting components. Compared with the inorganic solid state LED, the light emitted per unit area of OLED is less, and the inorganic solid state LED is usually used as a point light source.

In the display environment, OLED has a significant advantage over the traditional liquid crystal display (LCD). OLED can work without backlighting. Therefore, OLED can display the black level, less power consumption, but also can than LCD tablet much thinner and lighter. Using the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) and the updated LED backlight illumination, the OLED display is also a logical way to achieve a much higher contrast than the LCD display.

OLED monitors require positive and negative bias power supply to achieve correct operation. Linear technology corporation provide a highly integrated solution for OLED bias application. Key features include output disconnect, soft start and integrated Schottky diode.

These solutions have the advantages of small circuit size and high efficiency, making them very suitable for the application of portable devices (e.g. cellular phones and media players) in the space of interest.

LED driven products to a large extent, the life span of the LED products, how to solve the contradiction between the two?

Tony:LED is a semiconductor device, LED in the current, can emit visible light. LED uses less energy than incandescent lamps, generally less than 25%. And depending on the different methods of calculation, LED lamp at least 10 thousand hours of life, and some even claimed up to 50 thousand hours. In contrast, incandescent lamp life is between 1200 hours to 1500 hours. This clearly shows that LED lamp life may be 10 to 15 times longer than incandescent lamps.

However, if the driver is not properly, LED life and light output may be adversely affected. Basically, LED is a semiconductor device that uses its own power rather than radiation. As a result, heat and current over drive for these devices are two main factors leading to LED shortening working life. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully and properly reduce the temperature of the auxiliary device to no more than the specified operating temperature range of LED. Similarly, the LED drive circuit must be treated with caution to prevent excessive current from being driven into the LED itself.

According to reports, some manufacturers have begun trial production free drive LED, which is dedicated to a lot of LED driver chip manufacturers is undoubtedly fatal. Do you feel free to drive LED can replace driver LED? How to look at the relationship between the two?

Tony: it's too early to say that the LED is not commercially viable and economically viable. However, we believe that both today and in the foreseeable future, there are a lot of opportunities LED drive IC.

According to analysts, the next 3~5 years, the existing LED1 billion market will expand more than 10 times, do you think LED