An Optocouplerless Two-stage High Power Factor

LED Driver

Xiaogao Xie
College of Automation
Hangzhou Dianzi University,
Hangzhou, China, 310018
XieXG@hdu.edu.cn
Meipan Ye
College of Information Engineering
Hangzhou Dianzi University,
Hangzhou, China, 310018
MPYe@hdu.edu.cn
Yongjun Cai
Hangzhou Silan
Microelectronics. Lt.d
Hangzhou, China, 310012
Caiyongjun@silan.com
Jianxing Wu
Hangzhou Silan
Microelectronics. Lt.d
Hangzhou, China, 310012
wjx@silan.com

AbstractAn optocouplerless two-stage high power factor
LED driver is proposed in this paper. The first stage is an
optocouplerless isolated PFC converter and the second stage is
a constant-current controlled non-isolated DC/DC LED driver.
Optocoupler and secondary amplifier circuit of the first PFC
stage can be removed. Besides, the output capacitor s of the
PFC stage can be reduced due to low output ripple voltage
requirement and acceptable wide input voltage range of the
secondary stage in the two-stage LED driver. Hence the circuit
structure of the proposed optocouplerless two-stage high
power factor LED Driver is much simplified. A prototype LED
driver for 12W LED fluorescent tube is built up to verify
theoretical analysis and experiment results are presented.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, the application of LED lighting becomes
more popular. Because LEDs have some advantages like
high efficiency and longevity
[1]
, it brings a perspective
which is the most traditional illuminating equipments are
replaced by LEDs technique in the future. Therefore, there
are many different kinds of LED drivers are commercialized
by industries on the market.

Fig.1 A driver for 12W LED fluorescent tube with
single-stage PFC topology

The LED drivers can be summarized as two types:
isolated LED drivers and non-isolated LED drivers. Non-
isolated LED drivers are relatively simple and very high
efficiency can be achieved
[2]-[3]
, however, they are suffered
from safety problem. Isolation between LEDs and grid are
necessary for safety requirement. Besides, LEDs also should
meet the strict standard of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
such as IEC 61000-3-2. Many single-stage PFC topologies
based on flyback converter for LED drivers have been
developed in recent years
[4]-[7]
. However, the large voltage
ripple of single-stage PFC topologies output causes large
LEDs current ripple, which is usually several times of the
voltage ripple. To limit LEDs current ripple of single-stage
PFC topologies to acceptable level, a lot of bulky capacitors
are needed. Fig.1 shows a driver for 12W LED fluorescent
tube with single-stage PFC topology and three 330uF/50V
bulky capacitors are used.
In this paper, a concept of optocouplerless two-stage
high power factor LED driver is proposed, as shown in
Fig.2. The first stage is an optocouplerless isolated PFC
converter. Flyback topology is a good choice for the first
PFC stage for its simple structure and low cost and ther
isolated PFC topologies can also be applied. The second
stage is a constant-current controlled non-isolated DC/DC
LED driver and buck converter is preferred for the second
stage for its higher efficiency than boost converter. Because
the second stage DC/DC LED driver allows a wide input
voltage range, the DC bus voltage range and voltage ripple
between the first stage and the second stage is not so strict
as that in single stage topology. Two benefits are brought
First, the optocoupler in first stage usually used for accurate
voltage feedback can be removed and the output voltage
feedback is indirectly achieved from an auxiliary winding,
which is used to supply power for control IC and zero-
current detection in CRM circuit in conventional isolated
converter. Second, output capacitance of the PFC stage can
be great reduced.
Because there is no optocoupler and secondary side
amplifier circuit including TL431etc, the proposed two-
stage high power factor optocouplerless LED driver is
simplified. Even compare to the single-stage isolated PFC
LED driver, the proposed two-stage high power factor
optocouplerless LED driver can achieve higher power
density due to the reduce of capacitors. For some
applications such as LED fluorescent tube, PCB board
should be very slim due to the slim tube stricter. PCB layout
of the conventional isolated PFC with optocoupler for a
LED fluorescent tube is complex as shown in Fig.3(a),
which may cause it hard to pass the safety standards.
However, in the proposed two-stage high power factor
This paper is supported by NSFC (No. 51007015) & Zhejiang
Provincial Giant Science and Technology Special Fundation and key
Industrial Project (No. 2009C11020)
978-1-4244-8085-2/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE 2078
optocouplerless LED driver, PCB layout seems to be much
simple, as shown in Fig3.(b).

Fig.2 Block diagram of proposed two-stage high power factor
optocouplerless LED Driver


(a) Isolated PFC with optocoupler

(b) Two-stage without optocoupler
Fig.3 PCB layout comparison of Isolated PFCs for LED fluorescent tube

II. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
An example circuit to illustrate the Block diagram of
the proposed two-stage high power factor optocouplerless
LED Driver is shown in Fig.4. The first stage is a flyback
isolated PFC operating in critical conduction mode (CRM)
with the control IC SA7527 from Silan.Ltd. The second
stage is a low voltage LED driver and a 60V monolithic
control IC SD42528 with integrated MOSFET also from
Silan.Ltd. is used.
A LED module with eight 500mA LEDs in series are
applied as load. Tested current verse voltage curve of the
LED module is shown in Fig.5 and the voltage of LED
module is 32.5V when LED current is 500mA, hence the
output power of the LED driver is about 16W. Also a
simplified mathematical model of this LED module can be
achieved according to the curve:
0 0.22
1 1
0.22 0.51
1 1
V R I I A
i s LED LED
V
F
V R I A I A
i s LED LED
+ < <

=

+

(1)
where, Vi1=27.4V, Rs1=17, Vi2=29.7V, Rs=5.88.
According to Equation(1) we can know if the LED
current ripple is expected to be 30% of rated current, i.e.,
150mA, the voltage ripple should be 0.9V, which is
useful of us to calculate the output capacitance in single-
stage LED driver.
The peak current of primary switch can be calculated
according to Equation(2).
/ 4
0
/
sin( )
2
o
pk
T
ac o
ac
P T
i
V nV t
dt
V nV

=

+

(2)
Where Vac is peak voltage of AC source, n is the turns
ratio transformer, is the efficiency of LED driver, T is the
line frequency of input AC souce.
Current waveforms of secondary diode are shown in
Fig.6 and calculated average current of secondary diode in
each switching period is shown in Fig.7.
The peak current of secondary diode is:
_
( ) sin( )
D pk pk
i t n i t = (3)
_
sin( )
sin( )
( )
2
pk
ac
D avg
o
n i t
V t
i t
nV

= (4)
Output capacitance can be caluculated:
2
_
1
( ) ]
t
D avg LED
t
o
o
i t I dt
C
V

(5)
where i
D
avg
(t1)
= i
D
avg
(t2)
= I
LED
.
For single-stage PFC LED driver, the calculated
capacitance is 790uF to achieve 300mA current ripple.
When ESR of capacitors is considered, the actual
capacitance should be a little larger than the calculated value.
Measured waveforms of current and ripple of 32V/500mA
single-stage LED driver with three 330uF capacitors are
shown in Fig.8, which meet well with the calculation results.
For two-stage LED driver, because the second stage is
a DC/DC converter and no line-frequency ripple in the
output, hence a very small capacitor such as 4.7uF can meet
ripple requirement. Selection of intermediate capacitors
between first stage and second stage is then only need to
consider the maximum ripple current that capacitors can
carry and the effect of the ripple voltage on the maximum
DC bus voltage. In this example, minimum voltage of DC
bus voltage should be larger than LED voltage, i.e., 32.5V,
while the maximum input voltage of SD42528 is 60VDC,
which means DC bus voltage should not be larger than 60V,
which usually occurs during start-up.
Auxiliary winding of the PFC transformer should realize
three functions: power supply for control IC, zero-current
detection and output voltage feedback. If the power supply
for control IC is directly served as feedback voltage,
feedback resistors R5 and R6 will share part of the start-up
2079

Fig.4 An example circuit of the proposed optocouplerless two-stage high power factor LED Driver


Low current
High current

Fig.5 Measured Current-voltage curve of LED module

Fig.6 Current waveforms of secondary diode during a half line frequency
in CRM flyback PFC LED driver
0 2 10
3
4 10
3
6 10
3
8 10
3
0.01
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
IDavg t ( )
ILED
t

Fig.7 calculated average current of secondary diode of CRM flyback PFC
LED driver in each switching period in

Fig.8 Measured LED current and voltage waveforms @ 32V&500mA

2 1
2A
F1
3 1
2 4
L1 C1
R1
D4
T1
INV
1
EA_OUT
2
MULT
3
CS
4
Vcc
8
OUT
7
GND
6
Idet
5
SA7527
U1
R2
Q1
R4
R7
R7
C4
D3
C5
5
TH1
X2
D1
C8
VGND
AC
2
AC
1
V+
3
V-
4
B1
VCC
DCbus
R17
85V-265VAC
85V-265VAC
X1
Rac
C11 C10
C3
Vin+
Vin+
R18
Z2
C12
SW
1
G
N
D
2
S
e
n
s
e
3
V
i
n
4
VDD
7
Comp
5
U2
R21
L3
C13
C14 D6
LED
R6
R5
Second stage
First stage
SD42522
D5 C2
2080
current flowing into control IC, which causes control IC
hard to start up. Hence another diode D5 and C3 are used
to build the feedback voltage and feedback resistors R5
and R6 are blocked by D4 and D5. Due to the leakage
inductor of PFC transformer, the voltage built by auxiliary
winding can not exactly reflect the output voltage (DC bus
voltage). However, intermediate bus voltage can be well
regulated and change little under heavy load but will vary
with input voltage under no-load condition due to the
energy unbalance. Good transformer and circuit parameters
design can help achieve narrow intermediate bus voltage
range to acceptable value.


III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A prototype LED driver based on the proposed
optocouplerless two-stage high power factor topology for a
32V/500mA LED fluorescent tube was built up, as shown in
Fig.9. CRM PFC controller SA7527 and 60V LED DC/DC
driver SD42528 from Silan.Ltd are applied as controller.
Core EE2010 is used for transformer. A single-stage LED
driver based on SA7527 with optocoupler was also built up
for comparison. From Fig.9 we can see, the size of the
optocouplerless two-stage LED driver is reduced due to the
reduced bulky capacitors..

Fig.9 Prototype LED driver based on the proposed optocouplerless two-
stage high power factor topologyfor a 12W LED fluorescent tube
Voltage and current in AC line under two different
input voltages are shown in Fig.10 and Fig.11. V
GS
and V
DS

of PFC primary switch under two different input voltages
are shown in Fig.12 and Fig.13. V
DS
of PFC primary switch
under two different inputs and no load condition are shown
in Fig.14 and Fig.15 respectively.
A 330uF/50V capacitor is used as the intermediate
capacitor .The voltage ripple of intermediate bus under full
load is about 3.5V, as shown in Fig.16. A 4.7uF capacitor is
used as the output capacitor of second stage. Current ripple
and voltage ripple of LED are shown in Fig.17, which are
much small.
The PFC circuit enters hip-cup mode when there is no
load, which help to reduce the null-load loss. The null-load
losses varied with input voltage are shown in Fig.18.
Static intermediate bus voltage varied with input
voltage is shown in Fig.19. And dynamic intermediate bus
voltage waveforms under different load condition are shown
in Fig.20 and Fig.21 respectively. We can see, the maximum

Fig.10 Voltage and current of AC line@90Vac input & full load


Fig.11 Voltage and current of AC line@230Vac input & full load

Fig. 12 VGS and VDS of PFC primary switch @ 90Vac input& full load

Fig.13 VGS and VDS of PFC primary switch @ 230Vac input& full load

2081
Fig.14 VDS of PFC primary switch @ 90Vac input&
Fig.15 VDS of PFC primary switch @ 230Vac input
V
bus
=3.5V
Fig.16 Intermediate bus voltage
I
LED
V
LED
Fig.17 LED voltage and current

& null-load

t& null-load


Fig.18 No load loss varied
Fig.19 Static intermediate bus voltage
Fig.20 Intermediate voltage under start-u
Fig.21 Intermediate voltage under start-
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
90 110 130 150 170
N
o

l
o
a
d

l
o
s
s

(
W
)
Vin_ac
32
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
9
0
1
1
0
1
3
0
1
5
0
1
7
0
V
b
u
s

(
V
)
Vin_a

with input voltage

varied with input voltage

up @ full load & 265VAC

-up @ no load & 265VAC
190 210 230 250
c(V)
1
9
0
2
1
0
2
3
0
2
5
0
ac(V)
2082
intermediate bus occurs at start-up process under full load
and the highest input voltage, which is about 50V and still
acceptable.
The efficiency comparison between the proposed
optocouplerless two-stage LED driver and single-stage LED
driver are shown in Fig.22. There are about 1~2 percent
differences between this two prototype, which is caused by
the second stage DC/DC LED driver in two-stage LED
driver. However, the total efficiency is still larger than 85%.

Fig.22 Efficiency comparison between the proposed optocouplerless two-
stage LED driver and single-stage LED

IV. CONCLUSION
An optocouplerless two-stage high power factor LED
driver is proposed in this paper. The two-stage converter is
much simplified due to the removal of optocoupler and
secondary amplifier circuit in the first PFC stage. Besides,
the output bulky capacitors of the PFC stage are also
reduced. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show
that this proposed optocouplerless two-stage high power
factor LED driver is very useful for industrial applications.


REFERENCES
[1] Ven der Broeck, Heinz; Sauerlander, Georg; Wendt, Matthias;Power
Driver Topologies and Control Schemes for LEDs, IEEE APEC, pp.1319-
1325, 2007
[2] H. Broeck, G. Sauerlander, M. Wendt, Power driver topologies and
control schemes for LEDs, in Proc. IEEE Applied Power Electronics
Conf., 2007, pp. 1319 1325.
[3] Jianwen Shao; Improving current regulation for offline LED driver
in Proc. IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conf. 2009, pp:601 - 604
[4] Jianwen Shao; Single Stage Offline LED Driver in Proc. IEEE
Applied Power Electronics Conf. 2009, pp: 582 - 586
[5] Tzuen-Lih Chern; Li-Hsiang Liu; Ping-Lung Pan; Yi-Jie Lee; Single-
Stage Flyback Converter for Constant Current Output LED Driver with
Power Factor Correction, in Proc. IEEE of ICIEA2009, pp: 2891 - 2896
[6] Jae-Eul Yeon; Dong-Soo Kim; Kyu-min Cho; Hee-Jun Kim; A single
stage flyback power supply unit for LED lighting applications , in Proc.
IEEE of ELECO2009, pp: I-288 - I-292
[7] Xiaohui Qu; Wong, S.C.; Tse, C.K.; Xinbo Ruan, Isolated PFC Pre-
Regulator for LED Lamps, . in Proc. IEEE of IECON 2008, Nov. 2008 pp
1980 1987


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f
f
i
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