PowerSource
Technical Editor Margery Conner's PowerSource streams the latest developments in electronic power design and related technologies. Follow Margery on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/margeryc.
Constant-current wall warts streamline LED driver design for lamps, cabinet lights
Consider the lowly wall wart power adapter. It finds use in millions of electronics devices as a cost- and power-efficient ac-dc voltage-regulated power supply. In effect, designers of electronics have outsourced their product’s ac-dc conversion, voltage regulation, and regulatory compliance to the wall wart. It’s a cost-effective solution for most low-wattage power supply challenges ...... Read More
Comments (0)100W-equivalent LED bulbs make their appearance
Philips was showing off a 100W LED replacement bulb at LightFair last week, which joins the ranks of candidates from GE and Osram Sylvania. Although Philips wasn’t talking about production versions of the bulb, based on their past LED bulb announcements it’s likely it will make its appearance in the fall at retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s with a price range of $50-70. A t ...... Read More
Comments (11)Cree luminaires interface directly with EcoSystem lighting controller
While LED lighting is justifiably touted as being power miserly, it’s really how well they integrate into an intelligent lighting system that allows them a fast ROI/payback time, especially in commercial lighting installations. Cree, although perhaps best known as a LED component manufacturer, also is in the lighting fixture business, and now offers a version of its CR series luminaires and ...... Read More
Comments (1)VCs place their bets on advanced materials in power electronics
EDN doesn’t usually pay that much attention to what the financial backing is behind new companies – we generally leave that to our sister publication EETimes. However, Lux Research recently pointed out there’s a lot of the venture capital going into non-silicon power component start-ups – to the tune of over $200M. According to the report from Lux, “Beyond Silico ...... Read More
Comments (0)Next week’s LightFair (aka LEDFair) promises newest in solid-state lighting
Next week is the lighting industry’s pre-eminent trade show, LightFair, which to be as accurate as possible should change its name to LEDFair. The show fills up the massive Las Vegas Convention Center, and virtually every booth there is showing off LED-based lights. Which is a little strange because as it stands today, LEDs have very little penetration into the general lighting market. Ligh ...... Read More
Comments (2)Power modules vs. discretes: White paper quantifies design cycle times
In recent history the march of power design technology has been towards the use of web-based simulation to ease the design chores of putting together power conversion circuits with discrete components (discrete in the sense that power converter ICs are surrounded with passive components and then placed on a pc board.) There is another trend in power circuits, however, and that is towards modulariz ...... Read More
Comments (5)Intersil’s LCoS pico projector system shrinks size while cutting costs
Microdisplays, including pico projectors, could be the New Big Thing in consumer electronics. A couple of examples of possible incarnations for tiny LED-based handheld projectors include: Micron’s $99 Pop Video for the iPhone/Pod/Touch is basically the same size as the iPhone. Proponents say that sharing pictures and videos will take on a social dimension: Or, if you’re aller ...... Read More
Comments (15)Ambient light sensor mimics human eye in both spectral response, sensitivity
Intelligent lighting systems rely on sensors to adjust a room’s light based on factors such as room occupancy and available natural light. The advantages of intelligent lighting can go well beyond energy savings by enabling a lighting system to deliver not just the needed amount of light, but also the ability to tune the type of light to suit the activity. Occupancy detectors are usually so ...... Read More
Comments (4)LED array holders bring solderless assembly to solid-state lights
LED arrays are gaining traction in the lighting world, where their ability to cram many LED emitters into a single small package makes them attractive for high-intensity lighting. Also referred to as chip-on-board (COB) LEDs, the arrays pack in multiple LED components more closely than can be achieved with individual LED packages, making for a brighter light source as well as a larger emitting sou ...... Read More
Comments (4)Why MR-16 lights are an attractive LED lighting product
Lighting Science Group (LSG), the largest producer of LED bulbs in North America, has broadened its product line to include the MR-16 light. (It measures about 2-in long in real life.) LSG’s MR16 Definity HO (high output) LED lamp consumes just 8W and produces up to 550lm: At 3000K if produces 66lm/W. The lamp has a 25,000-hour rated design life. There are three good reasons why LSG is div ...... Read More
Comments (13)Udacity biz model: School is accountable for students’ value to employers
The online course on Robocars presented by robocar savant Sebastian Thrun and free to all just wrapped up, and the grading robots are busy tallying up the final grades. Many students were so impressed by the quality of Udacity’s instruction that they wanted to make a donation to Udacity, the school that Thrun started to apply his new online teaching concept. Not possible, Udacity said ...... Read More
Comments (2)Cree claims R&D record for white LED: 254 lm/Watt
Cree says that the R&D version of the white LED’s efficacy was measured at 254 lumens per watt, at a correlated color temperature of 4408 K at standard room temperature, 350 mA. In the past Cree has said it takes about a year for the R&D version of a device to go into generally available production quantities, so we can look for a commercial version in Q2 2012 2013. Cree’s pr ...... Read More
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