Design and Experimental Verification of 400-WClass LED Driver with Cooperative Control Method for Two-Parallel Connected DC/DC Converters

Abstract

This paper deals with a design and experimental verification of 400-W class light-emitting diode (LED) driver with cooperative control method for two-parallel connected DC/DC converters. In the cooperative control method, one DC/DC converter is selected to supply the output current for the LED, based on the reference value of the LED current. Thus, the proposed cooperative-control strategy achieves wide dimming range operation. The discontinuous current conduction mode (DCM) operation improves the total harmonic distortion (THD) value on the AC side of the LED driver. The standard of Electrical Applications and Materials Safety Act in Japan has defined the flicker frequency and minimum optical output. The smoothing capacitors are designed by considering the power flow and LED current ripple for satisfying the standard. A prototype LED driver is constructed and tested. Experimental results demonstrate that a wide dimming operation range from 1 to 100% is achieved with a THD value less than 10% on the AC side, by the proposed control strategy. The authors compare the power conversion efficiency between Si- and SiC-metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) based LED driver. The maximum power conversion efficiency by using SiC-MOSFETs based LED driver is 91.4%. Finally, the variable switching frequency method is proposed for improving the power conversion efficiency for a low LED current region.