IST Obtains Further UK LED & OLED Driver Patent to Improve Efficiency and Reduce Ripple Current Through SSL Loads
Integrated System Technologies (IST) Ltd announced today the issuing by the UK Patent Office of its patent that covers power supply technologies for the rapidly expanding LED and OLED lighting sector.
The patent makes claims in connection with IST’s technology, which already features within the iDrive® LED driver range, to enable comprehensive current or power control used within solid state lighting fixtures for all types of lighting applications. The patented technology improves the energy efficiency of power supplies by varying the output voltage of the PSU, which is commonly referred to as dynamic headroom control, according to the load attached.
The patent covers a system for controlling solid state lighting that can be connected to an AC or DC power source and incorporates a means for power factor control with one or more transformers and a method for controlling the current passing through the LED or OLED light emitters. The system provides voltage/dynamic headroom control that enables a variable voltage to be applied to the light emitters through a voltage sensor, which reduces wasted energy across electronic components in the power supply. The patented technology is applicable to all methods of LED current control including DC, PWM, PAM and PFM, amongst others.
‘The marketplace is growing increasingly competitive with the introduction of new LED emitter technologies almost daily, and the most successful businesses will be those who leverage their intellectual property to give customers the assurances they are looking for when buying technology-based products and services,’ commented Dr Archenhold, Electronic Development Manager, IST. ‘IST has various patents covering our technology, and we are anticipating increasing revenues as the lighting and signage industries convert to (O)LED based systems,’ he added.
IST’s technology will allow lighting and power electronic companies to create highly efficient (O)LED drivers and PSUs that can remain efficient, regardless of the LED or OLED load placed on their outputs. The dynamic headroom control enables (O)LED driver manufacturers to create energy efficient and highly configurable linear output driver stages which offer the benefits of accurate current control, wide dimming ratios, soft start for LED protection and eradicates output ripple current the cause for health concerns in artificial lighting. ‘The new patent increases the number of our lighting- related patents to 21, which affirms IST’s leadership in developing advanced control systems for (O)LED lighting fixtures’, commented Dr Geoff Archenhold.
The patent covers the technology in IST’s iDrive® advanced (O)LED driver ballasts used to create advanced dynamic lighting systems that can accurately control the correlated colour temperature, colour rendering index and dimming properties of (O)LED lighting fixtures. In addition, the patent covers the ability to connect or detach LED or OLED lighting fixtures to the power supply modules, with one or more emitted wavelengths.
The patent further covers the use of a switching means for each light emitting string and for limiting the currents that can pass through the (O)LED string. The switching can be controlled by PWM, PAM, PFM or any other pulse modulation technique as well as DC or continuous AC methods.
IST supplies through its iDrive® brand a range of (O)LED drivers and control systems covering powers from 6W to 2kW with a wide choice of control protocols including 1-10V, mains dimmable, DMX, RDM, TCP/IP and DALI+, to more than 300 lighting companies globally.
IST’s patent portfolio also includes a variety of patents that apply to non-imaging based lighting systems that offer unprecedented lighting performance. The technology allows fixture manufacturers to create lighting systems that have homogeneous light beam profiles, which do not suffer from the glare inherent in most direct imaging LED fixtures.
