Capacitance reduction in off-line led drivers by using active ripple compensation techniques

Abstract

This document presents a novel approach for low-frequency output current ripple minimization in off-line light-emitting diode (LED) drivers. This strategy is based on the large-signal modulation of the duty-cycle so that the output ripple can be reduced and, consequently, the required filtering capacitances of the converter can be somehow decreased. This technique is devised to be used on converters in which a single control loop is employed, such as off-line single-stage or integrated converters. The duty-cycle modulation is used to change the shape of the main waveforms of the converter, especially the input and output currents. This allows for a reduction of the output current peak-to-peak ripple while the harmonic content of the input current is increased but kept within the limits imposed by the IEC standard. Two methodologies for implementing the proposed technique are discussed along the text. The first one is related to the injection of harmonic components to the duty cycle signal by means of additional branches inserted in the conventional control structure. This approach was applied to design an off-line flyback-based LED driver and also a circuit based on the Integrated Double Buck-boost converter. This first study was expanded to other topologies and a generalized analysis regarding the impact of the duty cycle modulation on off-line converters is then presented. The second methodology for implementing the ripple compensation is based on the optimization of a proportional-integral controller so that this element is designed to influence not only in the dynamic behavior of the circuit, but also in its low-frequency characteristic. Finally, the main contributions of this work are discussed and the proposals for future works are presented.