EP2081414A1 - Sigma delta LED driver - Google Patents
Sigma delta LED driver Download PDFInfo
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- EP2081414A1 EP2081414A1 EP08000321A EP08000321A EP2081414A1 EP 2081414 A1 EP2081414 A1 EP 2081414A1 EP 08000321 A EP08000321 A EP 08000321A EP 08000321 A EP08000321 A EP 08000321A EP 2081414 A1 EP2081414 A1 EP 2081414A1
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- Prior art keywords
- pulse
- modulator
- bit
- signal
- density modulated
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
- H05B45/00—Circuit arrangements for operating light-emitting diodes [LED]
- H05B45/40—Details of LED load circuits
- H05B45/44—Details of LED load circuits with an active control inside an LED matrix
- H05B45/48—Details of LED load circuits with an active control inside an LED matrix having LEDs organised in strings and incorporating parallel shunting devices
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
- H05B45/00—Circuit arrangements for operating light-emitting diodes [LED]
- H05B45/20—Controlling the colour of the light
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
- H05B45/00—Circuit arrangements for operating light-emitting diodes [LED]
- H05B45/40—Details of LED load circuits
- H05B45/44—Details of LED load circuits with an active control inside an LED matrix
- H05B45/46—Details of LED load circuits with an active control inside an LED matrix having LEDs disposed in parallel lines
Definitions
- the invention relates to the field of driver circuits for light emitting diodes (LEDs) , especially multi-colour light emitting diodes.
- LEDs light emitting diodes
- the brightness of light emitting diodes is directly dependent on the load current flowing through the diode.
- a controllable current source that is set to a current representing a desired brightness.
- DAC digital-to-analog converter
- the human eye cannot resolve high frequency brightness fluctuations of approximately 100 hertz or higher, it is known to supply the LED with a pulse width modulated current.
- the human eye low-pass filters the resulting pulse width modulated brightness of the LED, i.e. the eye can only sense a mean brightness that depends on the mean LED current which is proportional to the duty cycle of the pulse width modulation.
- each LED-triple may be arranged in a matrix like structure thus forming a display where each "pixel" of the display is represented by a LED-triple typically comprising a red, a green, and a blue LED.
- each of the three LEDs may therefore be driven by a pulse-width modulated current signal of a sufficiently high frequency, for example 400 hertz.
- the resolution requirements are quite high for modern illumination systems or displays. That is, the brightness of a single LED should be adjustable to at least 4096 different brightness values which corresponds to a brightness resolution of 12 Bit.
- a time resolution of approximately 600 nanoseconds has to be provided in order to be able to resolve a PWM period of, for example, 2.5 milliseconds (corresponds to 400 hertz) with 12 bits.
- EMC electromagnetic compatibility
- One example of the invention relates to a driver circuit for driving a light emitting diode.
- the circuit comprises: a controllable current source connected in series to the light emitting diode, the current source being configured to provide a load current to the light emitting diode dependent on a control signal; and a modulator unit configured for generating the control signal, where the control signal is dependent on a pulse-density modulated signal.
- a further example of the invention relates to a method for driving a light emitting diode.
- the method comprises: providing a signal representing a desired brightness or colour; modulating the desired signal thus generating a pulse-density modulated signal; providing a current to the light emitting diode dependent on the pulse-density modulated signal.
- FIG. 1 illustrates a known LED driver circuit for driving a LED triple, where each LED has a different colour.
- Such LED triples can be - if adequately controlled - used for generating any colour of the visible spectrum by means of additive mixture of colours.
- a red LED LD R a green LED LD G , and a blue LED LD B are used.
- each LED is connected in series to a respective controllable (in the present example switchable) current source Q R , Q G , and Q B .
- the load current through the red LED LD R has to be zero and the load currents through the green LED LD G and the red LED LD R have to be approximately the same, where the absolute current value depends on the desired brightness of the yellow light.
- the wavelength of the light emitted by the LEDs will vary dependent on the load current passing through the LEDs. This dependency entails a change in hue when changing the load current for adjusting the brightness value.
- switchable current sources Q R , Q G , Q B each controlled by a pulse width modulated (PWM) control signal.
- PWM pulse width modulated
- the hue of the LEDs is does not change since the brightness value is not adjusted by continuously adjusting the load currents but by adjusting the duty cycle of the PWM control signal.
- the "averaging" of the PWM signal is performed by the human eye.
- the hue is selected by a pointer CS that identifies an entry of a calibration table 10 where the corresponding load current values S R , S G , S B for the three LEDs are stored.
- the stored values S R , S G , S B are calibrated for maximum brightness and are multiplied (multiplier 11) with a brightness value S B for a reduced brightness.
- the desired average current values I R , I G , I B are typically provided as 12 bit words.
- the repetition frequency of the PWM pulses is typically 400Hz which is high enough that the human eye does not sense any flickering.
- PWM frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 600 Hz are commonly used for this purpose.
- a very fast switching of the load currents is necessary for providing the desired 12 bit resolution which entails, for example, EMC problems.
- FIG. 2 illustrates a sigma-delta modulator 1 ( ⁇ - ⁇ modulator, often also denoted as delta-sigma modulator) for providing a pulse density modulated signal PDM for driving a LED LD, respectively the corresponding current source Q.
- a pulse density modulated signal is a generally non periodic bit-stream with an average value corresponding to the input signal, i.e. the desired average load current I in the present example.
- the input signal I is a sequence of 12 bit words.
- the bit-stream is a sequence of equally spaced bits, i.e. a high level represents a binary "1" and a low level a binary "0".
- the density of "1" in the pulse density modulated signal is high if the level of the input signal of the sigma-delta modulator is high.
- the length of one bit symbol (“1" or "0") is always the same and is equal to the period of the bit-rate frequency. For example at a bit-rate of 40 kHz, the length of a bit symbol is 25 ⁇ s.
- the sigma-delta modulator 1 comprises a forward path comprising an integrator 30 and a quantiser 20. It further comprises a feedback path comprising a delay element 21.
- the delay element receives the 1-bit output signal PDM [k] of the quantiser 20 and provides the signal at its output delayed by a sample and as a 12 bit word, i.e. the bit value of the 1-bit input signal of the delay element 21 is copied to the most significant bit of the respective output signal. "k” thereby is a time index.
- the delayed output signal PDM[k-1] is subtracted (subtractor 22) from the input signal I[k] and the resulting difference I[k]-PDM[k-1] is supplied to the integrator 30 that has its output connected to the quantiser 20.
- the integrator 30 is a standard first-order digital integrator with a delay element 32 in a feedback path and an adder 31.
- the transfer function of the integrator in the z-domain is 1/(1-z -1 ).
- higher order integrators may also be applied.
- the quantiser 20 may be a simple comparator element. In the present example the quantiser provides the most significant bit of its 12-bit input signal value at its output. However, also multi-bit quantiser 20 are applicable for providing an N-bit output PDM signal which is a stream of N-bit words or a set of N "parallel" bit-streams.
- the input signal has to be strongly over-sampled. Then the quantisation noise is "shifted" towards higher frequencies an can therefore be removed by a simple low-pass filtering which is - in the present case - advantageously performed by the human eye.
- the noise shaping properties of sigma delta modulators a well known and not further discussed here. For a bandwidth of the input signal I R of 400 Hz an over-sampling frequency of 40 kHz is sufficient to provide an signal-to-noise ratio (SNR dB ) of at least 74dB which corresponds to an effective resolution of 12 bits.
- ENOB SNR dB - 1.76 / 6.02
- SNR dB 6.02 ⁇ N - 1.76 - 12.9 + 50 ⁇ log 10 OSR .
- a sigma-delta modulator provides a pulse-density modulated output signal which may be used for controlling the current sources Q R , Q G , Q B connected to the LEDs LD R , LD G , LD B in a LED driver circuit such as the circuit of FIG. 1 .
- the sigma-delta modulator may comprise an anti-aliasing filter for limiting the bandwidth of its input signal to a predefined bandwidth of, for example, 400 Hz.
- the rise and fall times of the switching can be much longer when using a sigma-delta modulator instead, since the bit-stream comes at relatively low frequencies of about 40 kHz. Longer rise and fall times entail less electromagnetic interferences (EMI) and a better electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
- EMI electromagnetic interferences
- EMC electromagnetic compatibility
- FIG. 3 shows the application of the sigma-delta modulator 1 of FIG. 2 in a LED driver circuit. Only one LED LD connected in series to one current source Q is depicted in FIG. 3 . However, the circuit of FIG. 3 may be tripled to form a driver circuit for three LEDs LD R , LD G , LD B of different colours analogous to the circuit of FIG. 1 .
- the sigma-delta modulator 1 receives a desired average current value I and provides a corresponding pulse bit-stream which is a pulse-density modulated control signal supplied to the switchable current source Q.
- the input I of the sigma-delta modulator 1 may be derived from a calibration table analogous to the circuit of FIG. 1 .
- FIG. 4 illustrates another example of how to apply a sigma delta modulator in a LED driver circuit.
- This example is especially useful when using a sigma-delta modulator 1 with a multi-bit quantiser 20, e.g. a 3-bit quantiser.
- the sigma-delta modulator 1 does not provide a single bit output signal PDM but a stream of 3-bit words, i.e. three parallel bit-streams.
- a second modulator 2 may be employed, for example, a pulse-width modulator (PWM) or a pulse frequency modulator (PFM).
- PWM pulse-width modulator
- PFM pulse frequency modulator
- the PWM needs only to resolve 8 different positions (3 Bits) in time during the PWM period of, for example, 25 ⁇ s.
- the steepness of the switching edges may be lower by a factor of five due to the sigma-delta modulator 1 arranged upstream to the sigma delta modulator while maintaining or even increasing the resolution.
- a 3-bit digital-to-analog converter may be used as second modulator 2.
- the sigma-delta modulator 1 arranged upstream to the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) has the advantage that a low resolution DAC is sufficient.
- the present example allows for even slower switching frequencies which may be advantageous in case the connection between the LED and the driver circuit comprises long cables. Furthermore switching losses are lower.
- the pulse density modulated output signal of the sigma-delta modulator 1 may exhibit some periodicity. This undesired effect is due to limit cycles and the spectrum of the bit-stream has so-called idle-tones, i.e. peaks at certain discrete frequencies.
- a low power noise signal n[k] having zero mean and, for example, a triangular or a rectangular probability density function may be added to the input signal I as depicted in FIG. 5 by means of an adder 12. This technique is also referred to as "dithering".
- sigma-delta modulators 1 Due to the noise-shaping properties of sigma-delta modulators 1 the power is of the dither noise n[k] is "shifted" towards higher frequencies that cannot be resolved by the human eye. That is, the human eye performs a low-pass filtering of the bit-stream.
- the dithering technique results in a lower signal-to-noise ratio but, however, the desired resolution of the sigma-delta modulator can be achieved regardless of the lower signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, the idle tones are suppressed and the undesired periodicity of the bit-stream is destroyed.
- FIG. 6 illustrates, by means of a block diagram, a LED driver circuit for driving multi-colour LEDs with a sigma-delta modulator 1, the LED driver circuit comprising three times the driver circuit of FIG. 3 .
- driver circuits with a sigma-delta modulator 1 having a second modulator connected downstream thereof as depicted in FIG. 4 are also applicable for building up a multi-colour LED driver.
- one driver circuit according to FIG. 3 is employed for each colour channel (red, green, and blue).
- a dither noise may be added to the input signals I R , I G , I B of each colour channel as discussed with reference to FIG. 5 .
- the further components of the multi-colour LED driver circuit correspond to the components of the circuit discussed with reference to FIG 1 .
- FIG. 7 illustrates another driver circuit for driving a plurality of light emitting diodes LD 1 , LD 2 , ..., LD N .
- the driver circuit of FIG. 7 may be usefully employed for driving at least two light emitting diodes LD 1 , LD 2 .
- the driver circuit comprises a main current source Q M providing a main current I QM .
- a plurality of bypass current sources Q 1 , Q 2 ..., Q N are connected in series to the main current source Q M and have terminals for connecting one light emitting diode LD 1 , LD 2 , ... LD N in parallel to each bypass current source Q 1 , Q 2 ..., Q N .
- Each bypass current source Q 1 , Q 2 ..., Q N drives a bypass current I Q1 , I Q2 ..., I QN .
- Each bypass current source Q 1 , Q 2 ..., Q N and the respective light emitting diode LD 1 , LD 2 , ... LD N form a parallel circuit, wherein all these parallel circuits are connected in series.
- a sigma-delta modulator 1 is connected to each bypass current source Q 1 , Q 2 ..., Q N and configured to control the respective bypass current I Q1 , I Q2 ..., I QN passing through the respective bypass current source Q 1 , Q 2 .... Q N .
- each single LED LD i may be adjusted to a desired value by appropriately controlling the bypass currents I Qi and thus the load currents I LDi by means of the sigma-delta modulators 1.
- Each sigma delta-modulator 1 may comprise an digitally addressable bus interface, for example a serial bus interface for connecting a serial bus 30.
- the desired current or brightness value may be received from the bus 30 as a binary word.
- the brightness values may be taken from a calibration table as illustrated in the example of FIG. 1 .
- the sigma-delta modulators 1 of the present example may be followed by a second modulator 2, e.g. a pulse-width modulator, as discussed with reference to FIG. 4 .
- FIG. 8 illustrates an example similar to the example of FIG. 7 , where semiconductor switches, i.e. transistors, e.g. MOS-FETs, are employed as bypass current sources Q i . Except of the bypass current sources the example of FIG. 8 is identical to the example of FIG. 7 .
- semiconductor switches i.e. transistors, e.g. MOS-FETs
- the colour generated by mixing the light of the different LEDs may be adjusted by appropriately adjusting the brightness of each single LED LD 1 , LD 2 , LD 3 by means of the sigma-delta modulators 1. Additionally, the overall brightness may be adjusted by varying the main current I QM .
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Abstract
A driver circuit for driving a light emitting diode comprising a controllable current source for connecting to the light emitting diode, the current source being configured to regulate a load current passing through the light emitting diode dependent on a control signal, and a modulator unit configured for generating the control signal, where the control signal is dependent on a pulse-density modulated signal.
Description
- The invention relates to the field of driver circuits for light emitting diodes (LEDs) , especially multi-colour light emitting diodes.
- The brightness of light emitting diodes (LEDs) is directly dependent on the load current flowing through the diode. To vary the brightness of a LED it is known to use a controllable current source that is set to a current representing a desired brightness. In digitally controlled applications a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) may be used to set the current of the controllable current source.
- Since the human eye cannot resolve high frequency brightness fluctuations of approximately 100 hertz or higher, it is known to supply the LED with a pulse width modulated current. In this case the human eye low-pass filters the resulting pulse width modulated brightness of the LED, i.e. the eye can only sense a mean brightness that depends on the mean LED current which is proportional to the duty cycle of the pulse width modulation.
- It is known to combine light of different colours (e.g. red, green, and blue) and different brightness to generate nearly any colour sensation in the visible spectrum of light. In modern illumination systems or displays a combination of at least three LEDs of different colours are used to provide a multi-colour illumination. The LED-triples may be arranged in a matrix like structure thus forming a display where each "pixel" of the display is represented by a LED-triple typically comprising a red, a green, and a blue LED. To vary the colour of a pixel the brightness of the different LEDs has to be individually adjustable. Each of the three LEDs may therefore be driven by a pulse-width modulated current signal of a sufficiently high frequency, for example 400 hertz.
- However, the resolution requirements are quite high for modern illumination systems or displays. That is, the brightness of a single LED should be adjustable to at least 4096 different brightness values which corresponds to a brightness resolution of 12 Bit. When using pulse width modulation for controlling the brightness, a time resolution of approximately 600 nanoseconds has to be provided in order to be able to resolve a PWM period of, for example, 2.5 milliseconds (corresponds to 400 hertz) with 12 bits. This entails the need for very fast switching currents with all the known problems coming therewith. Particularly, the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is low when switching currents with rise and fall times in the sub-microsecond range.
- Driving the LEDs with a continuous current whose value is controlled by a DAC is also not satisfying since the wavelength of the colour of a single LED may vary over the LED current. This entails a very complex brightness control in multi-colour LED systems since the colour has to be corrected when changing the brightness of a three LED pixel.
- There is a need for an alternative concept for driving LED, particularly improving the electromagnetic compatibility compared to PWM driven LED systems.
- One example of the invention relates to a driver circuit for driving a light emitting diode. The circuit comprises: a controllable current source connected in series to the light emitting diode, the current source being configured to provide a load current to the light emitting diode dependent on a control signal; and a modulator unit configured for generating the control signal, where the control signal is dependent on a pulse-density modulated signal.
- A further example of the invention relates to a method for driving a light emitting diode. The method comprises: providing a signal representing a desired brightness or colour; modulating the desired signal thus generating a pulse-density modulated signal; providing a current to the light emitting diode dependent on the pulse-density modulated signal.
- The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, instead emphasis being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts. In the drawings:
- FIG. 1
- is a block diagram of a LED driver circuit for driving multi-colour LEDs;
- FIG. 2
- is a block diagram of a digital sigma-delta modulator providing a pulse-density modulated output signal;
- FIG. 3
- is a block diagram of a LED driver circuit comprising the sigma-delta modulator of
FIG. 2 ; - FIG. 4
- is a block diagram of a LED driver circuit comprising a sigma-delta modulator with a multi-bit output;
- FIG. 5
- is a block diagram of a LED driver circuit corresponding to
FIG. 3 but with a dither noise added to the input for preventing limit cycles; - FIG. 6
- is a block diagram of a LED driver circuit for driving multi-colour LEDs with a sigma-delta modulator comprising three times the driver circuit of
FIG. 3 ; - FIG. 7
- is a block diagram of a further LED driver circuit, where the load current passing through a LED is controlled by means of a bypass current source;
- FIG. 8
- is a block diagram of the LED driver of
FIG. 7 where MOS transistors operate as switchable bypass current sources. -
FIG. 1 illustrates a known LED driver circuit for driving a LED triple, where each LED has a different colour. Such LED triples can be - if adequately controlled - used for generating any colour of the visible spectrum by means of additive mixture of colours. For this purpose usually a red LED LDR, a green LED LDG, and a blue LED LDB are used. For controlling the brightness of each LED LDR, LDG, LDB each LED is connected in series to a respective controllable (in the present example switchable) current source QR, QG, and QB. If, for example, yellow light is to be generated, then the load current through the red LED LDR has to be zero and the load currents through the green LED LDG and the red LED LDR have to be approximately the same, where the absolute current value depends on the desired brightness of the yellow light. - However, the wavelength of the light emitted by the LEDs will vary dependent on the load current passing through the LEDs. This dependency entails a change in hue when changing the load current for adjusting the brightness value. To avoid this effect it is known to use switchable current sources QR, QG, QB each controlled by a pulse width modulated (PWM) control signal. The hue of the LEDs is does not change since the brightness value is not adjusted by continuously adjusting the load currents but by adjusting the duty cycle of the PWM control signal. The "averaging" of the PWM signal is performed by the human eye.
- In driver circuit of
FIG. 1 the hue is selected by a pointer CS that identifies an entry of a calibration table 10 where the corresponding load current values SR, SG, SB for the three LEDs are stored. The stored values SR, SG, SB are calibrated for maximum brightness and are multiplied (multiplier 11) with a brightness value SB for a reduced brightness. The resulting desired average current values IR=SRSBR, IG=SGSBR, IB=SBSBR are fed to the pulse width modulators PWMR, PWMG, PWMB that generate a respective PWM control signal having the desired mean value for driving the LEDs. - In digitally controlled systems the desired average current values IR, IG, IB are typically provided as 12 bit words. The repetition frequency of the PWM pulses is typically 400Hz which is high enough that the human eye does not sense any flickering. However, PWM frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 600 Hz are commonly used for this purpose. As already discussed above a very fast switching of the load currents is necessary for providing the desired 12 bit resolution which entails, for example, EMC problems.
-
FIG. 2 illustrates a sigma-delta modulator 1 (Σ-Δ modulator, often also denoted as delta-sigma modulator) for providing a pulse density modulated signal PDM for driving a LED LD, respectively the corresponding current source Q. A pulse density modulated signal is a generally non periodic bit-stream with an average value corresponding to the input signal, i.e. the desired average load current I in the present example. In the present example the input signal I is a sequence of 12 bit words. The bit-stream is a sequence of equally spaced bits, i.e. a high level represents a binary "1" and a low level a binary "0". The density of "1" in the pulse density modulated signal is high if the level of the input signal of the sigma-delta modulator is high. However, the length of one bit symbol ("1" or "0") is always the same and is equal to the period of the bit-rate frequency. For example at a bit-rate of 40 kHz, the length of a bit symbol is 25 µs. - The sigma-
delta modulator 1 comprises a forward path comprising anintegrator 30 and aquantiser 20. It further comprises a feedback path comprising adelay element 21. The delay element receives the 1-bit output signal PDM [k] of thequantiser 20 and provides the signal at its output delayed by a sample and as a 12 bit word, i.e. the bit value of the 1-bit input signal of thedelay element 21 is copied to the most significant bit of the respective output signal. "k" thereby is a time index. The delayed output signal PDM[k-1] is subtracted (subtractor 22) from the input signal I[k] and the resulting difference I[k]-PDM[k-1] is supplied to theintegrator 30 that has its output connected to thequantiser 20. - In the present example the
integrator 30 is a standard first-order digital integrator with adelay element 32 in a feedback path and an adder 31. The transfer function of the integrator in the z-domain is 1/(1-z-1). However higher order integrators may also be applied. Thequantiser 20 may be a simple comparator element. In the present example the quantiser provides the most significant bit of its 12-bit input signal value at its output. However, also multi-bitquantiser 20 are applicable for providing an N-bit output PDM signal which is a stream of N-bit words or a set of N "parallel" bit-streams. - For proper operation of the sigma-
delta modulator 1 the input signal has to be strongly over-sampled. Then the quantisation noise is "shifted" towards higher frequencies an can therefore be removed by a simple low-pass filtering which is - in the present case - advantageously performed by the human eye. The noise shaping properties of sigma delta modulators a well known and not further discussed here. For a bandwidth of the input signal IR of 400 Hz an over-sampling frequency of 40 kHz is sufficient to provide an signal-to-noise ratio (SNRdB) of at least 74dB which corresponds to an effective resolution of 12 bits. The effective number of bits (ENOB) may be calculated as
whereby the signal-to-noise ratio SNRdB may be calculated as
for a sigma-delta modulator 1 with afirst order integrator 30, a over-sampling rate OSR (ratio of sampling rate and bandwidth) and a N-bit quantiser 20 (N=1 in the present example). For a sigma-delta modulator 1 with asecond order integrator 30 the signal-to-noise ratio SNRdB is given by - From the discussion above it can be seen, that at a given resolution, for example 12 bit, and moderate frequencies of about 40 kHz a sigma-delta modulator provides a pulse-density modulated output signal which may be used for controlling the current sources QR, QG, QB connected to the LEDs LDR, LDG, LDB in a LED driver circuit such as the circuit of
FIG. 1 . - For a stable operation within the desired resolution the sigma-delta modulator may comprise an anti-aliasing filter for limiting the bandwidth of its input signal to a predefined bandwidth of, for example, 400 Hz.
- Compared to the circuit of
FIG. 1 that uses PWM modulators for driving the LEDs the rise and fall times of the switching can be much longer when using a sigma-delta modulator instead, since the bit-stream comes at relatively low frequencies of about 40 kHz. Longer rise and fall times entail less electromagnetic interferences (EMI) and a better electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). -
FIG. 3 shows the application of the sigma-delta modulator 1 ofFIG. 2 in a LED driver circuit. Only one LED LD connected in series to one current source Q is depicted inFIG. 3 . However, the circuit ofFIG. 3 may be tripled to form a driver circuit for three LEDs LDR, LDG, LDB of different colours analogous to the circuit ofFIG. 1 . The sigma-delta modulator 1 receives a desired average current value I and provides a corresponding pulse bit-stream which is a pulse-density modulated control signal supplied to the switchable current source Q. The input I of the sigma-delta modulator 1 may be derived from a calibration table analogous to the circuit ofFIG. 1 . -
FIG. 4 illustrates another example of how to apply a sigma delta modulator in a LED driver circuit. This example is especially useful when using a sigma-delta modulator 1 with amulti-bit quantiser 20, e.g. a 3-bit quantiser. In this case the sigma-delta modulator 1 does not provide a single bit output signal PDM but a stream of 3-bit words, i.e. three parallel bit-streams. For transforming this three bit-streams into one control signal for driving the current source Q asecond modulator 2 may be employed, for example, a pulse-width modulator (PWM) or a pulse frequency modulator (PFM). In the present example a PWM is used as second modulator. In contrast to the example ofFIG. 1 the PWM needs only to resolve 8 different positions (3 Bits) in time during the PWM period of, for example, 25 µs. As a consequence the steepness of the switching edges may be lower by a factor of five due to the sigma-delta modulator 1 arranged upstream to the sigma delta modulator while maintaining or even increasing the resolution. Alternatively a 3-bit digital-to-analog converter may be used assecond modulator 2. In this case the sigma-delta modulator 1 arranged upstream to the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) has the advantage that a low resolution DAC is sufficient. Compared to the circuit ofFIG. 3 the present example allows for even slower switching frequencies which may be advantageous in case the connection between the LED and the driver circuit comprises long cables. Furthermore switching losses are lower. - When modulating a constant input signal I then the pulse density modulated output signal of the sigma-delta modulator 1 (bit-stream) may exhibit some periodicity. This undesired effect is due to limit cycles and the spectrum of the bit-stream has so-called idle-tones, i.e. peaks at certain discrete frequencies. To avoid the idle tones a low power noise signal n[k] having zero mean and, for example, a triangular or a rectangular probability density function may be added to the input signal I as depicted in
FIG. 5 by means of anadder 12. This technique is also referred to as "dithering". Due to the noise-shaping properties of sigma-delta modulators 1 the power is of the dither noise n[k] is "shifted" towards higher frequencies that cannot be resolved by the human eye. That is, the human eye performs a low-pass filtering of the bit-stream. The dithering technique results in a lower signal-to-noise ratio but, however, the desired resolution of the sigma-delta modulator can be achieved regardless of the lower signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, the idle tones are suppressed and the undesired periodicity of the bit-stream is destroyed. -
FIG. 6 illustrates, by means of a block diagram, a LED driver circuit for driving multi-colour LEDs with a sigma-delta modulator 1, the LED driver circuit comprising three times the driver circuit ofFIG. 3 . Of course driver circuits with a sigma-delta modulator 1 having a second modulator connected downstream thereof as depicted inFIG. 4 are also applicable for building up a multi-colour LED driver. In the present example one driver circuit according toFIG. 3 is employed for each colour channel (red, green, and blue). Furthermore a dither noise may be added to the input signals IR, IG, IB of each colour channel as discussed with reference toFIG. 5 . Apart from the sigma-delta modulator 1 the further components of the multi-colour LED driver circuit correspond to the components of the circuit discussed with reference toFIG 1 . -
FIG. 7 illustrates another driver circuit for driving a plurality of light emitting diodes LD1, LD2, ..., LDN. However, the driver circuit ofFIG. 7 may be usefully employed for driving at least two light emitting diodes LD1, LD2. The driver circuit comprises a main current source QM providing a main current IQM. A plurality of bypass current sources Q1, Q2 ..., QN are connected in series to the main current source QM and have terminals for connecting one light emitting diode LD1, LD2, ... LDN in parallel to each bypass current source Q1, Q2 ..., QN. Each bypass current source Q1, Q2 ..., QN drives a bypass current IQ1, IQ2 ..., IQN. - Each bypass current source Q1, Q2 ..., QN and the respective light emitting diode LD1, LD2, ... LDN form a parallel circuit, wherein all these parallel circuits are connected in series.
- A sigma-
delta modulator 1 is connected to each bypass current source Q1, Q2 ..., QN and configured to control the respective bypass current IQ1, IQ2 ..., IQN passing through the respective bypass current source Q1, Q2 .... QN. As a result, the effective load current ILD1, that passes through a certain light emitting diode LD1 of the plurality of light emitting diodes, equals to the difference between the main current IQM and the respective bypass current IQ1, that is:
whereby i is an index ranging from 1 to N denoting the number of the bypass current source Qi driving the bypass current IQi and the light emitting diode LDi with the load current ILDi. - Similar to the examples of
FIGs. 3, 4, and 5 the brightness of each single LED LDi may be adjusted to a desired value by appropriately controlling the bypass currents IQi and thus the load currents ILDi by means of the sigma-delta modulators 1. - Each sigma delta-
modulator 1 may comprise an digitally addressable bus interface, for example a serial bus interface for connecting aserial bus 30. The desired current or brightness value may be received from thebus 30 as a binary word. For multi-colour illumination the brightness values may be taken from a calibration table as illustrated in the example ofFIG. 1 . Of course the sigma-delta modulators 1 of the present example may be followed by asecond modulator 2, e.g. a pulse-width modulator, as discussed with reference toFIG. 4 . -
FIG. 8 illustrates an example similar to the example ofFIG. 7 , where semiconductor switches, i.e. transistors, e.g. MOS-FETs, are employed as bypass current sources Qi. Except of the bypass current sources the example ofFIG. 8 is identical to the example ofFIG. 7 . - In multi-colour applications, for example an illumination device comprising a red LED LD1, a green LED LD2, and a blue LED LD3, and a driver circuit as shown in
FIG. 8 , the colour generated by mixing the light of the different LEDs may be adjusted by appropriately adjusting the brightness of each single LED LD1, LD2, LD3 by means of the sigma-delta modulators 1. Additionally, the overall brightness may be adjusted by varying the main current IQM.
Claims (19)
- A driver circuit for driving a light emitting diode comprising:a controllable current source for connecting to the light emitting diode, the current source being configured to regulate a load current passing through the light emitting diode dependent on a control signal;a modulator unit configured for generating the control signal, where the control signal is dependent on a pulse-density modulated signal.
- The driver circuit of claim 1, where the modulator unit comprises a sigma-delta modulator for providing the pulse-density modulated signal.
- The driver circuit of claim 1 or 2, where the pulse-density modulated signal is directly supplied to the current source as the control signal.
- The driver circuit of claim 2, where the sigma-delta modulator comprises a multi-bit comparator for providing a multi-bit pulse-density modulated signal.
- The driver circuit of claim 4, where the modulator unit comprises a second modulator receiving the multi-bit pulse-density modulated signal and providing the control signal to the current source.
- The driver circuit of claim 5, where the second modulator is a pulse-width modulator or a pulse-frequency modulator.
- The driver circuit of claim 6, where the second modulator is a digital-to-analog converter.
- The driver circuit of one of the claims 1 to 7, where the current source is a transistor.
- The driver circuit of one of the claims 1 to 8 further comprising an adder being connected upstream to the sigma-delta modulator, where the adder is configured to receive a first signal representing a desired brightness or colour and to add a dither noise signal thereto, the sum of the signals being supplied to the sigma-delta modulator.
- A method for driving a light emitting diode comprising:providing a first signal representing a desired brightness or colour;generating a pulse-density modulated signal representing the first signal; andproviding a current to the light emitting diode dependent on the pulse-density modulated signal.
- The method of claim 10, where the modulating is performed by a sigma-delta modulator.
- The method of claim 10 or 11, where the current provided to the light emitting diode is proportional to the pulse-density modulated signal.
- The method of claim 11, where the pulse-density modulated signal is a multi-bit pulse-density modulated signal.
- The method of claim 11 further comprising:providing the multi-bit pulse-density modulated signal to a second modulator that generates a control signal representing the multi-bit pulse-density modulated signal, where the current provided to the light emitting diode is proportional to the control signal.
- The method of claim 14, where the second modulator is a pulse-width modulator or a pulse-frequency modulator.
- The method of claim 14, where the second modulator is a digital-to-analog converter.
- The method of claim 10, where the pulse-density modulated signal is a stream of bit-symbols of equal length, each bit-symbol representing either the binary symbol "1" or "0".
- The method of claim 10, where the pulse-density modulated signal is a set of streams of bit-symbols of equal length, each bit-symbol representing either the binary symbol "1" or "0".
- The method of one of the claims 10 to 18, where a dither noise signal is added to the first signal before being supplied to the sigma-delta modulator for generating a pulse-density modulated signal therefrom.
Priority Applications (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
EP08000321A EP2081414A1 (en) | 2008-01-09 | 2008-01-09 | Sigma delta LED driver |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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EP08000321A EP2081414A1 (en) | 2008-01-09 | 2008-01-09 | Sigma delta LED driver |
Publications (1)
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EP2081414A1 true EP2081414A1 (en) | 2009-07-22 |
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Family Applications (1)
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EP08000321A Withdrawn EP2081414A1 (en) | 2008-01-09 | 2008-01-09 | Sigma delta LED driver |
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Cited By (3)
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EP2230885A1 (en) * | 2009-03-12 | 2010-09-22 | Infineon Technologies Austria AG | Sigma delta current source and LED driver |
ITAN20090086A1 (en) * | 2009-11-10 | 2011-05-11 | Massimo Conti | SYSTEM FOR THE NON-LINEAR LIGHT ADJUSTMENT IN LIGHTING DEVICES. |
CN114303292A (en) * | 2019-06-26 | 2022-04-08 | ams国际有限公司 | VCSEL tuning device and method for tuning VCSEL |
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EP1528841A2 (en) * | 2003-10-31 | 2005-05-04 | Anytronics Limited | Lighting control |
DE10357776A1 (en) * | 2003-12-10 | 2005-07-14 | Austriamicrosystems Ag | Control unit with light-emitting diode has on off switch and a sigma delta modulator with an input to supply a control signal and an output to the switch control |
WO2008000465A1 (en) * | 2006-06-28 | 2008-01-03 | Austriamicrosystems Ag | Control circuit and method for controlling light emitting diodes |
WO2008006450A1 (en) * | 2006-07-11 | 2008-01-17 | Austriamicrosystems Ag | Control circuit and method for controlling leds |
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US6573666B1 (en) * | 2002-01-03 | 2003-06-03 | Dialog Semiconductor Gmbh | Digital regulation of fluorescent lamps |
EP1528841A2 (en) * | 2003-10-31 | 2005-05-04 | Anytronics Limited | Lighting control |
DE10357776A1 (en) * | 2003-12-10 | 2005-07-14 | Austriamicrosystems Ag | Control unit with light-emitting diode has on off switch and a sigma delta modulator with an input to supply a control signal and an output to the switch control |
WO2008000465A1 (en) * | 2006-06-28 | 2008-01-03 | Austriamicrosystems Ag | Control circuit and method for controlling light emitting diodes |
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Cited By (5)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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EP2230885A1 (en) * | 2009-03-12 | 2010-09-22 | Infineon Technologies Austria AG | Sigma delta current source and LED driver |
US8278840B2 (en) | 2009-03-12 | 2012-10-02 | Infineon Technologies Austria Ag | Sigma delta current source and LED driver |
ITAN20090086A1 (en) * | 2009-11-10 | 2011-05-11 | Massimo Conti | SYSTEM FOR THE NON-LINEAR LIGHT ADJUSTMENT IN LIGHTING DEVICES. |
CN114303292A (en) * | 2019-06-26 | 2022-04-08 | ams国际有限公司 | VCSEL tuning device and method for tuning VCSEL |
CN114303292B (en) * | 2019-06-26 | 2024-03-19 | ams国际有限公司 | VCSEL tuning device and method for tuning VCSEL |
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