EP2489242A1

EP2489242A1 - Phase cut dimming of leds

Info

Publication number: EP2489242A1
Application number: EP10766043A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ian Wilson; James Frankland; Frederick Stevens
Original assignee: Tridonic UK Ltd
Current assignee: Tridonic UK Ltd
Priority date: 2009-10-14
Filing date: 2010-10-14
Publication date: 2012-08-22
Also published as: WO2011045372A1; CN102598857A; CN102598857B

Abstract

The invention relates to a dimmable LED module, the module being designed for being dimmed using a dimmer controlling a phase cut of an AC supply voltage supplied to the LED module, the module comprising: - a bleeding circuit for selectively acting to draw a bleeding current in periods when the supply voltage amplitude is below a threshold value, - a control circuit being supplied with a signal indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit, the control circuit determining, based on the bleeding activity indication signal, a value representing the phase cut present in the AC supply voltage and issuing a control signal as a function of the phase cut value, and - at least one driver circuit being supplied with said control signal and adjusting the power supplied associated LED lighting means.

Description

Phase cut dimming of LEDs

The present invention generally relates to the field of dimming LED lighting means using phase cut dimming.

Technical area

In order to save energy, today energy saving lamps are often used. With the introduction of efficient light emitting diodes (LED) as potential light sources there is also a demand for energy saving lamps using LED which have the ability to be dimmed. Such systems have to provide the functionality of a dimming interface, particularly for the use with phase dimmers. There are several types of dimmers generally available. Those employing triac or thyristor devices operate in a very similar fashion. Both act as high-speed switches and in a dimmer are used to control the amount of electrical energy passing to a lamp. They do this by 'chopping' the sinusoidal mains voltage waveform. A trigger or firing pulse dictates at what point the device starts to conduct. The later the device is fired the later it starts to conduct and hence less power is transmitted to the load.

State of the art Various circuit arrangements have been proposed which shall add the functionality of dimming to LED based light sources .

One example would be the EP 1016062 Bl, where LEDs can be controlled by means of a digital bus, e.g. by D X.

The main problem is the compatibility of a common triac dimmer in use with a LED driver circuit and to provide a dimming signal according to the control of the phase dimmer. So it is the main focus of the invention to provide a method and a circuitry to solve this problem.

WO 2009/121956 Al teaches a constant current source which is selectively activated when the amplitude of a AC voltage supply falls below a given threshold, such activating a dummy load during these periods. This approach is called "bleeding" and a circuit which activates a dummy load in order to draw an additional current from a constant current source, when the input AC voltage level falls below a given threshold voltage, is called a "bleeding circuit".

The present invention proposes an improved solution for dimming LEDs based on a phase cut manipulation of an AC supply voltage of a operating means for one or more LEDs, OLEDs or any other lighting means which are comparable as to their electrical characteristics.

This object is achieved by means of the features of the independent claims. The dependent claims develop further the central idea of the invention. A first aspect of the invention relates to a dimmable LED module,

the module being designed for being dimmed using a dimmer controlling a phase cut of an AC supply voltage supplied to the LED module, the module comprising:

- a bleeding circuit for selectively acting to draw a bleeding current in periods when the supply voltage amplitude is below a threshold value, - a control circuit being supplied with a signal indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit, the control circuit determining, based on the bleeding activity indication signal, a value representing the phase cut present in the AC supply voltage and issuing a control signal as a function of the phase cut value, and

- at least one driver circuit being supplied with said control signal and adjusting the power supplied associated LED lighting means.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a dimmable LED module,

the module being designed for being dimmed using a dimmer controlling a phase cut of an AC supply voltage supplied to the LED module, the module comprising: - a bleeding circuit for selectively acting to draw a bleeding current depending the phase cut present in the AC supply voltage, a control circuit being supplied with a signal indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit, the control circuit determining, based on the bleeding activity indication signal, a value representing the phase cut present in the AC supply voltage and issuing a control signal as a function of the phase cut value, and

The bleeding activity indication signal may indicate directly or indirectly one of the bleeding current or a voltage across resistive means of the bleeding circuit, such as e.g. a resistive means measuring the combined effect of the supply voltage and the activity of the bleeding circuit.

The bleeding circuit may be a circuit separate to the control circuit or a circuit which is integrated part of the control circuit.

The bleeding activity indication signal may be a pulse signal.

The control circuit may determine the pulse width of the bleeding activity indication signal.

The bleeding current may be constant, varying or pulsed, especially actively PWM controlled.

The bleeding activity indication signal may be produced for every cycle of the mains voltage or periodically, i.e. not for all mains voltage cycles.

The bleeding circuit may comprise a current source and is passively activated, or the bleeding circuit comprises a timed logic actively controlling a switch of the bleeding circuit .

The control circuit may be designed to obtain, based on the bleeding circuit indication signal, the timing of the zero-crossings of the AC supply voltage as well as the timing of any phase cut of the AC supply voltage.

A further aspect relates to a LED module, wherein LED module comprises a bleeding circuit and a driver circuit controlling the power of the LED lighting means via one or more of:

- low frequency PWM control, the PWM pulses having a frequency in the order of twice the frequency of the AC supply voltage, preferably with a frequency between 90 and 140 Hz, the PWM pulses being preferably synchronous with the bleeding activity indication signal,

- high frequency PWM control, the PWM pulses having a frequency of more than 200Hz, preferably more than 500Hz, and/or

- a control of an amplitude of a DC current through the LED lighting means.

The supply potential of the LED lighting means may be isolated from the supply voltage by isolating means, such as e.g. an opto-coupler, wherein the control circuit may be connected to the potential of the primary side or the secondary side of the isolating means.

The invention also relates to a retrofit LED lamp, comprising a LED module as described above.

A further aspect of the invention relates to a method for operating a dimmable LED module, the module being dimmed using a dimmer controlling the phase of an AC supply voltage supplied to the LED module, such as e.g. a dimmer having a triac, wherein:

- a bleeding circuit of the LED module selectively acting draws a bleeding current in periods when the supply voltage amplitude is below a threshold value,

- a control circuit is supplied with a signal indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit and issues a control signal depending on the bleeding activity indication signal, and at least one driver circuit is supplied with said control signal and adjusts the power supplied associated LED lighting means.

The bleeding activity indication signal indicates directly or indirectly one of the bleeding current or a voltage across resistive means of the bleeding circuit, such as e.g. a resistive means measuring the combined effect of the supply voltage and the activity of the bleeding circuit. The bleeding activity indication signal is a pulse signal and the control circuit determines the pulse width of the bleeding activity indication signal.

Based on the evaluation of the pulse width, the control circuit may determine the timing of the zero crossings of the AC supply voltage.

The control circuit may synchronize the measurement of any phase cut angle present in the supply voltage based on the timing of the zero crossing.

The bleeding current may be constant, varying or pulsed, especially by actively PWM controlling a switch of the bleeding circuit.

The bleeding circuit may be activated passively, or the bleeding circuit controlling actively, e.g. via a switch.

Further features, advantages and objects of the present invention will become evident from the following detailled description of preferred embodiments of the invention, when taken in conjunction with the figures of the enclosed drawings . Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of a dimmable ballast for LED lighting means,

Figure 2 shows a first embodiment of a dimmable ballast for LED lighting means,

Figure 3 shows in detail a first embodiment

bleeding circuit of the invention,

Figure 4 shows in detail a second embodiment of the invention,

Figure 5 illustrates the output signal of a leading edge dimmer and the corresponding bleeding current detection signal at R_S unt_f and

Figure 6 shows in detail a third embodiment of the invention .

With reference to Fig. 1 now a first embodiment of a dimmable ballast for LED lighting means will be described. According to this first embodiment a secondary side control (regulation) for the LED power is proposed. Note that primary side' and 'secondary side' relates to the primary side and secondary side, respectively, of an isolating means separating the potential of the LED lighting means from the supply voltage, as will be explained later on in the detail.

As can be seen from Fig. 1, a AC supply voltage 1, such as for example a AC mains voltage of a frequency of 50Hz or 60Hz and a RMS voltage of 120V or 230V, is supplied to an input filter 2 of the ballast.

As schematically shown in Fig. 1, the AC supply voltage may be phase-cut, e.g. by a dimmer operated manually by a user, the dimmer comprising a Triac or Thyristor for the phase-cut. The time duration of the phase cut represents a dimming command.

The output signal, i.e. the filtered AC supply voltage of the input filter 2 is then supplied both to a first rectifier 3 and a second rectifier 4.

The first rectifier 3 is provided in order to transmit the power to the LED lighting means 5.

The second rectifier 4 is provided in order to feed a bleeding circuit 6 and a dimming control circuit 7. Note that it is also possible to provide only a single rectifier both for the power transmission to the LED lighting means 5 and for the bleeding circuit 6.

The bleeding circuit according to the present invention has one or more, preferably all of the following functions : i. To act as a load at the AC supply (e.g.) mains input and prevent supply voltage leakage currents (as across gas discharge lamps etc.) from raising the input voltage to the driver circuit and causing retrigger and light flicker when the driver is switched off. ii. To enable the input voltage to follow more accurately the phase cut of the supply voltage via the triac. Since the average rectified voltage or bus voltage is often used to control the system this is important to avoid errors. Without the activity of the bleeding circuit the voltage can drift up especially with leakage currents across dimmers or switches. iii. To support the triac holding current at point of switching. iv. To damp ringing behaviour inside the dimmer and between the dimmer and the input RFI filter of the converter . v. To support the detection dimming information from leading and trailing edge dimmers.

The output of the first rectifier 3, i.e. the filtered and rectified AC supply voltage, can be optionally supplied to - a valley-fill circuitry 8 (e.g. an active valley fill circuitry, a passive valley fill circuitry or a combined active-passive valley fill),

- an actively switched PFC circuit 9 (wherein a switch of the PFC circuit is controlled by a control circuit receiving at least one input signal), or

- a filter circuit 10 comprising e.g. an electrolyte capacitor .

The thus processed rectified and filtered supply voltage is then supplied to the LED driver 11 having a DC/DC converter such as for example a flyback converter 12, especially a quasi-resonant flyback converter. Note that other isolated or non-isolated DC/DC converters can be used. The isolation can also be outside the DC/DC converter. The dimmable LED module may also be nonisolated, as it may comprise a non-isolated buck-converter as DC/DC converter.

The LED driver 11 supplies the LED lighting means 5 with a regulated (feedback-controlled) power.

As schematically shown in Fig. 1, the LED lighting means 5 can present a plurality of LEDs (or OLEDs, or other lighting means with comparable electrical characteristics) can be connected in series and/or in parallel.

A feedback signal 13 indicating e.g. the current trough the LED lighting means is fed back to the LED driver 11. The LED driver in the shown example, being a flyback converter 12, has a primary side switch 14. By adapting the clocking of the switch 14 the power supplied to the LED lighting means can be controlled such that the measured value of the feedback signal 13 is controlled to be close if not identical to a nominal value.

It may be possible to set the LED via calibration and to accept an open loop method to run the LED. The modification of the electrical power supplied to the LED lighting means could be done by change of amplitude of the LED current or just by burst operation, according to phase dimmer signal derived by the bleeding circuitry.

Generally speaking, the Dc/DC converter has at least one control input for modifying the electrical power supplied to the LED lighting means 5.

The potential of the LED lighting means 5 may be galvanically isolated from the AC supply voltage 1. In the shown example, this isolation is actually implemented by means of the transformer 15 of the AC/DC converter 12.

The current control e.g. via the switch 14 of the DC/DC converter 12 is performed as controlled by an output signal 16 of the dimming control circuit 7. The dimming control circuit 7 thus supplies, via the signal 16, a nominal value for the LED lighting means power. A control circuit 17 actually drives e.g. the switch 14 of the LED driver 11 depending on the measured feedback signal 13 and the controlled (nominal value) signal 16 of the dimming control circuit 7.

As schematically shown via the reference numeral 18, the dimming control circuit 7 is isolated e.g. by an optocoppler 18 from the potential of the LED lighting means 5, as in the present example the dimming control circuit 7 is not isolated from the AC supply voltage 1. As it may not be necessary to isolate the dimming control circuit 7 from the potential of the LED lighting means 5, the dimming control circuit 7 could also be directly linked to the secondary side, e.g. the the LED driver 11.

The embodiment of fig. 1 is called a secondary side regulation as the power (current) control of the LED lighting means 5 is performed on the secondary side of the isolating means 15.

The alternative embodiment of fig.2 implements the concept of a primary side regulation. Again, the AC supply voltage is supplied to an input filter 2 and then to a burst rectifier 3 in a second rectifier 4. The output of the first rectifier 3 is again, in this embodiment, is directly supplied to the LED driver 11. Preferably, also the LED driver 11 has isolating means 15 such as for example the illustrated transformer. The output of the second rectifier 4 is again both forwarded to a bleeding circuit 6 and a dimming control circuit/interface 7. It is to be understood that the term "interface" refers to the fact that this circuit can receive external dimming signals from a bus, wirelessly (e.g. IR) , etc., which external input is schematically designated to the reference numeral 19. This obviously also applies to the embodiment of fig. 1.

In the embodiment of fig. 2, as a primary side regulation is carried out, the dimming circuit/interface 7 controls the LED driver 11 e.g. by driving the switch 14 on the primary side of the converter 11.

For the primary side regulation (fig. 2) or a secondary side regulation (fig.l) different options to modulate the power of the LED lighting means 5 can be used.

A first example is the modulation of the DC level of the current through the LED lighting means 5.

A second option is a high freguency PWM control, wherein "high freguency" is to be understood that the resulting current pulses through the LED lighting means 5 have a frequency which is higher than the frequency of the rectified AC input voltage. In the case of an AC mains voltage supply, thus the high frequency PWM pulses will have a frequency of more than 120 Hz. A third option is PWM control of the power dissipated by the LED lighting means 5, wherein "low frequency" is to be understood that the low frequency PWM pulses of the current through the LED 5 a frequency in the order of the rectified supply voltage, e.g. 100 Hz or 120 Hz.

Fig. 3 shows in detail a preferred embodiment for the bleeding circuit 6 supplied by the filtered AC supply voltage, which is rectified (diode bridge 3) before being supplied to the bleeding circuit 6.

The bleeding circuit 6 according to this embodiment is provided with a constant current source comprising a transistor T2, which is controlled by the base-emitter voltage of T2..

A time logic unit 21 as an output which preferably through a digital signal, can switch a transistor Tl in order to activate a bleed current flowing through a first resistor Rseries_f the transistor Tl (when switched on) and a measurement shunt R_Shunt-

Via the base-emitter voltage VBE of a second transistor T₂ the amplitude of the bleed current can be controlled, e.g. to a range of between 10-50mA, preferably 20-30mA.

The time logic unit can be e.g. a microcontroller, an ASIC, or an hybrid thereof. The time logic unit 21 senses the resulting bleed current at an input pin of the time logic unit 21.

Typically, the bleed current is activated by the timed logic unit for periods in which the input voltage (supply voltage) is low and e.g. has an amplitude of less than 30Vpk. Thus, the timed logic unit, once synchronized with the AC supply voltage, enables the bleeding circuit in these low voltage periods (around the zero crossings) and then detects the activity of the enabled bleeding circuit.

Therefore, the current pulses will be detected at R_Shunt near the zero crossings of the AC supply voltage, and furthermore different bleeding current pulses will be sensed by R_Shunt at the input of the time logic unit when the triac in the manually operated dimmer switches on. During the phase cut period of the AC supply voltage, the supply voltage amplitude will be low and the only current drawn through R_Shunt is the guiescence current necessary to supply (hold) the dimmer electronics, i.e. the electronics in the manually operated dimmer outside the LED lighting ballast .

Note that in the shown example the bleed activity is sensed by measuring the bleed current, as especially timings and/or widths of the bleed current pulses. The width serves as a discrimination criterion for pulses having differing causes. The activity of the bleeding circuit, however, alternatively or even additionally can also be sensed on the mains voltage line. Such an example will be described as one variant of Fig. 6 later on.

Fig. 4 shows a further possible documentation of a bleeding circuit 6' according to the present invention.

According to this embodiment the timed logic unit 21' activates the bleed current outputting a PWM signal, which is filtered through a RC filter circuitry (CI, R2) to control e.g. a MOSFET switch Ml to the conducting state.

Again, resulting bleed current is measured using a measurement shunt R_Shunt and is supplied to an input pin of the timed logic unit 21' .

Fig. 5 shows an illustration of the trailing edge dimmer output signal (upper view) and the corresponding pulse current detection at the shunt R_Shunt-

A trailing or leading edged detection algorithm can be divided in the LED ballast deriving the timing of the phase cut from the current pulse information by looking at the pulse width or the timing of the pulses to compute the timing of the zero crosses of the AC supply voltage as well as the operating frequency of the AC supply voltage. The narrower current pulses indicate the position of the phase cut. This detection of the broad current pulses (bleed current) and the narrow pulses (art of the phase cut by the triac or thyristor in the dimmer) , respectively, can be performed by the timed logic unit 21, 21' .

Thus, using the current information from the bleeding circuit 6, 6' the phase cut timing of the dimmer can be detected. Thus, the detected phase cut can be used as a dim control information and can be "translated" in different manners (see above: modulation of DC current through the LED lighting means, high frequency PWM or low frequency PWM) .

In the simplest manner, e.g. the low frequency PWM control of the LED lighting means 5, the operation of the DC/DC converter 11 is stopped during the detected phase cut.

In case a trailing edged detection algorithm shall be implemented there is the problem that when the dimmer switches off its MOSFET or equivalent there is often insufficient load on the dimmer to enable its output to follow the phase cut information and therefore bleeding current pulses will not occur if the voltage does not fall below 30 Vpk. In order to accurately detect the phase timing information the bleed current can be activated using an active or adaptive method. An example would be that the bleed current is activated continuously for one or several cycles of the AC supply voltage to enable the timing to be detected either via the voltage at the measurement shunt R_Shunt (when the dimmer switch is off) or via the supply input voltage signal which can be detected at the output of the bridge rectifier 3. The repetition rate for the bleed current activation should be sufficient to quickly detect when the dimmer is altered but low enough to keep dissipation inside the bleeding circuit 6, 6' at an acceptable level.

According to an alternative embodiment, a PWM signal with high frequency can be applied to the bleed switch (fig. 4) in order to limit the power dissipation. This can be tracked across the voltage time period to detect the phase cut position.

According to a further alternative, the bleeding circuit can be active for one cycle of the AC supply voltage and the average voltage can be used to predict the dimmer information. This can e.g. be performed every 10 cycles to limit the power dissipation in the bleeding circuitry.

Fig. 6 shows a further possible documentation of a bleeding circuit 6'' according to the present invention.

According to this embodiment the transistor Q5 detects the mains level via the resistor divider R32, R33 and R34. The transistor modulates the transistor Q4, which has a dual role as a current source for a bleeding circuit to support triac holding current and for signaling the bleed activity. In case that transistor Q4 is turned on and thus the bleeding circuit 6'' is active, the voltage above the transistor Q4 is pulled down and this can be used as a signal (Digital Vout) indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit. In case that transistor Q4 is turned off and thus the bleeding circuit 6' ' is not active, the voltage above the transistor Q4 is pulled high by the resistor R40 and this can be used as a signal (Digital Vout) indicating the non-activity of the bleeding circuit. As described above, the bleeding circuit 6'' is selectively acting to draw a bleeding current in periods when the supply voltage amplitude is below a threshold value. The bleeding circuit 6'' is depending on the phase cut present in the AC supply voltage.

The signal (Digital Vout) indicating the non-activity of the bleeding circuit for this example is a kind of digital signal, as is has to be only checked whether the signal is high or low. This gives the advantage that this signal is less susceptible to noise in comparison to an analogue detection, where noise or disturbances would cause errors in the receipted signal.

The activation of the bleeding circuit 6, 6' , 6' ' could also be depending on the current out of the output of the first rectifier 3, i.e. flowing into the filter circuit 10 comprising. The bleed current would only be enabled when the current into the filter circuit 10 (or the actively switched PFC circuit 9 or the valley fill circuitry 8) would be below a given threshold. The activity of the bleeding circuit 6' ' , however, alternatively or even additionally can also be sensed on the mains voltage line. The activity may be sensed on the resistor divider R32, R33 and R34, on base-terminal of the transistor Q5 detects the mains level.

Claims

Claims :

A dimmable LED module,

the module being designed for being dimmed using a dimmer controlling a phase cut of an AC supply voltage supplied to the LED module, the module comprising :

- a bleeding circuit for selectively acting to draw a bleeding current in periods when the supply voltage amplitude is below a threshold value,

- a control circuit being supplied with a signal indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit, the control circuit determining, based on the bleeding activity indication signal, a value representing the phase cut present in the AC supply voltage and issuing a control signal as a function of the phase cut value, and

The LED module of claim 1,

wherein the bleeding activity indication signal indicates directly or indirectly one of the bleeding current or a voltage across resistive means of the bleeding circuit, such as e.g. a resistive means measuring the combined effect of the supply voltage and the activity of the bleeding circuit.

The LED module of any of the preceding claims, wherein the bleeding circuit is a circuit separate to the control circuit or a circuit which is integrated part of the control circuit.

4. The LED module of any of the preceding claims,

wherein the bleeding activity indication signal is a pulse signal.

5. The LED module according to claim 4,

wherein the control circuit determines the pulse width of the bleeding activity indication signal.

6. The LED module of any of the preceding claims,

wherein the bleeding current is constant, varying or pulsed, especially actively PWM controlled.

7. The LED module of any of the preceding claims,

wherein the bleeding activity indication signal is produced for every cycle of the mains voltage or periodically, i.e. not for all mains voltage cycles.

8. The LED module of any of the preceding claims,

wherein the bleeding circuit comprises a current source and is passively activated, or the bleeding circuit comprises a timed logic actively controlling a switch of the bleeding circuit.

9. The LED module of any of the preceding claims,

wherein the control circuit is designed to obtain, based on the bleeding circuit indication signal, the timing of the zero-crossings of the AC supply voltage as well as the timing of any phase cut of the AC supply voltage.

10. A LED module, preferably according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein LED module comprises a bleeding circuit and a driver circuit controlling the power of the LED lighting means via one or more of:

- low frequency PWM control, the P M pulses having a frequency in the order of twice the frequency of the AC supply voltage, preferably with a frequency between 90 and 140 Hz, the PWM pulses being

preferably synchronous with the bleeding activity indication signal,

- a control of an amplitude of a DC current through the LED lighting means.

11. The LED module according to any of the preceding claims ,

wherein the supply potential of the LED lighting means is isolated from the supply voltage by

isolating means, such as e.g. an opto-coupler, wherein the control circuit is connected to the potential of the primary side or the secondary side of the isolating means.

12. A retrofit LED lamp, comprising a LED module

according to any of the preceding claims.

13. A method for operating a dimmable LED module, the module being dimmed using a dimmer controlling the phase of an AC supply voltage supplied to the LED module, such as e.g. a dimmer having a triac, wherein :

- a control circuit is supplied with a signal indicating the activity of the bleeding circuit and issues a control signal depending on the bleeding activity indication signal, and

- at least one driver circuit is supplied with said control signal and adjusts the power supplied associated LED lighting means.

14. The method of claim 13,

15. The method of claim 13 or 14,

wherein the bleeding activity indication signal is a pulse signal and the control circuit determines the pulse width of the bleeding activity indication signal .

16. The method of claim 15,

wherein, based on the evaluation of the pulse width, the control circuit determines the timing of the zero crossings of the AC supply voltage.

17. The method of claim 16,

wherein the control circuit synchronizes the measurement of any phase cut angle present in the supply voltage based on the timing of the zero crossing .

18. The method according to any of claims 13 to 17, wherein the bleeding bleeding current is constant, varying or pulsed, especially by actively PWM

controlling a switch of the bleeding circuit.

19. The method according to any of claims 13 to 18, wherein the bleeding activity indication signal is produced for every cycle of the mains voltage or periodically, i.e. not for all mains voltage cycles.

20. The method according to any of claims 13 to 18, wherein the bleeding circuit is activated passively, or the bleeding circuit controlling actively, e.g. via a switch.