Why is it difficult to reduce the cost of LED driver power?

[Source: "High-tech LED - Technology and Applications" June issue / Long Zonghui]

At present, the domestic LED driver power supply factory cost is generally around 200 yuan, but the sales price of foreign manufacturers can reach 180 yuan. “The lack of industry standards, customization, small batches, and technical limitations have kept LED drive power prices high,” said Su Zhichun, director of R&D at Shenzhen Jingchen Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.

According to the statistics of the High-tech LED Research Institute, there are about 300 LED drive power companies in the country, but most of them focus on small power. Since the high-power drive power supply is mainly matched with street lamps and tunnel lights, and these orders are mainly from government procurement or large-scale projects, the growth rate is very passive. The national support policy has led to an increase in the number of LED street lights installed, but there are few remaining LED drive power manufacturers. At present, the high-power drive power supplies on the market have different standards, and each has its own policy. The single-channel, multi-channel, and different sizes are different. The small-volume customized production, coupled with the weak core components of the digital driver IC and DSP processor technology, has made it difficult for manufacturers to break through the LED cost.

High production costs

In recent years, the sales price of LED lamps has declined by 20%-30% per year, and the price of LED driver power supplies has been “staying in place”. According to the reporter's understanding, although the LED driver power supply has made breakthroughs in technology, the cost has been maintained at around 200 yuan. If the sales price is less than 400 yuan, it is basically a loss state, while foreign manufacturers such as Philips have the lowest sales price but can achieve 180. Yuan or so.

“Reducing the price must optimize the structural design while continuing the technical upgrade, minimizing the number of IC components used.” Luo Changchun, senior engineer of Infineon Electronics, introduced. It is understood that with the reduction of production by European and American component manufacturers, the price of domestic IC components has risen to varying degrees. The IC components of domestic enterprises all rely on imports, and the fluctuation of prices has a great impact on LED driver manufacturers. With the increase in labor costs, rent, marketing and office costs, LED drive power supply price reduction is quite difficult. Many companies have to fill the cost pressure from technology and design, but they have little effect.

"The demand for LED driver power is different, and the order quantity is small, which is the main reason for the high price." Wu Guyiao, R&D Director of Ruigu Technology said. At present, LED street lights are still in the stage of demonstration engineering. The amount is basically small and relatively concentrated. If there is no channel, LED driver sales are a problem. Various manufacturers have robbed orders, even if it is a micro-single, the final result can only be at your own risk.

Lack of core technology in disorderly competition

LED power drive has unparalleled technical advantages, but because there is no authoritative mandatory standard, the voltage, current and interface of each luminaire manufacturer are completely different, which means that all orders must be redeveloped and the materials must be Re-purchasing, so it is difficult to complete customized production in a short period of time, this imbalance of input and output is common in all LED drive power companies. According to Wu Qumiao, the time required for Ruigu to receive the order from the start of production to about the production is about 10 days, and the special model even reaches 80 days. Since the LED driver mainly cooperates with the luminaire manufacturers, if the lamps are unsalable, the development of the LED driver will be lost.

The Chinese government began discussing the development of relevant LED driver standards in 2008, but the results were minimal. The main reason is that although the LED driver has only experienced 2-3 years of development, it has developed very rapidly. After the government has formulated relevant policies, after a period of discussion and declaration, the standards have obviously not been applied until the implementation.

"Only the standard can be introduced to truly solve the problem of industry quality and cost." Luo Changchun said that although there are many problems in the standard, it is very difficult to break through the cost without introducing it. Although the external environment is unfavorable, companies are striving to break through the difficulties in technology.

"Intelligent" or life-saving straw

From the current technical situation of the industry, the average company only stays in the third generation of LED drive technology. The third-generation LED driver of this PFC+resonant constant-current secondary circuit has a certain breakthrough compared with the cost of the previous two generations of products. However, it is difficult to reduce the cost of small-sized repairs by reducing the number of IC components. Reduced. With the innovation of European and American technology and the further demand for energy saving of LED street lamps in China, intelligent drivers have been placed on the research and development agenda of various manufacturers.

The fourth generation of LED drivers released by Infineon is a typical example of “smart” products. By adding a micro-processing digital IC, multiple LED load drivers can be implemented in one luminaire, and it can also be applied to a centralized driver to control multiple lamps. From the perspective of the lighting drive system, a multi-central drive is achieved to reduce costs.

Moso Power's current research and development of the way to control the constant current flow, constant current value, lamp output voltage and other parameters through the background program can expand the external dimming function, the lamp chip temperature and current adaptive control and the external communication interface according to the product requirements. In the case of the same or similar total power, the same driver can be used for different constant current path numbers, constant current values, lamp output voltages, etc., which is the inventory and special materials such as PCB, which are “customized” for the current order. The problem of long procurement time and high cost of magnetic materials is a good solution.

For more information, please refer to the June issue of "High-tech LED-Technology and Applications" magazine.

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