CHAPTER 5

Buck-Based LED Drivers

The first switching LED driver that we will study is the buck converter. The buck
converter is the simplest of the switching drivers, and is a step-down converter for
applications where the load voltage is never more than about 85% of the supply
voltage. The limit of about 85% is due to switching delays in the control system. In a
buck converter circuit, a power MOSFET is usually used to switch the supply voltage
across an inductor and LED load connected in series. The inductor is used to store
energy when the MOSFET is turned on; this energy is then used to provide current
for the LED when the MOSFET is turned off. A diode across the LED and inductor
circuit provides a return path for the current during the MOSFET off time. A simple
schematic is shown in Figure 5.1.
CIRCULATING CURRENT
(MOSFET OFF)
V+ SUPPLY

350 mA LED

D1
L1

CURRENT
(MOSFET ON)

CONTROLLER
Q1

Figure 5.1: Buck LED Driver.

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40 Chapter 5

Buck converters are an attractive choice for LED drivers in offline and in low voltage
applications as they can produce a constant LED current at very high efficiencies.
A peak-current-controlled buck converter can give reasonable LED current variation
over a wide range of input and LED voltages and needs no design effort in feedback
control design. Coupled with the fact that these converters can be designed to operate
at above 90% efficiencies, the buck-based driver becomes an attractive solution to
drive high brightness LEDs.

5.1 An Example Buck Converter Control IC

The Supertex HV9910B integrated circuit was designed especially for LED driving. It
is a good example of a low cost, low component count solution to implement the
continuous mode buck converter (the IC itself needs just three additional components
to operate). Linear or PWM dimming can also be easily implemented using the IC.
A diagram of the HV9910B is shown in Figure 5.2.

VIN Reg 7.5 V

OSC Rosc
VDD

250 mV
–
CM S
+
Q
R
LD –
GATE
CM
+

CS

PWM_D

100 k
HV9910

GND

Figure 5.2: Supertex HV9910B.

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 41

The HV9910B has two current sense threshold voltages – an internally set 250 mV
and an external voltage at the LD pin. The actual threshold voltage used during
switching will be the lower of the two. The low value of sense voltage allows the use of
low resistor values for the current sense, which means high efficiency.
The HV9910B IC operates down to 8 V input, which is required for some automobile
applications, and can accept a maximum of 450 V input, which makes it ideal for
offline applications. The IC has an internal regulator that supplies 7.5 V to power to
the IC’s internal circuits from the input voltage, eliminating the need for an external
low voltage power supply. The IC is capable of driving the external MOSFET
directly, without the need for additional driver circuitry.

5.2 Buck Circuits for DC Applications

For DC applications, the schematic shown in Figure 5.3 can be used.

10–30 V DC
C1
4.7 µF
350 mA LED

D1
10BQ060
1 L1
470 µH
6 VIN
VDD
C3
2,2 µF 10 V HV9910 8
RT
R1
5 100K
PWM_D

7 4 Q1
LD GATE VN3205N8
2
CS
3
GND
R2
0,62R

Figure 5.3: Buck Converter for DC Applications.

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42 Chapter 5

5.2.1 Target Specification

Input voltage = 10 V–30 V
LED string voltage = 4–8 V
LED current = 350 mA
Expected efficiency = 90%

5.2.2 Choosing the Switching Frequency and Resistor (R1)

The switching frequency determines the size of the inductor L1. A larger switching
frequency will result in a smaller inductor, but will increase the switching losses in
the circuit. A typical switching frequency for low input voltage applications is
fs = 150 kHz, which is a good compromise. From the HV9910B datasheet, the timing
resistor between the RT pin and ground that is needed to achieve this frequency is 150 k .
However, in this case, the minimum input voltage is only 80% of the maximum output
voltage. In a buck converter, the duty cycle of the MOSFET switch (proportion of the
time that the switch is turned on), is given by D= VVOUT
IN
and will also be 80%. However, in
continuous conduction mode, instability will result when the duty cycle goes over 50%.
To prevent instability, it is necessary to operate in constant off-time mode. This is
achieved with the HV9910B circuit by connecting the timing resistor between the RT pin
and the gate pin. The timing circuit only charges an internal capacitor when the timing
resistor is connected to 0 V; the gate pin is at 0 V when the MOSFET is turned off. Thus
the off-time is constant, so the switching frequency varies as the load voltage changes.
If we choose a timing resistor that gives a constant off-time of say 5 ms, with an 80%
duty cycle the on-time will be 20 ms. The switching frequency will be 40 kHz. At the
other extreme, with a 30 V supply and a 4 V load, the duty cycle will be just 13.33%,
so the on-time will be 767 ns. Now the switching frequency is 173.4 kHz. The average
switching frequency will be about 100 kHz, so we can base the selection of other
components on this. The timing resistor to give 5 ms off-time will be 100 k .

5.2.3 Choosing the Input Capacitor (C1)

An electrolytic capacitor is good to hold the voltage, but the large ESR of these
capacitors makes it unsuitable to absorb the high frequency ripple current generated
by the buck converter. Thus, metallized polypropylene capacitors or ceramic

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 43

capacitors in parallel are needed to absorb the high frequency ripple current. The
required high frequency capacitance can be computed as

Io TOFF
C1 ¼
ð0:05 VminÞ

In this design example, the high frequency capacitance required is about 4.7 mF 50 V.
This capacitor should be located close to the inductor L1 and MOSFET switch
Q1, to keep the high frequency loop current within a small area on the PCB. In
practice, two such capacitors with a small inductor between them (to make a PI filter)
are needed to limit EMI emissions.

5.2.4 Choosing the Inductor (L1)

The inductor value we use depends on the allowed level of ripple current in the LEDs.
Assume that –15% ripple (a total of 30%) is acceptable in the LED current.
di
The familiar equation for an inductor is E ¼ L dt . Considering the time when
the MOSFET switch is off, so that the inductor is supplying energy to the LEDs,
di
E ¼ VLED ¼ Vo,max ¼ L dt . Another way of writing this is L ¼ Vo,max dtdi . Here,
di is the ripple current = 0.3 Io,max and dt is the off-time.
Then, the inductor L1 can be computed at the rectified value of the nominal input
voltage as

Vo,max TOFF
L1 ¼
0:3 Io,max

In this example, L1 = 380 mH and the nearest standard value is 470 mH. Since this value is
a little higher than the calculated value, the ripple current will be less than 30%.
The peak current rating of the inductor will be 350 mA plus 15% ripple:

ip ¼ 0:35 1:15 ¼ 0:4 A:

The RMS current through the inductor will be the same as the average current
(i.e. 350 mA).

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44 Chapter 5

5.2.5 Choosing the MOSFET (Q1) and Diode (D2)

The peak voltage seen by the MOSFET is equal to the maximum input voltage. Using
a 50% safety rating,
VFET ¼ 1:5 30 V ¼ 45 V

The maximum RMS current through the MOSFET depends on the maximum duty
cycle, which is 80% in our example. Hence, the current rating of the MOSFET is
IFET Io,max 0:8 ¼ 0:28 A:
Typically a MOSFET with about three times the current is chosen to minimize the
resistive losses in the switch. For this application, choose a 50 V, >1 A MOSFET;
a suitable device is a Supertex part, VN3205N8, rated at 50 V 1.5 A.
The peak voltage rating of the diode is the same as the MOSFET. Hence,

Vdiode ¼ VFET ¼ 45 V

The average current through the diode under worst case conditions (minimum duty
cycle) is
Idiode ¼ 0:87 Io,max ¼ 0:305 A

Choose a 60 V, 1 A Schottky diode. The International Rectifier 10BQ060 is a suitable

type.

5.2.6 Choosing the Sense Resistor (R2)

The sense resistor value is given by

0:25
R2 ¼
1:15 Io,max

This is true if the internal voltage threshold of 0.25 V is being used. Otherwise,
substitute the voltage at the LD pin instead of the 0.25 V into the equation. Note
that the current limit is set to 15% above the maximum required current, due to
the total 30% ripple specified.

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 45

For this design, R2 = 0.625 . The nearest standard value is R2 = 0.62 .

If a standard value is not close to the value calculated, or if a lower power
dissipation in the sense resistor is required (perhaps to increase efficiency), a
potential divider can be connected to the LD pin to set it at a lower voltage. Say
we want to use a 0.47 resistor; then we would scale the 0.25 V at the LD pin by
0.47/0.625 = 0.752, so that it becomes 188 mV.
Note that capacitor C3 is a bypass capacitor for holding up the HV9910B internal
supply VDD during MOSFET switching, when high frequency current pulses are
required for charging the gate. A typical value for C3 of 2.2 mF, 16 V is recommended,
although in this design the MOSFET gate charge is very low, so a 1 mF, 16 V can be
used instead.

5.2.7 Common Errors in Low Voltage Buck Design

1. Using an inductor that has too high inductance.
Although increasing the inductor value may seem to be the answer to reduce
current ripple, it actually causes problems because the current does not fall
enough between switching cycles for proper control by the controller IC. The
voltage seen across the current sense resistor at switch-on will be almost at the
current sense comparator reference voltage. At switch-on there will be a
current surge, caused by the flywheel diode reverse current and the current
through the inductor’s parasitic capacitance. The smallest current surge will
create a voltage spike across the current sense resistor and hence the current
sense comparator will trip. This means that the MOSFET will switch off
almost immediately after switch-on.
A typical switching pattern is one proper switching cycle, where energy is
stored in the inductor, followed by one short switching pulse. This switching
pulse provides very little energy to the inductor, but generates high switching
losses. The result is a less efficient circuit that could suffer from overheating
and EMI problems.
2. Using the wrong type of flywheel diode.
A Schottky diode has a low forward voltage drop, which will give low power
dissipation. However, in low duty cycle applications the LED current is
flowing in the flywheel diode most of the time. A forward voltage of say 0.45 V

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46 Chapter 5

at 350 mA results in 157.5 mW conduction losses, so an SMA size package

works well, but for higher current applications a large SMB or SMC package
should be considered. Note that the forward voltage drop of Schottky diodes
increases with their current rating, so a 30 V Schottky has much lower Vf than
a 100 V Schottky.

5.3 Buck Circuits for AC Input

I will now discuss the design of a buck-based LED driver using the HV9910B with
the help of an AC mains input application example. The same procedure can be used
to design LED drivers with other input voltage ranges. The schematic is shown in
Figure 5.4.

Live

V+
230 VAC
+ C1 C2
33uF 330 nF
350 mA LED

NTC
D1
1 UF4005 L1
VIN 4,7 mH
6
VDD
C3
2,2uF 10 V HV9910
4 Q1
7 GATE STD2NM60T4
LD 2
CS
5
PWM_D R2
0,62R
R1
3 Rosc 8
GND
470K

Figure 5.4: Universal Mains Input Buck Circuit.

Designs for an AC input have two problem areas to address. In addition to

considering the LED driving aspects, we must also consider the low frequency and,
usually, high voltage supply. Because we are applying a low frequency sinusoidal
high voltage supply, high value input capacitors are needed to hold up the supply

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 47

voltage during the cusps between each half-cycle of the input. Applying high voltage
across high value capacitors creates a large inrush current that can cause damage, so
an inrush limiter (negative temperature coefficient thermistor) is required.

5.3.1 Target Specification

Input voltage = 90 V to 265 V AC (nominal 230 V AC)
LED string voltage = 20–40 V
LED current = 350 mA
Expected efficiency = 90%

5.3.2 Choosing the Switching Frequency and Resistor (R1)

The switching frequency determines the size of the inductor L1. A larger switching
frequency will result in a smaller inductor, but will increase the switching losses in
the circuit. A typical switching frequency for high input voltage applications is
fs = 80 kHz, which is a good compromise. From the HV9910B datasheet, the timing
resistor needed to achieve this is 470 k .

5.3.3 Choosing the Input Diode Bridge (D1) and the

Thermistor (NTC)
The voltage rating of the diode bridge will depend on the maximum value of the input
voltage. A 1.5 multiplication factor gives a 50% safety margin.
pffiffiffi
Vbridge ¼ 1:5 2 Vmax,ac ¼ 562 V

The current rating will depend on the highest average current drawn by the
converter, which is at minimum input voltage (DC level, allowing for a ‘droop’
across the input capacitor between the AC line voltage peaks) and at maximum
output power. The minimum input voltage must be more than half the maximum
LED string voltage, to make sure that the duty cycle stays below 50% and thus
remains stable. For this example, the minimum rectified voltage should be

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48 Chapter 5

Vmin,dc ¼ 2 Vo,max ¼ 80 V:

Vo,max Io,max 14
Ibridge ¼ ¼ ¼ 0:194 A
Vmin,dc 72

For this design, using a 230 V AC supply, choose a 600 V 1 A diode bridge.
The thermistor should limit the inrush current to not more than five times the
steady state current, assuming maximum voltage is applied. The required cold
resistance is:
pffiffiffi
2 Vmax,ac
Rcold ¼
5 Ibridge

This gives us a 380 resistance at 25 C. The calculations suggest that we choose a

thermistor whose resistance is around 380 and RMS current greater than 0.2 A, but
in practice a 120 thermistor rated at 1 A would suffice.

5.3.4 Choosing the Input Capacitors (C1 and C2)

The first design criterion to meet is that the maximum LED string voltage must be
less than half the minimum input voltage. This is to satisfy the stability requirements
when operating at a constant switching frequency. As we have already seen, the
minimum rectified voltage should be

Vmin,dc ¼ 2 Vo,max ¼ 80 V

The hold-up capacitor required at the output of the diode bridge will have to be
calculated at the minimum AC input voltage. The capacitor can be calculated as

Vo,max Io,max
C1
2 V2min,ac V2min,dc freq

In this example,

C1 26:45 mF

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 49

The voltage rating of the capacitor should be more than the peak input voltage.
pffiffiffi
Vmax,cap 2 Vmax,ac
) Vmax,cap 375 V

Choose a 450 V, 33 mF electrolytic capacitor.

The electrolytic capacitor is good to hold the voltage, but the large ESR of these
capacitors makes it unsuitable to absorb the high frequency ripple current generated
by the buck converter. Thus, a metallized polypropylene capacitor is needed in
parallel with the electrolytic capacitor to absorb the high frequency ripple current.
The required high frequency capacitance can be computed as

Io,max 0:25
C2 ¼
fs ð0:05 Vmin,dc Þ

In this design example, the high frequency capacitance required is about

0.33 mF, 400 V. This capacitor should be located close to the inductor L1 and
MOSFET switch Q1, to keep the high frequency loop current within a small
area on the PCB.

5.3.5 Choosing the Inductor (L1)

The inductor value we use depends on the allowed level of ripple current in the LEDs.
Assume that –15% ripple (a total of 30%) is acceptable in the LED current.
di
The familiar equation for an inductor is E ¼ L dt : Considering the time when
the MOSFET switch is off, so that the inductor is supplying energy to the
di
LEDs, E ¼ VLED ¼ Vo,max ¼ L dt : Another way of writing this is L ¼ Vo,max dt
di .

1 ffiV
p o,max
2 Vac,nom
Here, di is the ripple current = 0.3 Io,max and dt is the off-time dt ¼ fs .
ð1 DÞ
Note, a buck circuit duty cycle is given by D ¼ VVout
in
, so the off-time is dt ¼ fs .

Then, the inductor L1 can be computed at the rectified value of the nominal input
voltage as
V
Vo,max 1 pffiffi o,max
2 Vac,nom
L1 ¼
0:3 Io,max fs

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50 Chapter 5

In this example, L1 = 4.2 mH. The nearest standard value is 4.7 mH. Since this value
is a little higher than the calculated value, the ripple current will be less than 30%.
The peak current rating of the inductor will be 350 mA plus 15% ripple:

Ip ¼ 0:35 1:15 ¼ 0:4 A

The RMS current through the inductor will be the same as the average current
(i.e. 350 mA).
Note that with a large inductance value, the parasitic capacitance across the coil
could be significant and will affect switching losses.

5.3.6 Choosing the MOSFET (Q1) and Diode (D2)

The peak voltage seen by the MOSFET is equal to the maximum input voltage. Using
a 50% safety rating,
pffiffiffi
VFET ¼ 1:5 2 265 ¼ 562 V

The maximum RMS current through the MOSFET depends on the maximum duty
cycle, which is 50% by design. Hence, the current rating of the MOSFET is
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
IFET Io,max 0:5 ¼ 0:247 A
Typically a MOSFET with about three times the current is chosen to minimize the
resistive losses in the switch. For this application, choose a 600 V, >1 A MOSFET; a
suitable device is an ST part, STD2NM60, rated at 600 V 2 A. This MOSFET has
2.8 on-resistance. With 350 mA being passed up to 50% of the time, the conduction
losses will be 171 mW.
Although a MOSFET with lower on-resistance could be used to reduce the
conduction losses, the switching losses, which are caused by parasitic capacitance
and diode reverse recovery current, will then be higher. The diode D2 passes current
in the reverse direction for a short period: imagine a mechanical value that is passing
a fluid – when the pressure reverses it takes a short time for the valve to close and
shut off the reverse flow. The analogy can be applied to diodes, because they have free
electrons in their conduction band that have to be swept out by the reverse potential
before current flow stops. Each time the MOSFET turns on, a current spike passes

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 51

through the MOSFET, but the current is limited by the MOSFET current rating, so a
lower current rating can reduce the switching losses.
The peak voltage rating of the diode is the same as the MOSFET. Hence,

Vdiode ¼ VFET ¼ 562 V

The average current through the diode is

Idiode ¼ 0:5 Io,max ¼ 0:175 A

Choose a 600 V, 1 A ultra-fast diode. The UF4005 is a low cost ultra-fast type, but for
greatest efficiency a faster diode like STTH1R06 should be used. If we assume a
forward voltage drop of 1 V at 350 mA, the conduction loss will be less than 350 mW
at low duty cycles. The switching loss could be higher that this value, but is less of a
problem in faster diodes because the reverse conduction is for a shorter time period.

5.3.7 Choosing the Sense Resistor (R2)

The sense resistor value is given by

0:25
R2 ¼
1:15 Io,max

This is true if the internal voltage threshold of 0.25 V is being used. Otherwise,
substitute the voltage at the LD pin instead of the 0.25 V into the equation. A lower
voltage could be applied to the LD pin to enable a convenient value of R2 to be used,
as described earlier.
For this design, R2 = 0.625 . The nearest standard value is R2 = 0.62 .
Note that capacitor C3 is a bypass capacitor for holding up the HV9910B internal
supply VDD during MOSFET switching, when high frequency current pulses are
required for charging the gate. A typical value for C3 of 2.2 mF, 16 V is recommended,
although for AC applications smaller capacitors as low as 0.1 mF have been used
successfully. The switching frequency tends to be lower and so the MOSFET gate
current requirements are low. Also with a higher voltage on the input supply pin, the
voltage drop across the internal regulator during MOSFET switching is unlikely to
cause under-voltage drop out.

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52 Chapter 5

5.4 Buck Circuits Powered by an AC Phase Dimmer

An LED driver powered by an AC phase dimmer needs special additional circuits.
These additional circuits are required because of the phase dimmer circuit. Phase
dimmers usually use a triac activated by a passive phase shift circuit. Because of
switching transients, which would otherwise cause serious EMI problems, the triac is
bypassed by a capacitor (typically 10 nF) and has an inductor in series with its output.
The phase dimmer circuit is shown in Figure 5.5.

62 nF
47K 220K

BR100

0.1 mH

TRIAC

47 nF

Figure 5.5: Phase Dimmer Circuit.

The input of an inactive LED driver is high impedance, with a large capacitor on
the DC side of the bridge rectifier. The capacitor across the triac allows a small
current to flow through the bridge rectifier and the smoothing capacitor starts to
charge. When the voltage builds up, the LED driver will try to operate. The result
is an occasional flicker of the LED.
What is required is a discharge circuit, to keep the smoothing capacitor voltage
below that required to start the LED driver. A 390 resistor was found to keep
the smoothing capacitor voltage below 5 V. To prevent high power loss when
the circuit is active, a simple voltage detector can be used to disconnect the
390 resistor when a voltage above about 8 V is detected. This circuit is shown
in Figure 5.6.

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 53

DC RAIL
AC INPUT
+

1N4006 1N4006

+9 V

390R
220K
47K
VN2460N3
VN0106N3

7V5
7V5 100K

Figure 5.6: Smoothing Capacitor Discharge Circuit.

The triac needs to see a load. Once a triac is triggered, it is the load current that
keeps it switched on; the triac is a self-sustaining switch. However, an LED driver
provides no load until the input voltage has risen above the LED voltage, and it takes
a little time for this current to be stable at a sufficiently high level to keep the triac
turned on. For this reason, an additional load must be switched across the LED
driver input at low voltages.
Tests have shown that a 2K2 resistor works as a triac load and that it should
remain in circuit until the supply voltage has risen to about 100 V, but should then be
switched off until the rising edge of the next half-wave. A latching circuit to provide
this function is shown in Figure 5.7.
These circuits can be combined. The voltage detector for the smoothing capacitor
discharge circuit can also be used to provide an enable signal for the LED driver

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54 Chapter 5

DC RAIL
AC INPUT
+

1N4006 1N4006

2K2
1W
1N4148 220K
330K

47K
+9 V

VN2460N3 100 V
VN0106N3

7V5
7V5 100K

Figure 5.7: Additional Load Switch.

(PWM input). Thus when the triac is off, the LED driver is also off. The combined
circuit is shown in Figure 5.8.

5.5 Common Errors in AC Input Buck Circuits

The most common error is trying to drive a single LED from the AC mains supply.
The duty cycle is Vout/Vin, so for universal AC input 90 V to 265 V AC, the rectified
voltage is about 100 V to 375 V. The worst case is the higher voltage; consider driving
a white LED with 3.5 V forward voltage. The duty cycle will be 3.5/375 = 0.9333%
duty cycle. If the switching frequency is 50 kHz, with 0.02 ms second period, the
MOSFET on-time will be just 186 ns. This time is too short for the current sense

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 55

NTC
100 nF 100 nF V+
X2 X2
+ C1 C2
220K 33uF 330 nF
350 mA LED
+9 V

9V1 D1
1 UF4005 L1
VIN 4,7 mH
6
C3 VDD
1N4006 1N4006
HV9910
Q1
GATE 4 STD2NM60T4
7
2K2 LD 2
CS
1W 1N4148
330K 220K +9 V 5 R2
PWM_D
0,62R
47K 390R 220K 8 R1
+9 V 47K 3 Rosc
GND 470K
100V VN2460N3
VN2460N3 VN0106N3 VN0106N3

7V5 7V5
7V5 100K 7V5

Figure 5.8: Complete Phase Dimmable LED Driver.

circuit to react; it needs to be at least 300 ns. Operating at 20 kHz will give an on-time
of 466 ns, which is close to the limit for accurate control. A double buck may be
needed (see next section).
Another error is not taking into account the parasitic capacitance of the inductor
windings and the reverse current in the flywheel diode. These factors can be ignored
in low voltage DC applications, but not in AC applications where the rectified supply
is high voltage. The current peak through the MOSFET can be high enough to trip
the current sense circuit, resulting in erratic switching. An RC filter between the
current sense resistor and the current sense input of the integrated circuit may be
necessary. A 2.2 k series resistor followed by a 100 pF shunt capacitor to ground
should be sufficient.

5.6 Double Buck

The double buck is an unusual design, as shown in Figure 5.9. It uses one
MOSFET switch, but two inductors (L2 and L3) in series. Diodes steer the current
in L2, which must operate in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) for correct
operation.

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56 Chapter 5

Live
L1 L2
0.1 mH 2 mH
V+
230 VAC
C1 C2
47 nF 47 nF D2 C3
D1 BYD57J 470 nF L3
36 V
0.33 mH
D3 D4
BYD57J BYD57J
1 350 mA LED
6 VIN
+ VDD
C3
2,2uF 10 V HV9910
4 Q1
7 GATE STD2NM60T4
LD 2
CS
5
PWM_D R1 R2
470K 0,56R
3 Rosc 8
GND

Figure 5.9: Double Buck.

The double buck is used when the output voltage is very low and the input voltage is
high. An example is driving a single power LED from an AC supply line. A single
buck stage cannot work easily because the on-time of the buck converter is too small,
unless a very low switching frequency is used.
Assume the maximum duty cycle, Dmax, is less than 0.5; also assume that the first
stage (L2) is in boundary conduction mode (BCM) at Dmax. Boundary conduction
mode means that the current through the inductor only just falls to zero and the next
switching cycle begins.

Vo
Vin min ¼
Dmax2

Or transposed, this becomes:

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Vo
Dmax ¼
Vin min

This assumes that L2 is in BCM and L3 is in continuous conduction mode (CCM); at

the minimum operating input voltage (Vin min).

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 57

The storage capacitor voltage at Vin min and Dmax is given by the equation:

Vc min ¼ Vin min Dmin

The peak current through the input stage inductor, at Vin min equals:

IL2 pk ¼ 2 IL2 avg

Vo Io
¼2
Vc min

Thus the primary stage inductor L2 has a value given by:

ðVin min Vc minÞ Dmax Ts

L2 ¼
IL2 pk

The transfer ratio for a DCM buck converter (where R is load resistor seen by the
converter) is given by:

Vc 2
¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Vin 1 þ 1 þ 8 L2
R Ts D2

The resistor R seen by the first stage (and assuming second stage is in CCM) is
given by:
Vc 2
R¼
Po
2 ð Vc DÞ2 Vo 2
)R D ¼ ¼
Po Po
Combining the previous two equations (which turn out to be a constant):
Vc 2
¼K¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Vin 1 þ 1 þ 8 L2 Po Ts Vo 2

We find that D is inversely proportional to Vin:

Vo Vo
D¼ ¼
Vc K Vin

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58 Chapter 5

And we can now show that the peak inductor current through L2 is a constant
over the operating input voltage:

Setting D = K0 /Vin, K0 = Vo/K

K0 is a constant, since Vo is constant.

ðVin Vc Þ D Ts
iL2,pk ¼
L2
K0
Vin ð1 KÞ Vin Ts
¼
L1
ð1 KÞ K0 T s
¼
L2
We
pffiffiffi can now define the average input voltage as the maximum input voltage
ð 2Vac max Þ and the minimum operating input voltage:

ðVin max þ Vin min Þ

Vin avg ¼
2

The storage capacitor value is computed based on 10% voltage ripple on the
capacitor at Vin min and Dmax:

0:5 IL2 pk ð1 Dmax Þ Ts

C¼
0:1 Vc min

The voltage across the storage capacitor, with average voltage input, is given by:

Cc avg ¼ K Vin avg

We can now compute the average duty cycle (at average input voltage):

Vo
Davg ¼
Vc avg
Computing the value of L3:

ðVc avg Vo Þ Davg Ts

L3 ¼
DIL3

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 Buck-Based LED Drivers 59

5.7 Hysteretic Buck

As an alternative to the peak current control buck, hysteretic control can be used.
This uses a fast comparator to drive the MOSFET switch. The input to the
comparator is a high side current sense circuit, where the voltage across a resistor
in the positive power feed to the LED load is monitored. This is shown in
Figure 5.10.

Flywheel Diode

VIN Rcs LED L

Comparator
–
MOSFET
+ Switch

Figure 5.10: Hysteretic Current Control Circuit.

The MOSFET is turned on when the current level is at or below a minimum reference
voltage. The MOSFET is turned off when the current is at or above a maximum
reference voltage. This is shown in Figure 5.11. By this method, the average LED
current remains constant, regardless of changes in the supply voltage or LED
forward voltage.

Vcs (high)

Vcs (Average)

Vcs

Vcs (Low)

Figure 5.11: Current Sense Voltage (Current in LED Load).

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60 Chapter 5

The current level is set by a suitable resistor value, given by:

1 VCSðhighÞ þ VCSðlowÞ
RSENSE ¼
2 ILED

In words, the average current sense voltage (midway between the high and low levels)
divided by the average LED current required. The datasheet of the hysteretic
controller being used will give the upper and lower current sense voltage levels that
the comparator uses.

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