CHAPTER 10 Essentials of Switching Power Supplies

This chapter will examine the advantages and disadvantages of the various driver techniques, which have already been described. The issues of efficiency, EMI, cost and other requirements that are additional to the basic function of the LED driver.

10.1 Linear Regulators

In Chapter 4 we saw how the use of linear regulators caused a heat dissipation problem because of low efficiency. A linear LED driver is generally less efficient than a switching driver. Sometimes a linear driver can be more efficient. For example, if you have a 12V power source and three LEDs each having a 3.5 V forward drop, by connecting them in series the total drop is 10.5 V. The efficiency of a linear driver, dropping only ...

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