Driver and LED lamp comprising driver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10708993-B2
Application number	US-201816014095-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2018
Priority date	Jun 21, 2017
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

A driver comprises a front-end stage, a back-end stage, and an intermediate controller. The front-end stage comprises a front-end main circuit and a front-end controller, and is configured to rectify an AC input voltage from an external power supply and output a DC bus voltage through output terminals. The back-end stage comprises a buck circuit, and configured to receive the bus voltage from the front-end stage and output a desired DC drive voltage to a load according to an operating voltage of the load. The intermediate controller is configured to obtain a difference voltage signal indicative of an electric potential difference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage, and provide a feedback signal generated based on the difference voltage signal to the front-end controller. The front-end controller controls the front-end main circuit based on the feedback signal to change the bus voltage with change of the drive voltage.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A driver for driving a load, comprising: a front-end stage, a back-end stage, and an intermediate controller, wherein
the front-end stage comprises a front-end main circuit and a front-end controller, and is configured to rectify an AC input voltage from an external power supply and output a DC bus voltage through output terminals;
the back-end stage comprises a buck circuit, and configured to receive the DC bus voltage from the front-end stage and output a desired DC drive voltage to the load according to an operating voltage of the load, wherein the DC bus voltage is greater than the desired DC drive voltage; and
the intermediate controller is configured to obtain a difference voltage signal indicative of an electric potential difference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage, and provide a feedback signal which is generated based on the difference voltage signal to the front-end controller, wherein the front-end controller controls the front-end main circuit based on the feedback signal to change the bus voltage with change of the drive voltage.

2. The driver as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the buck circuit comprises a controllable switch, a diode and an inductor;
wherein the buck circuit adopts a switch floated topology structure or an output floated topology structure.

3. The driver as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the intermediate controller comprises a first module configured to generate the difference voltage signal, and the first module comprising:
a differential sampling circuit, wherein a first electrode of the controllable switch is connected with one input terminal of the differential sampling circuit and a second electrode of the controllable switch is connected with the other input terminal of the differential sampling circuit and the differential sampling circuit outputs a scaled potential difference between the first electrode of the controllable switch and the second electrode of the controllable switch; and
a filter circuit which filters an output of the differential sampling circuit and outputs the difference voltage signal.

4. The driver as claimed in claim 3 , wherein
the difference voltage signal is directly provided to the front-end controller as the feedback signal; and
the front-end controller is configured to control the difference voltage signal to follow a predefined difference voltage reference based on the difference voltage signal and the predefined difference voltage reference, so as to maintain the electric potential difference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage within a predetermined range.

5. The driver as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the intermediate controller further comprises a second module configured to receive the difference voltage signal as input and produce a modulated bus voltage signal;
wherein the modulated bus voltage signal is provided to the front-end controller as the feedback signal; and
wherein the front-end controller is configured to control the modulated bus voltage signal to follow a predefined bus voltage reference based on the modulated bus voltage signal and the predefined bus voltage reference, so as to maintain the electric potential difference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage within a predetermined range.

6. The driver as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the second module comprises a first circuit coupled to the first module and a second circuit comprising a transistor,
wherein the first circuit is configured to receive the difference voltage signal and provide a base control signal which is generated based on the difference voltage signal to a base electrode of the transistor; and
wherein the second circuit is configured to generate the modulated bus voltage signal based on the base control signal.

7. The driver as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the first circuit comprises a closed-loop compensation circuit for receiving a potential difference reference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage, and the difference voltage signal, and generating the base control signal.

8. The driver as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the second circuit comprises a first resistor, a second resistor connected in series with the first resistor and a third resistor connected in series with the transistor, the first resistor and the second resistor are connected in parallel with the output terminals, a common terminal of the first resistor and the second resistor is connected with the front-end controller, and the third resistor and the transistor are connected in parallel with the second resistor.

9. The driver as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the driver comprises the intermediate controller configured to receive a sensing signal of the bus voltage and a sensing signal of the drive voltage as input and generate the difference voltage signal.

10. The driver as claimed in claim 9 , wherein
the difference voltage signal is directly provided to the front-end controller as the feedback signal; and
the front-end controller is configured to control the difference voltage signal to follow a predefined difference voltage reference based on the difference voltage signal and the predefined difference voltage reference, so as to maintain the electric potential difference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage within a predetermined range.

11. The driver as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the intermediate controller further comprises a second module configured to receive the difference voltage signal as input and produce a modulated bus voltage signal;
wherein the modulated bus voltage signal is provided to the front-end controller as the feedback signal; and
wherein the front-end controller is configured to control the modulated bus voltage signal to follow a predefined bus voltage reference based on the modulated bus voltage signal and the predefined bus voltage reference, so as to maintain the electric potential difference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage within a predetermined range.

12. The driver as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the second module comprises a first circuit coupled to the first module and a second circuit comprising a transistor,
wherein the first circuit is configured to receive the difference voltage signal and provide a base control signal which is generated based on the difference voltage signal to a base electrode of the transistor; and
wherein the second circuit is configured to generate the modulated bus voltage signal based on the base control signal.

13. The driver as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the first circuit comprises a closed-loop compensation circuit for receiving a potential difference reference between the bus voltage and the drive voltage, and the difference voltage signal, and generating the base control signal.

14. The driver as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the second circuit comprises a first resistor, a second resistor connected in series with the first resistor and a third resistor connected in series with the transistor, the first resistor and the second resistor are connected in parallel with the output terminals, a common terminal of the first resistor and the second resistor is connected with the front-end controller, and the third resistor and the transistor are connected in parallel with the second resistor.

15. An LED lamp for connecting to an external power supply, comprising:
a lighting source including a plurality of LEDs; and
a driver, configured for driving the lighting source, the driver comprising:
a front-end stage comprising a front-end main circuit and a front-end controller, and configured to rectify an AC input voltage from the exte

Assignees

• Current Lighting Solutions Llc

Inventors

• Chen Longyu
• Wei Hongbin

Classifications

• H02M1/0022

  the disturbance parameters being input voltage fluctuations · CPC title

• H02M1/007

  Plural converter units in cascade (push-pull DC/DC converters with pre-regulator H02M3/3374; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC stage including a high frequency transformer H02M7/4807; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC conversion stage generating periodically varying voltages H02M7/4826) · CPC title

• H02M3/156 Primary

  with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators · CPC title

• H05B45/375

  using buck topology · CPC title

• H02M7/217

  using semiconductor devices only · CPC title