A Comparative Study on Off-Line LED Drivers: High Frequency Sepic-Based PFC Converter Against Low Frequency Boost-Based Pre-Regulators

This work presents a comparison study concerning two topologies of low frequency off-line LED (light-emitting diodes) drivers, based on the boost pre-regulator, and one high frequency off-line LED Driver Based on the DCM SEPIC PFC (power-factor correction) converter. The converters were devised to supply a conventional street lighting LED luminaire. The study took into account the main electrical characteristics of those converters and also some constructive attributes of the prototypes. The implemented LED drivers were devised to supply an LED lamp consisting of 96 series-associated high-power LEDs. The LED drivers were evaluated in laboratory being fed by a 220 V, 60 Hz, low distortion ac power supply, and presented an input power of about 200 W, which is a typical power level for street lighting LED luminaires. These LED drivers presented a high power-factor (PF) and a low total harmonic distortion (THD). The results concerning all drivers were organized in the form of tables. The study allowed highlighting the main advantages and drawbacks of each design approach, i.e., the high-frequency concept against the low-frequency strategy.