Fairchild Semiconductor Unveils New LED Direct AC Drive Family

Fairchild, a leading global supplier of high-performance semiconductor solutions, today introduced the new FL77944, the first solution in its LED Direct AC Drive family of solid-state LED lighting solutions that manufacturers can use to easily scale power and create smart and scalable LED-based lighting products that can be smaller, have higher performance and a longer system lifetime compared to products using the switch mode power supply (SMPS) approach.

“Our FL77944 LED Direct AC Drive is a superior solution for solid-state LED lighting systems compared to expensive light engines based on SMPS technology,” said Gaurang Shah, Senior Vice President, Power Systems Business Group at Fairchild. “The FL77944 is a cost-effective integrated circuit with everything manufacturers need for smart LED lighting products so they can accelerate time-to-market and focus on differentiating features, rather than spending precious time cobbling together disparate components.”

The advantages of the new FL7794 include:

• Comprehensive dimming capabilities – The FL77944 has all the important dimming capabilities required for smart lighting products, including phase-cut dimming as well as analog and PWM dimming, which is also key for wirelessly connected lighting.
• Scaling for higher power applications – The FL77944’s ability to scale to support higher power applications up to 120W by wiring products in parallel is a critical feature. This reduces the number of different ICs that manufacturers need to keep in inventory.
• Elimination of electrolytic caps – The FL77944 can eliminate the need for electrolytic caps, transformers and inductance coils. This reduces both the bill-of-materials (BOM) costs and the overall complexity compared to designs using SMPS.
• Reduced board space – The FL77944 enables designers to reduce their board space requirements by locating the controller IC on the same PCBs as the LEDs and by eliminating the need for electrolytic caps, transformers and inductance coils.
• Improved reliability and longevity – Products based on the FL77944 should be more reliable and last longer than SMPS-based products as there are inherently fewer points of failure. In particular, eliminating the need for electrolytic capacitors should improve reliability as they are a common source of failures in SMPS-based products.

Availability
The new FL77944 is available today and the FEBFL77944 evaluation board can also be ordered. Read the LED Direct AC Drive blog, view the lighting solutions guide and visit the website for more detailed product information about Fairchild's lighting solutions.