Exclara Announces Low-Cost High-Voltage LED Driver Solutions

Exclara, a provider of advanced LED driver ICs and modules, announced the launch of Exclara HVX family of low-cost, smallest size LED driver solutions.

Built on Exclara's patented high-voltage driver technology, the new driver solutions series improves efficiency, power factor and quality. It makes the high-voltage LED driver economically and physically effective to use in a commercially available product, paving the way for mass-market, 'sub-$10' LED lights.

EXC100, the first member of the family, is a single-chip power supply for high-voltage LEDs. It supports low parts count, so it requires only a handful of supplementary components, thereby reducing driver size and allowing it to fit into the base of a small bulb or on the LED board itself.

The HVX family is designed  to deliver and improve upon the four essential performance requirements for volume LED applications: high efficiency, power factor correction, dimmer support and low EMI with maximum reliability and long life, company officials said.

The driver solution offers high power factor because there is no utilization of reactive components, and HVX achieves even higher power factors as the internal controller performs the power factor correction.

The company claims that HVX drivers achieve efficiencies of 90-96 percent, while the typical flyback DC system achieves 75-82 percent.

HVX series features dimming capability and is compatible with most dimmers on the market. While HVX performs internal switching, it is implemented in a way that does not produce large harmonics and meets FCC (News - Alert) requirements without the use of external components.

“The transformation of lighting technology -- with the Edison bulb giving way to the LED -- has been predicted for more than a decade,” said Shri Dodani, president and CEO of Exclara, in a statement. “The challenge behind LED lighting, though, has been the inability to produce a high-performance product at a low enough cost to open the door to mass market penetration.”

“Exclara is the first company to offer a LED driver solution that is economically and physically effective to use in commercial systems,” Dodani added. “It will usher in the 'sub-$10' LED bulb and pave the way for widespread adoption of LED lighting.”

The EXC100 is packaged in QFN-28L and is available in sample quantities, with full production expected in August 2011. The EXC100 is priced at $1.29 in quantities of 250K pieces.