A Single-Stage SEPIC PFC Converter for Multiple Lighting LED Lamps

*Hsiu-Ming Huang, **Shih-Jen Cheng, **Tai-Hung Wang, **Huang-Jen Chiu, Member, IEEE
*Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Chung-Yuan Christian University
**Dept. of Electronic Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
hjchiu@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Abstract—This paper presents a SEPIC PFC converter for characteristics. A large input filter used for eliminating the
driving multiple lighting LED lamps. With the aid of this current harmonics in the DCM Flyback PFC converter is
converter, high power factor and high efficiency can be unnecessary. Correspondingly, a burst-mode dimming
achieved by a simple single-stage circuit with low device method is designed to control the current and brightness of
stress features. A burst-mode dimming method is used to multiple LED lamps. In the following sections, the
regulate the current and brightness of multiple LED lamps. operation principle and design considerations of the studied
A laboratory prototype is also built and tested. With the LED lamp driver will be analyzed and discussed in detail.
prototype, high power factor can remain under universal
input voltage operation and individual lamp brightness
control.
Keywords—SEPIC PFC Converter, Multiple Lighting LED
Lamps, Single-Stage, Burst-Mode

I. Introduction
The rapid advancements in new materials and (a)
manufacturing technologies have facilitated the use of
high-luminance LEDs for lighting applications, and they
have efficacies (lm/W) above those of incandescent lamp,
which are growing to fluorescent efficacy levels [1, 2].
Compared with fluorescent lamps, LED lamps have
(b)
numerous advantages, such as up to 100,000 hours of
Figure 1(a) Single-Stage DCM Flyback PFC Converter and
operation life, a wide range of temperature operation for
(b) Current Waveform.
-20°C to 120°C, and their ability to work with low and safe
voltages. In general lighting applications, a single-stage
DCM Flyback PFC converter as shown in Figure 1(a) is
commonly used to drive LED lamps for achieving a high
power factor and regulating lamp current with a simple
circuit configuration. However, DCM operation as shown in
Figure 1(b) causes high peak current stresses and serious
electromagnetic interference (EMI) problem [3, 4]. Multiple
LED lamps also usually need to be connected in parallel for
obtaining enough lighting levels. The current/ voltage (a)
characteristic variations of high-luminance LEDs as shown
in Figure 2(a) cause brightness difference. Therefore,
dimming control is an important design consideration for
multiple lamp lighting applications. It is usually used to
regulate lighting levels for human needs as well as to
achieve energy saving. A transconductance-amplifier
dimming method as shown in Figure 2(b) is widely used for
current sharing among paralleled LED lamps. The (b)
conduction losses of the dimming transistors under Figure 2(a) LED C/ V Characteristic Variations and (b)
dimming operation are very significant such that the Transconductance-Amplifier Dimming.
thermal problem of the lighting system will be difficult to
solve [5-8]. In this paper, a single-ended primary inductance II.Operation Principle and Steady-State Analysis
converter (SEPIC) with burst-mode (BM) dimming is As shown in Figure 3, the studied LED lamp driver is
presented for driving multiple lighting LED lamps. High implemented by adopting a single-stage SEPIC PFC
power factor and high efficiency can be achieved by a converter. For achieving the current adjustment of the LED
simple single-stage circuit with low device stress lamps, the burst-mode dimmers are connected in series with
the lamps. Individual lamp brightness can be controlled by
the corresponding dimming transistors. These dimming
transistors are operated as low-frequency switches. Under
dimming operations, the conduction losses can be
significantly reduced. Likewise, the thermal problem on the
dimming transistors for the transconductance-amplifier
dimming method can be improved. The single-stage SEPIC
PFC converter is composed of PFC choke Lp, power switch
Q, DC bus capacitor Cbus, coupled inductor Lc, freewheeling
diode Df, reset diode Dr and output capacitor Co. The BM
dimmers are connected in series with the corresponding
LED lamps to regulate the LED current and brightness.
Based on the symbols and signal polarities shown in Figure
3, the theoretical waveforms of the single-stage SEPIC PFC
converter are shown in Figure 4. There are six switching
modes within an operating cycle. Referring to the
equivalent circuits in Figure 5, the operating principle of the
single-stage PFC converter can be explained in detail.

Figure 3 Schematic Diagram of the Studied LED Lamp Driver.

energy stored in the magnetizing inductance Lm of the

coupled inductor Lc is transferred to the output capacitor Co
via the conducting diode Df. The currents ILp and ILm
decrease linearly at the rates of
dI Lp Vo + Vbus - Vin , (2)
=-
dt Lp
dI Lm V
=- o , (3)
dt Lm
The positive voltage across the leakage inductance Llk
of the coupled inductor Lc forces the current Ir to increase
linearly at the rate of
dI r 1 Ns
= ( - 1)V ,o
(4)
Figure 4 Theoretical Waveforms of the Single-Stage SEPIC dt Llk Np
PFC Converter. Then the decreasing rate of the freewheeling diode
Mode I (t0~t1): At t0, the power switch Q is turned on. current IDf can be expressed as
During this time interval, the current ILp flowing through the dI Df dI Lp dI Lm N s dI Lr
PFC choke Lp increases linearly and the freewheeling diode = + - , (5)
Df remains off. The negative voltage across the leakage dt dt dt N p dt
inductance Llk of the coupled inductor Lc forces the current Mode V (t4~t5): At t4, the current ILm flowing through the
Ir to decrease rapidly at the rate of magnetizing inductance Lm of the coupled inductor Lc
dI r 1 Ns changes its direction. During this time interval, both the
=- ( Vbus + Vo ) , (1)
diodes Df and Dr remain on.
dt Llk N p
Mode VI (t5~t6): At t5, the current IDf decreases to zero
Mode II (t1~t2): At t1, the current Ir decreases to zero and and the freewheeling diode Df is turned off with
the reset diode Dr is turned off with zero-current switching. zero-current switching. The circuit will then proceed back
The DC bus voltage Vbus forces the reversed current ILm to Mode I after completing one operating cycle Ts.
flowing through the magnetizing inductance Lm of the From the theoretical waveforms shown in Figure 4, it
coupled inductor Lc to change its direction at t2. is obvious that Equation (6) must be satisfied for achieving
Mode III (t2~t3): During this time interval, both the
the zero-current turn-off of the freewheeling diode Df.
currents ILp and ILm increase linearly. The freewheeling
dI Df I Df, pk
diode Df and the reset diode Dr remain off. The energy is ≥- , (6)
stored in the PFC choke Lp and the magnetizing inductance dt (1 - δ )Ts
Lm of the coupled inductor Lc. where IDf,pk is the peak value of the freewheeling diode
Mode IV (t3~t4): At t3, the power switch Q is turned off. current IDf. It is the same as the peak switch current IQ,pk that
The energy stored in the PFC choke Lp is released to the DC can be represented as follows:
bus capacitor Cbus and the output capacitor Co, while the
 4 V (1 - δ )Ts 1 1 , (7) Mode V (t4~t5)
I Df , pk = I Q , pk = I Lp + o ( + )
2δ + 1 2 L p Lm
Based on the volt-second balance of the PFC choke Lp
and the magnetizing inductance Lm, the voltage transfer
ratio of the single-stage SEPIC PFC converter can be
obtained as follows [9-11]:
Vo δ , (8)
=
Vin 1 - δ
The input voltage Vin can be expressed as Mode VI (t5~t6)
Vin = V p sin2πf l t , (9)
where Vp and fl are the peak value and line frequency of the
input voltage, respectively. Assuming that the ripple current
on the PFC choke Lp is negligible, the input current Iin of
the single-stage PFC converter can be expressed as follows:
2P
I in = I p sin 2πf l t = l sin 2πf l t , (10)
Vp
where Pl is the load power and Ip is the peak value of the Figure 5 Equivalent Circuits under Different Switching
input current. Modes.
Mode I (t0~t1)
III. Design Considerations
For achieving the current adjustment of the LED lamps,
the burst-mode dimmer shown in Figure 6(a) is connected
in series with the lamp. Figure 6(b) shows the theoretical
waveforms of the LED dimmer. The average LED lamp
current can be represented as follows:
I lamp, j = δ lamp, j I lamp_pk, j , j = 1, 2,..., n , (11)

Mode II (t1~t2) where Ilamp_pk,j is the peak value of the LED lamp #j and
δlamp,j is the duty ratio of the corresponding dimming
transistor Qd,j. As shown in Figure 6(a), the LED lamp
current is regulated by adjusting the duty ratio δlamp,j of the
dimming transistor Qd,j. The operating frequency of the
dimming transistors is usually higher than 70Hz, making
them perceivable to the human eye. Considering the
switching loss for the dimming transistors, the burst-mode
frequency in this paper is designed at 400Hz. However, any
Mode III (t2~t3) LED failure will result in the extinguishment of the
corresponding LED lamp. As shown in Figure 6(a), each
LED is connected in parallel with a zener diode. The
voltage across a failed LED reaches the breakdown voltage
of the zener diode and the lamp current flows through the
parallel connected zener diode. The LED lamp will not
extinguish even though any LED fails.

Mode IV (t3~t4)

(a)
 LED with a nominal voltage of 3.42V at a rated current of
350mA. The prototype is designed to supply four paralleled
LED lamps with a maximum output current of 1.4A.
Figures 7(a) and (b) show the measured waveforms of the
input voltage Vin and current Iin at the input voltage of 110V
and 220V, respectively. The input current Iin has a
near-sinusoidal waveform and is in phase with the input
voltage Vin. Power factor and efficiency variations under
different input voltage are depicted in Figure 8. It is evident
(b) that high power factor and high efficiency can be
Figure 6(a) Circuit Schematic and (b) Theoretical maintained under universal input voltage operation.
Waveforms of the Burst-Mode Dimmer. Meanwhile, Figure 9 shows the measured gating signal Vgs
The PFC choke Lp of the studied single-stage SEPIC of the power switch Q and the freewheeling diode current
PFC converter can be determined by the given current IDf. It can be observed that the freewheeling diode Df is
ripple ∆ILp at the peak value of the minimum input voltage turned off with zero-current switching. In this paper, the
Vin,min(pk), the duty ratio δpk at that input voltage and the burst-mode dimming method is used to control the current
switching frequency fs as follows: and brightness of multiple LED lamps. Figure 10(a) shows
Vo − Vin ,min( pk ) the measured LED lamp currents with an identical
δ pk = , (12) brightness. The lamp currents shown in Figure 10(b) are
Vo
measured under the operation conditions that lamp #1 and
Vin ,min( pk ) × δ pk lamp #2 have the same brightness and that lamp #3 and
Lp = , (13)
f s × ∆I Lp lamp #4 have varying brightness. It is obvious that the
current and brightness of LED lamps could be regulated by
The magnetized inductance Lm of the coupled inductor
adjusting the duty ratio of the dimming transistors.
Lc can be obtained by the given current ripple ∆ILm as
follows: Table 1 Circuit Parameters for the Laboratory Prototype.
Vo × (1 - δ pk ) Component Description Value/Part no.
Lm = , (14)
f s × ∆I Lm Power Switch Q IRF740
Power Diodes Df、Dr S3L60
The DC bus capacitor Cbus can be selected as follows:
1 , (15) PFC Choke Lp 750µH
Cbus = Magnetizing Inductance Lm 750µH
4π 2 f r 2 (L p + Lm ) Turn Ratio of Coupled Inductor Ns/Np 1.06
where fr is the resonant frequency of Cbus, Lp, and Lm. This DC Bus Capacitor Cbus 0.47µF/400V
resonant frequency should be lower than the switching Output Capacitor Co 1000µF/63V
frequency fs and much greater than the line frequency fl. LED Diodes 1W LUMILEDS Diode
This is to assure that the capacitor voltage Vbus is considered Dimming Transistors Qd,j 2N7000
constant in one switching cycle and follows the source
voltage in a line period.
For achieving the zero-current turn-off condition of the
freewheeling diode Df, the turn ratio of the coupled inductor
Lc can be obtained from Equations (6) and (7) as follows:
N s /N p (N s /N p - 1) 1 1 1 4 2 f s Pl (Vo + Vin )2 , (16)
>- ( + )+
Llk 2 L p Lm VoV p 2 (3Vo + Vin )

IV. Experimental Verifications (a)

To verify the feasibility of the studied LED lamp driver,
a laboratory prototype with following specifications was
designed and tested.
• Input Voltage: 80V~260V
• Switching Frequency: 100kHz
• Rated Output Current: 1.4A
• Rated Output Voltage: 46V
The circuit parameters for the laboratory prototype are
(b)
summarized in Table 1. The used LED lamp is composed of
Figure 7(a) Measured Input Voltage and Current at (a) 110V
13 pieces of series-connected LUMILEDS emitter-type
and (a) 220V.
LEDs. This LUMILEDS diode is a 1W high-luminance

Figure 8 Measured Power Factor and Efficiency Variations.
Figure 9 Measured Gating Signal Vgs and the Freewheeling
Diode Current IDf.
(a)
(b)
Figure 10 Measured LED Lamp Currents (a) with Identical
and (b) Different Brightness.
V. Conclusion
In this paper, we presented a SEPIC PFC converter for
driving multiple lighting LED lamps. A burst-mode
dimming method was also studied to regulate the current
and brightness of multiple LED lamps. A laboratory
prototype was built and tested with individual lamp
brightness control. It was found that high power factor and
high efficiency can be achieved by a simple single-stage
circuit with low device stress features. The experimental
waveforms of the laboratory prototype were
correspondingly shown to verify the feasibility of the
proposed scheme.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial
support of the National Science Council of Taiwan, R. O. C.
through grant number NSC 95-2221-E-011-215.
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