A dimmable power supply unit for testing LED lamps built around a dedicated integrated circuit

Lighting applications are nowadays arriving at a crossing point. Production and selling of incandescent lamps is drastically decreasing. European countries have decided to arrive to complete interdiction in 2012. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) have some drawbacks limiting their usefulness, with many problems related to compatibility with dimmers, even for supposed dimmable CFL. We present the design of an integrated circuit suitable for dimmable 3 W buck and 12 W flyback architectures for LED based lamps. In recent years, the lighting world has been witness to a new revolution with the appearance of LED based lighting. There are numerous reasons fort he emergence of LED lighting technology. LED technology is constantly developing and improving over time and LEDs are becoming far brighter and much more powerful. Added to their efficiency, these features make them ideal for use in lighting applications.