According to the official energy statistics report of the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the global lighting power consumption accounts for 19% of the total power generation. Both private and public organizations hope to increase energy efficiency through energy-saving incentive policies, standards and regulations. In this environment, high-frequency electronic ballasts have higher energy efficiency, flickerless output light waves, and light weight (due to the use of electronic components), and have gradually replaced traditional electromagnetic ballasts.
ST's new L6520 controller is the industry's first ballast chip that can select low-cost bipolar power switches without sacrificing reliability, in addition to ensuring high energy efficiency of the ballast, while monolithically integrating important lighting functions. This saves design time and costs, and reduces material costs.
The chip can support a variety of energy-saving lamp connection topology and rated power, wide operating temperature range of -25 °C to 85 °C, lighting manufacturers can therefore reduce design and procurement costs, and further expand product performance and price range.
The L6520 has a built-in digital control core that integrates all necessary functions and protection mechanisms. Compared with similar controllers, it can save up to 30% of external component usage. The new product integrates lamp end-of-life protection. Thanks to ST's unique current control circuit, the chip also features over-current protection, over-voltage protection, choke coil saturation, and hard-switching. Precise and configurable preheating functions extend lamp life, and bipolar transistor storage time correction prevents transconductance hazards and makes the ballast more stable and reliable.
This product is the latest addition to STMicroelectronics' energy-saving ballast chip series, which includes the L6574 for controlling dimmable ballasts and energy-saving lamps (CFLs), and the L6585DE with built-in power factor correction for high-end products. Lighting applications.
The main features:
• Digital control core for high integration • Precise and configurable warm-up time for longer lamp life • ST's exclusive current control circuit with overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, and choke coil saturation Hard-switching functions • Storage time correction function of bipolar transistors for enhanced ballast stability • End of lamp protection • Compatible with series or parallel lamp topologies and different power levels • Wide temperature range from -25°C to 85°C • Preheating time for different types of lamps and international lighting standards:
• L6520: 1.5 seconds warm-up time • L6521: 0.8 seconds warm-up time
ST Launches Breakthrough Energy Saving Lighting Solution
This feature-rich ballast controller IC is the industry's first product to support different standards or low-cost power circuits to promote the application of energy-efficient electronic ballasts in cost-sensitive markets along with global energy-saving regulations. With the increasing demand for energy efficiency, a new ballast that can reduce design time and cost has been introduced across multiple electronic applications and global leading semiconductor supplier STMicroelectronics (ST; New York Stock Exchange: STM) Controller IC. The new products can meet the requirements of energy-saving regulations such as the “ENERGY STARâ€, which can greatly increase the efficiency of existing energy use and reduce CO2 emissions.