Application of switched capacitor converters in Solid State Lighting

This paper explores the opportunities and technical challenges of switched-capacitor-converters (SCC) as LED driver in Solid State Lighting (SSL) application. One such distributed light engine system is analyzed which is considered as a good solution to fit the trend of integration and modularization in LED industry. The key technical challenges in this system are driver miniaturizing and integrating technology. Here we analyze SCC and compare it to buck. Calculation and simulation result shows SCC has advantages over buck converter. Recent technical development and challenges of SCC is also discussed, especially as LED driver. It is shown that the capacitor´s performance constraints the SCC´s development. We expect current fast development on on-chip capacitors, especial MIM capacitor, will bring a large opportunity for SCC in SSL. Meanwhile, driver can be monolithically integrated with LED chips into single chip as the active electronics, which will create lots of new applications and benefit system cost.