Third harmonic injection circuit to eliminate electrolytic capacitors in light-emitting diode drivers

Abstract

A new third harmonic injection circuit for light-emitting diode (LED) drivers is proposed to eliminate electrolytic capacitors and thereby extend the lifetime of LED drivers. When a third harmonic current is injected to the input current of the LED driver, the required capacitance of the driver can be reduced. The proposed circuit can control an injection ratio and has simple circuitry. The synchronous third harmonic is generated by a phase locked loop (PLL), a 1/3 counter, and op-amps and applied to a power factor correction circuit. Thus, the storage capacitor can install film capacitors instead of the electrolytic capacitor. The value of storage capacitance can be reduced to 78% compared to an input power factor of 100%. The proposed circuit is applied to the 80W prototype LED driver to experimentally verify the performances.