Date: 05/05/2009

National and Nuventix jointly offer LED lamps reference design

National Semiconductor and Nuventix have released a new electronic drive and thermal management reference design to quickly develop high-brightness light-emitting diode (LED) lamps/bulb fixtures to replace incandescent or CFT lamps in standard sockets. This reference design is aimed at saving design time and resources for lighting OEMs to move from their present energy wasting light sources to LED lights.

The reference design consists of National Semiconductor's electronic drive board and SynJet cooling module from Nuventix.

The SynJet thermal management module from Nuventix features a synthetic jet cooling technology that utilizes turbulent pulses of air generated from an electromagnetic actuator to reliably and efficiently cool the LED. It is compatible with standard bulb form factors including MR16 and PAR 38.

"SynJet cooling by Nuventix is essential to optimize lumen output and LED reliability for LED lighting," said Jim Balthazar, president and CEO, Nuventix. "With this National reference design, lighting designers have a plug-and-play solution for designing the complete LED luminaire."

The electronic drive board from National Semiconductor features the LM3429 buck-boost LED driver and LM2842 voltage regulator systems. The LM3429 system provides a constant current to the LEDs from input voltage rails of 9V to 36V, includes analog dimming capability and is configured to drive up to 12 series-connected LEDs. The LM2842 system powers the SynJet electromagnetic actuator. The form factor of the electronic drive board is compatible with the Nuventix SynJet MR16 and PAR38 modules.

"This new reference design enables lighting designers to quickly, easily, and reliably design a thermal and electronics drive system for any MR16 or PAR38 form factor LED bulb," said Michael White, National Semiconductor vice president, power management. "Collaborating with Nuventix is just another example of how National Semiconductor is working toward providing complete system level, easy-to-use solutions."
This immediately available reference design can be downloaded from www.national.com/led.