iWatt, Inc., a provider of digital power IC systems products and technology, recently announced the release of the iW3610 Digital Controller for dimmable LED lighting applications. It is the industry’s first digital LED driver IC with primary side regulation which eliminates the need for an opto-coupler thereby reducing bill-of-material costs, and increasing the mean time between failure (MTBF). The iW3610 eliminates flicker and improves efficiency and reliability for dimmable LED lights of 25W or lower wattage.

The iW3610 uses advanced digital control technology to automatically detect and operate seamlessly with a leading edge or a trailing edge dimmer or if no dimmer is present. In case of an un-supported dimmer, the device shuts down and goes into a fail-safe mode. The device is compatible with existing wall dimmers available worldwide and allows parallel lamp operation for true retrofit replacement of incandescent bulbs, halogen lamps and linear fluorescent tubes.

The iW3610 operates in quasi-resonant mode and employs adaptive gate drive control and iWatt’s proprietary EZ EMI technology to achieve high efficiency and a low EMI signature. Depending on the application, efficiencies greater than 80% and power factor greater than 0.9 are easily achievable. The iW3610’s maximum operating frequency of 200kHz enables LED designers to use smaller size components to design driver boards that are small enough to fit inside existing bulb and lamp housing or inside fluorescent tubes. In addition to the standard protection features, the iW3610 also provides over-temperature protection using an external NTC resistor for robust protection. Moreover, the IC provides temperature drift control of the LED driver current to ensure that the LEDs will never operate outside of their recommended safe operating area.