Introduction to Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are promising lighting sources for general lighting applications with the promise of being more than ten times as efficient as incandescent lighting. Such characteristic combined with their long operating life and reliability has made them becoming a potential choice for next generation of lighting systems including automotive, emergency, backlight, indoor, and outdoor. To ensure proper operation and to control the light intensity, LEDs need an efficient driver, normally implemented by power electronics-based conversion stages, to match the LED characteristics with the AC grid voltage and to generate a controllable, high quality light.