Low frequency led driver based on the Ćuk converter applied to street lighting luminaires

This paper presents a discussion about the use of a low frequency Ćuk-based pre-regulator as an offline LED driver and its application to a street lighting LED luminaire. This simple AC-DC converter may provide high power factor, low input current distortion and compliance with IEC 61.000-3-2 Class C standard, which limits the emission of harmonic currents of lighting equipment. Computational simulation and experimental results are included regarding an LED luminaire adopting 48 high power LED unities associated in series. In this case, no transformers neither electrolytic capacitors are required, which define an extended lifetime for this driver. Moreover, the proposed LED driver can make use of conventional choke inductors employed in nowadays HID-ballasts. Authors believe that this feature will contribute to reduce the solid waste thrown away to the environment, since it is expected a boom on the use of LED luminaires for outdoor lighting at the near future.