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Texas Instruments Incorporated
Power Management
Driving a WLED does not always require 4 V
By Will Hadden
Power Management Products, Portable Power DC/DC Applications
The popularity of white-light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) has
skyrocketed, primarily because they are used to provide
backlight to portable electronics displays. The common
belief is that a single WLED requires a 4-V drive voltage.
Since a Li-ion battery provides an average voltage of 3.6 V,
the general industry consensus is that a step-up converter
is required to power WLEDs from a single-cell Li-ion battery.
As a result, many ICs are available for driving WLEDs,
most requiring an external inductor or flying capacitors to
boost the cell voltage high enough. As WLED technology
continues to mature, the forward-voltage requirements
continue to drop. Currently, there are many LEDs available
with typical forward voltages (V
F
) in the 3.2- to 3.5-V range
with maximum ratings at 3.7 to 4 V. The datasheets usually
specify these voltages at LED currents of around 15 to
25 mA. This article discusses lower-current applications
and how they affect the forward voltage of the WLED. It
also introduces the Texas Instruments (TI) TPS75105, a
new LED driver designed to efficiently drive these lower-
voltage LEDs with a reduced solution size and cost.
LED forward voltage
The WLED is similar to other standard p-n junction diodes.
It does not conduct current until a sufficient forward volt-
age has been applied. After the threshold is exceeded, the
forward current increases with the forward voltage of the
WLED. Typical I-V curves for two WLEDs are shown in
Figure 1.
Utilizing these graphs is a simple task. As with typical
diode I-V curves, the current rises sharply with the voltage
after crossing the threshold. The typical forward voltage
for the device in Figure 1a is specified to be 3.2 V at 20-mA
forward current with a maximum of 3.7 V over process
and temperature variations. This leads to the conclusion
that the application requires a step-up DC/DC converter to
properly drive the WLED from a single Li-ion cell with an
output of 3 to 4.2 V. However, this is not necessarily the
case. Take, for example, a 5-mA WLED-current application.
The curve in Figure 1a shows that the forward voltage
required to drive 5 mA is around 2.9 V, which is much less
than the typical voltage required to drive 20 mA as speci-
fied in the datasheet. A boost converter is not required to
drive a 2.9-V output voltage from a 3.6-V Li-ion cell.
WLEDs are specified with a typical value as well as a
maximum value to cover lot-to-lot process and manufac-
turing variations. The I-V curves provided in the datasheet
are usually specified with a part that falls at the typical
specification. Although the curve shape is valid for every
part that is manufactured, the curve shifts to the right or
Figure 1. Typical WLED I-V curves
100
10
1
0.1
2.0
3.0 4.0
Forward Voltage, V
5.0
6.0
(
V
)
F
(a) Kingbright AA3528RWC/A
200
T
= 25°C
100
A
10
1
2.0
2.5
3.0
Forward Voltage, V
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
(
V
)
F
(b) Nichia NSSW100CT
left depending on the forward voltage at the test conditions
for that device. If we use another LED with the same part
number as in the previous example, the forward voltage
measures 3.7 V (the maximum rating) at the typical test
conditions (20-mA forward current). This voltage, which is
0.5 V higher than a typical device, translates to a maximum
forward voltage of 3.4 V (2.9 V + 0.5 V) required to drive
this WLED at 5 mA. Depending on the cutoff voltage of
the application, a boost converter is not needed to drive
9
Analog Applications Journal
4Q 2007
www.ti.com/aaj
High-Performance Analog Products
Power Management
Texas Instruments Incorporated
this particular WLED at 5 mA. This technique makes it
easy to determine the maximum forward voltage for any
application.
What about temperature variations?
Some applications require WLEDs to work in harsher con-
ditions with extreme temperatures. Temperature variation
affects LED characteristics, but the effect is not as drastic
at low current levels as at higher ones. The graph in
Figure 2 from a typical WLED datasheet shows forward
voltage versus temperature.
This graph shows that the temperature dependence is
much stronger with a higher current and forward voltage.
Additionally, the forward voltage drops as the temperature
increases. The 5-mA curve shows that the forward voltage
drops approximately 0.1 V from room temperature (25°C)
to the maximum-rated temperature (85°C). This should be
taken into account when determining the required forward
voltage, but the effect is negligible. If a particular applica-
tion requires that the LED be driven in a very cold environ-
ment, the increased forward voltage may result in lower
brightness at low input voltages.
An ultrasmall LED-driver solution
A typical solution for driving multiple WLEDs is to connect
them in series and then drive the series string with either
an inductive boost converter or a charge pump. This is an
excellent method with higher WLED currents that require
a higher forward voltage. However, as previously discussed,
a boost converter is not required in every WLED driver
application. A simpler and lower-cost driver for low-current
WLED applications is the ultrasmall TPS75105 LED driver
IC. The TPS75105, a linear current source with an ultralow
28-mV dropout voltage, is used for driving four parallel
WLEDs in two separate banks. This device provides four
2%-matched current paths in two separately enabled banks.
The device is available in the ultrasmall 9-ball, 1.5-mm
2
wafer-chip-scale package (WCSP), requires no external
components when using the default current output, and
therefore results in an incredibly small 1.5-mm
2
solution
size. In addition, the TPS75105 is one of the most inexpen-
sive WLED lighting solutions that TI offers. The application
circuit for the TPS75105 is shown in Figure 3.
At first glance, using a low-dropout linear circuit to drive
LEDs may seem impractical, given the linear regulator’s
reputation for low efficiency. However, the efficiency of
LDOs is often misunderstood. LDO efficiency is entirely
based on the input/output voltage ratio; therefore, the
efficiency of driving WLEDs can be quite high. For exam-
ple, driving a 3-V WLED from a 3.6-V Li-ion battery input
Figure 2. Forward voltage vs. temperature
(Nichia NSSW100CT)
5.0
4.6
4.2
I
= 60 mA
FP
3.8
I
= 20 mA
FP
3.4
3.0
I
=5mA
FP
2.6
2.2
–40
–20
0
Ambient Temperature, T
20
40
60
80
100
(°C)
A
Figure 3. TPS75105 application circuit
V
BATT
TPS75105
V
IN
D1A
V
ENA
ENA
D2A
V
ENB
ENB
D1B
D2B
I
SET
GND
10
Analog Applications Journal
High-Performance Analog Products
www.ti.com/aaj
4Q 2007
Texas Instruments Incorporated
Power Management
Figure 4. TPS75105 LED efficiency
100
95
90
85
80
V
= 3.4 V
75
LED
V
= 3.3 V
LED
70
V
= 3.2 V
LED
65
V
= 3.1 V
LED
60
V
=3V
LED
V
= 2.9 V
55
LED
50
3
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4
4.2
Input Voltage (V)
translates into an LED efficiency of 83%. Figure 4 shows
the TPS75105 efficiency data for several different WLED
forward voltages over the Li-ion battery range. The LED
efficiency for the TPS75105 is comparable to or better
than that of other WLED-driver solutions.
Figure 5 demonstrates the LED efficiency of the
TPS7510x over the Li-ion discharge curve. The average
efficiency for the entire discharge range is over 80% for all
three curves, and up to 90% when V
LED
= 3.3 V.
While this article concentrates on low-current applica-
tions, the TPS7510x can drive up to 25 mA per LED if the
input voltage allows. These applications benefit from the
very small size.
Conclusion
When an LED-driver application is evaluated, special
consideration should be given to how much current the
application requires. If it is well below the current at
which the application’s WLED V
F
is specified, the WLED
datasheet I-V curves should be reviewed to determine the
actual V
F
in the application. The application may be able
to use a low-dropout linear current source such as the
TPS75105 to achieve an ultralow solution size and low
cost without sacrificing the efficiency of a switching step-
up converter.
References
For more information related to this article, you can down-
load an Acrobat Reader file at www-s.ti.com/sc/techlit/
litnumber
and replace
“litnumber”
with the
TI Lit. #
for
the materials listed below.
Figure 5. TPS7510x LED efficiency over the
Li-ion discharge curve
4.3
100
Document Title
TI Lit. #
1. Kingbright Corporation, City of Industry, CA,
AA3528RWC/A Datasheet, Spec. No.
DSAG3655.
4.1
95
3.9
—
90
2. “Specifications for Nichia Chip Type White
LED,” Nichia Corporation, NSSW100CT
Datasheet, No. STSE-CC6014B.
3.7
85
3.5
—
80
3. “Low Dropout, Two-Bank LED Driver with
PWM Brightness Control,” TPS7510x
Datasheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.sbvs080
4. TPS75105EVM User’s Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.slvu182
Related Web sites
power.ti.com
www.ti.com/sc/device
/TPS75105
3.3
75
Battery Voltage
3.1
V
= 3.3 V
LED
70
2.9
V
= 3.1 V
LED
65
2.7
V
= 2.9 V
LED
2.5
60
0
50
100
150
200
Time (min)
11
Analog Applications Journal
4Q 2007
www.ti.com/aaj
High-Performance Analog Products
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