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Dimmable Ballasts Featured at LightFair 2010

May 12, 2010 by Jeff Shepard

Lutron, Excelsys, Zenaro, American Ballast and NXP were among the companies exhibiting dimmable ballasts at this year’s LightFair in Las Vegas. Except for NXP, these companies were highlighting dimmable LED ballasts. NXP pre-announced a new dimmable controller for compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) applications that can provide dimming to less than 10% lighting level with no flicker.

Lutron Electronics announced the Hi-lume A-Series LED drivers that feature smooth, continuous, 1% dimming for virtually any LED fixture up to 40W – whether it requires constant current or constant voltage. These ballasts support constant-current reduction (CCR) or pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming options for constant current LED loads to dim continuously from 100% to 1% lighting level. With an input voltage range of 120 to 277Vac, these ballasts include microprocessor control and integral thermal management deliver energy savings and extended product life.

High efficiency, high reliability LED driver power supplies for the outdoor and indoor lighting market were the focus at the Excelsys booth. During LightFair, Excelsys pre-announced that they will be releasing a number of extensions to their product range over the coming 6 months, including additional constant current drivers range from 75W up to 150W and a range of dimming LED driver power supplies from 25 to 100W. Production is anticipated in the third quarter.

Zenaro, an alliance between Everlight Electronics and Aphos Lighting, announced a series of four LED ballasts rated for 54, 66, 102 and 132W. The entire series has passed ENEC certification. The efficiency performance of Zenaro’s electronic power supplies is greater than 92%. With different dimming control options, Zenaro give users variety while using or designing different LED Indoor/Outdoor lights. Several US versions including UL approval will also be available by the third quarter of 2010.

American Ballast, a division of Phihong Technology, was featuring a line of dimmable LED ballasts from 9 to 120W with input voltages of 100-277Vac. With the ability to dim down to 10% lighting level, these ballasts offer a variety of dimming techniques including; triac dimming, trailing edge dimming, analog (0-10V) dimming and pulse-width-modulation dimming.

After recently extending its line of LED drivers, the news from NPX at LightFair 2010 was the pre-announcement of the UBA2027 fully dimmable CFL drivers. These new drivers are fully integrated (including the power switches) and offer dimming to less than 10% lighting level with no flicker. The devices are an extension of the existing UBA2024/UBA2028 product family. Production is scheduled for September 2010.