Mains input LED bulbs or into the mainstream market demand in the future

LED light bulb manufacturers are developing 120/230VAC input LED bulbs and 12VAC input LED bulbs (such as MR16 bulbs and similar products), each LED bulb has a very good reason for rapid development.

The MR16LED bulb has a huge advantage over the CFL bulb, because the CFL bulbs can't do very little. For this reason, the LED based MR16 bulb is more efficient than any other technology. Compared with today's CFL light bulb (even if it's better to do better in the future), the energy efficiency of the 120/230VAC MR16LED bulb is the best. The main disadvantage of MR16LED bulbs is electronic transformers. Most of today's installed MR16LED bulbs use electronic transformers instead of magnetic transformers to generate 12VAC from 120/230VAC. The problem is that the electronic transformer is designed for the halogen lamp, so most of the electronic transformers will bring the flashing of the LED lamp. This incompatibility with existing infrastructure may make it harder for them to be accepted.

Another limitation is heat dissipation: due to their small size, MR16LED bulbs can not dissipate a lot of heat. For this reason, the power of the MR16LED bulbs is limited to around 5W, which makes them rarely used today to replace halogen MR16 lamps. 120/230VACMR16LED bulbs are larger, so they can dissipate more heat. All in all, I think the recent 120/230VAC input LED bulb will be the mainstream of the market (60-70% market share), the rest will be 12VAC input LED bulb. The long term, with the LED lighting in the domestic market is becoming more common, 120/230VAC input LED bulb ratio will likely grow (12VAC input LED bulbs will be less), the newly installed LED bulb will avoid the use of 12VAC transformers, but to take power from the power supply directly 120/230VAC.

The recently developed 120/230VAC input LED drive is getting a very positive evaluation from the market. The solution based on MAX16834 is developed to provide excellent dimming performance, allowing LED bulbs to be dimming from 0 to maximum brightness using a standard TRIAC dimmer, and no flicker. They can also be used for digital dimmer (like LutronMaestro) dimming, which is a very rare performance. In addition, these solutions can be properly designed without the use of electrolytic capacitors, which can extend the life of the LED lamp, because the electrolytic capacitor is often the first failure of the components in the LED bulb. For 12VAC input applications, we have developed a unique solution that can solve the compatibility problem of electronic transformers. With its active PFC topology, it allows the LED bulbs to work with most of the electronic transformers without blinking, and can be used to lift or boost topology to provide more than 7W output. In addition, it does not require electrolytic capacitors, so its life expectancy has also been greatly improved.

Overall, I don't think we are working with Taiwan and the mainland LED driver vendor competition, because our attention is needed to get higher performance of the market from the driver, such as flicker free dimming and electronic transformer compatibility. Of course, as time goes on, we will increasingly compete with suppliers in mainland and Taiwan.