National and Nuventix Introduce New Reference Design for LED Bulbs
Complete Electronic Drive and Thermal Management Design for LED Bulbs Speeds and Simplifies Replacement of Conventional Bulbs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and AUSTIN, Texas – May 5, 2009 – National Semiconductor Corp.
(NYSE: NSM) and Nuventix, Inc. today unveiled a new electronic drive and thermal
management reference design that simplifies development of high-brightness light-emitting
diode (LED) bulb fixtures that replace incandescent or compact fluorescent light bulbs in
standard sockets.
The new LED electronic drive and thermal management reference design will be demonstrated
in Nuventix’s booth #3260 at the Lightfair International conference in New York from May 5 to 7.
LED replacement bulbs typically require four different design components: the LED, electronic
drive board, thermal management system and optics. Integrating these complex design
components to produce an efficient and high-performance LED bulb system can be challenging.
A new reference design featuring National Semiconductor’s electronic drive board together with
the SynJet® cooling module from Nuventix provides lighting designers with a complete
electronic drive and thermal management design for high-performance LED replacement bulbs.
The SynJet thermal management module from Nuventix features a synthetic jet cooling
technology that utilizes turbulent pulses of air generated from an electromagnetic actuator to
reliably and efficiently cool the LED. It is compatible with standard bulb form factors including
MR16 and PAR 38.
“SynJet cooling by Nuventix is essential to optimize lumen output and LED reliability for LED
lighting,” said Jim Balthazar, president and CEO, Nuventix. “With this National reference
design, lighting designers have a plug-and-play solution for designing the complete LED
luminaire.”
The electronic drive board from National Semiconductor features the LM3429 buck-boost LED
driver and LM2842 voltage regulator systems. The LM3429 system provides a constant current
to the LEDs from input voltage rails of 9V to 36V, includes analog dimming capability and is
configured to drive up to 12 series-connected LEDs. The LM2842 system powers the SynJet
electromagnetic actuator. The form factor of the electronic drive board is compatible with the
Nuventix SynJet MR16 and PAR38 modules.
“This new reference design enables lighting designers to quickly, easily, and reliably design a
thermal and electronics drive system for any MR16 or PAR38 form factor LED bulb,” said
Michael White, National Semiconductor vice president, power management. “Collaborating with
Nuventix is just another example of how National Semiconductor is working toward providing
complete system level, easy-to-use solutions.”
Availability
The LED electronic drive and thermal management reference design is available now for
download from www.national.com/led. For more information on National’s LM3429 buck-boost
LED driver and LM2842 voltage regulator, visit http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM3429.html and
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM2842.html.