Chip Reduces Power Demand For Lighting

Booth #10752

Infineon's LightMOS chip helps to achieve significant energy savings in lighting systems while enhancing the comfort of individuals. In the near future, fluorescent tubes will light up like conventional filament lamps without any jitter and even be capable of operation with a dimmer switch. As early as spring 2004, lamps equipped with LightMOS are expected to be commercially available.

The new LightMOS IGBTs offer a cost-optimized alternative to MOSFETs (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) typically used in electronic lamp ballasts (ELB) for fluorescent tubes, allowing a one-to-one replacement at lower cost.

The chip is installed inside the so-called electronic lamp ballast, which supplies the power for the fluorescent tube. Today, around 80 percent of these lamp ballasts still work by magnetic means, using coils, capacitors, and an igniter. But new electronic ballasts incorporating power chips are making these bulkier and less reliable components a thing of the past. Electronic ballasts use the power far more efficiently, thereby reducing the power consumption of lighting systems by up to 25 percent.

The chip incorporates a cost-efficient semiconductor technology called TrenchStop, which reduces power losses and increases reliability.

LightMOS chips will be used initially for light fixtures in offices, shopping malls and factory buildings. In the foreseeable future, the company's engineers believe that the new chip will also be used in smaller power-saving lamps in residences.

Infineon Technologies
408-501-6000