Atmel brightens LED ballasts

Earlier this month, Bits & Pieces discussed how Atmel MCUs (microcontrollers) can be used to light up fluorescent ballasts, producing warm and inviting light without flickering or humming. Today, we want to talk about the role Atmel MCUs have to play in brightening LED ballasts.

The unique, low-power, non-flickering, directional output capabilities of LEDs make them perfect for indoor lighting under counters and in hallways and staircases, with concentrated arrays typically used for room lighting. Rugged and damage-resistant, LEDs are also a cost-effective solution for outdoor applications such as garden walkways and decorative features.

So what advantages do Atmel MCUs offer engineers designing LED ballast solutions? Well, on example is Atmel’s AVR AT90PWM microcontroller. The AT90PWM supports the DALI standard, which is used to network multiple ballasts to a centralized system for tighter light level control and significant energy savings.

In addition, Atmel solutions allow developers to build fluorescent lighting solutions based on, for example, a full-featured single-chip AVR especially designed for wireless applications, or a general microcontroller (MCU) with a range of standard-compliant transceiver options.

In addition, Atmel helps accelerate time-to-market for lighting engineers by providing development packages with evaluation and debug tools, as well as ballast demo kits with complete, updatable C code to implement advanced control and protection algorithms in a microprocessor’s memory.

“To sum it up, LED ballasts must provide LEDs with a constant source of current,” and Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “And that is why built-in hardware modulator, a high current LED driver and interrupt options makes Atmel’s AT90PWM microcontroller well suited for LED applications.”

Want to learn more about Atmel’s extensive portfolio of MCUs that can be used for LED ballasts? Be sure to check out this link here.