Lamp Start, Run-up Time and Flicker Test: A key Technology for Improving Product Quality

With the development of LED technology, LED market is booming, its advantages mainly hinged on its good luminous efficiency, long service life and reliability, favored by the market and consumers. However, due to LED’s fast response speed, and the lack of thermal inertia and afterglow effect of traditional lamps, it is affected by current fluctuations, and current fluctuations will directly affect the output of luminous flux, resulting in flickering of LED lighting products.

Therefore, on December 14, 2012, the European Union issued Regulation (EU) No. 1194/2012, that is, Implementing Regulations of Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on Eco-design Requirements for Directional Lamps, LED Lamps and Related Equipment, forming a complete mandatory eco-design requirements to LED lamps corresponding to Regulation (EC) No. 244/2009 issued by the European Commission on 18 March 2009. “Start-up time” and “Run-up time” as two functional requirements indicators have become increasingly important, and they are paid more attention by the industry manufacturers, so the development of Lamp Start, Run-up Time and Flicker Test has received widespread attention.

LSRF-3_Lamp Start, Run-up Time and Flicker Test System

LED lighting products are essentially driven by AC or pulse DC power supply, resulting in fluctuations in the luminous flux, which will result in a significant periodic change in the illuminance or brightness, which is the so-called “flicker effect”. This flicker effect can be visible or invisible, visible flicker occurring below 100Hz can cause eye fatigue, headache, etc., while above 100Hz will not cause visible flicker, but still may cause eye fatigue, headache and other issues, so in general, the frequency of LED lighting products should be kept below 500Hz in order to prevent the side effects.

ENERGY STAR (V1.0) specifies the light source flicker measurement requirements, i.e. frequency not lower than 120Hz, F1 value within the range of 120-800Hz less than 0.001 times of the specified frequency, no requirement for frequency above 800Hz, PF value less than 30% when frequency is uncertain, and compact fluorescent lamp (Fluorescent lamp) light output frequency needs to be in 20-30KHz or greater than 40KHz.

When measuring the light source flicker of ENERGY STAR (V1.0), the power supply and metering instruments need to be in compliance with the LM-79-19 standard, multi-channel oscilloscope with storage function needs to be installed with attenuation probe, sampling rate should be greater than 2KHz, sampling time should be greater than 100ms, luminance detector needs to be V (in) calibrated, response time should also be in compliance with requirements, and integrating sphere is needed when measuring absolute value; when measuring relative value, it is necessary to ensure that the detector can measure relative light output, and only receive the light emitted by the light source is to be tested. When testing compact fluorescent lamps, it needs to be aged for 100 hours, and preheating is required before testing; while for LED lamps, aging is not required, and the environmental temperature requirement is 25+/-5 degrees Celsius.

LISUN’s LSRF-3 Lamp Start, Run-up Time and Flicker Test System is applied to meet the requirements of EU Erp Indicators, IEC60969S General Illumination Self-ballast Lamps Safety Requirements and ENERGY STAR Certification for LED Lamps Startup Time, Rise Time and Flicker Test. The LSRF-3 equipment can meet the test requirements of various LED lamps, providing users with a fast, accurate and reliable test solutions.