Simple Voltage-to-Current Converter Drives White LEDs

You sometimes need to drive a white LED from one 1.5V battery. Unfortunately, the forward voltage of a white LED is 3 to 4V. So, you would need a dc/dc converter to drive the LED from one battery. Using the simple circuit in Figure 1, you can drive one white LED or two series-connected green LEDs, using only a few components. The circuit is a voltage-to-current converter, which converts the battery voltage to a current that passes through the LED.

You can adjust this current and, thus, the brightness of the LED, by varying resistor R3. If you turn on switch S1, resistor R2 feeds base current to transistor Q2. Q2 turns on, and its collector current, via R3, turns on Q1. Now, the current through inductor L1 increases. The slope of the increase is a function of the value of L1 and the battery voltage. The current through L1 increases until it reaches a maximum value, which depends on the gain of Q1. Because the value of R3 sets the base current drawn from Q1, Q1's collector current is also limited.

White LEDs Circuit Diagram

Once the current through L1 reaches its maximum value, the slope of the current through L1 changes. At that instant, the voltage on L1 switches to a negative polarity forced by the changed slope. This negative voltage traverses capacitor C1 and turns off Q2, which in turn turns off Q1. The negative voltage on L1 increases until it reaches the forward voltage of the LED. The peak current through inductor L1 now flows through the LED and decreases to zero. Now, Q2 switches on again, via the current through R2, and the cycle starts again.

By adjusting resistor R3, you can set the peak current through L1 and the peak current through the LED. The brightness of an LED is a linear function of the current through the LED. So, adjusting the value of R3 also adjusts the brightness of the LED.

It doesn't matter which LED you use; the forward voltage on the LED always increases until the peak current through L1 flows through the LED. Different forward voltages of the LEDs yield different on-times (duty cycles) but the same peak current through the LED. With the values shown in Figure 1, the circuit oscillates at a frequency of approximately 30 kHz and delivers a 20-mA peak current through the LED.

The duty cycle depends on the ratio of the battery voltage to the forward voltage of the LED. One advantage of this circuit is that it requires no series-limiting resistor for the LED. The peak current through the LED is a function of the value of R3 and the gain of Q1.[via]