Unlike an incandescent or fluorescent light source, an LED does not radiate heat. Rather, the heat is conducted via the back side of the LED semiconductor material. This creates a technical obstacle as excessive heat can deteriorate LED performance, function and overall lifetime. To properly remove the heat in a high-power LED application, you may need to utilize a thermal heat sink or active fan or actively reduce lumen output based on temperature.

LED drivers can be designed to offer dimming and RGBW color mixing capabilities by either providing a high-resolution PWM (or variants such as Variable Frequency Modulation) signal or varying the constant current.

The input supply voltage and the LED forward voltage characteristics determine the SMPS topology that is required. The SMPS topologies utilized to regulate the power within LED lighting applications are the same as those used within a power supply application. Each SMPS topology has its advantages and determining the proper topology is dependent upon the specific application requirements. Refer to the table below for topology guidelines.