New Tool Draws from Extensive Library of LEDs, Drivers and Heat Sinks to Create Complete Systems up to 100,000 Lumens in Minutes.

National’s LED Architect is an excellent application of its venerable WEBENCH platform. The web-based design tool helps a designer navigate some of the more subtle aspects of solid state lighting to produce a highly highly-optimized design (for up to 100,000 lumens in output) in a fraction of the time it takes to do by hand. LED Architect delivers complete solid-state lighting designs based on a library of 350 of the latest LEDs from 12 leading manufacturers, 30 heat sinks, 35 LED drivers, and a library of 21,000 electronic passive components. National claims that it automatically balances LED performance, electronic drive current and heat compensation, allowing users to focus on system level results and leave the burden of complex electrical and thermal mathematics to the tool. Electrical simulation is included as an option for additional testing, validation or component selection.

Once the design is tweaked to your liking, WEBENCH has a feature that allows you order to components for prototyping, share the complete system with others, or easily print a complete project report including schematics, bill of materials (BOM) and performance characteristics. In many cases, the prototype parts kit you get from National even includes a ready-to-stuff PCB. The video below will give you a good sense of what you can do with the new LED-oriented extensions of WEBENCH.

LED design novices and experts alike will find a lot to like about the solid-state lighting resources that National Semiconductor’s added to their powerful WEBENCH design tool. It encapsulates a lot of the deep analog design experience that has been a hallmark of National’s engineering culture. By making it quick and easy to tailor a design to your precise requirements, National should help many of its existing power parts find homes in today’s designs. But, in order to remain a dominant force in solid-state lighting, National’s design teams will have to produce a new generation of parts that to go head-to-head with the increasingly integrated and application-specific offerings emerging from competitors like Fairchild, Maxim, and Power Integrations. Given the still-formidable pool of talent at National and their newfound focus on green power applications, I’m cautiously optimistic that they will be up to the challenge.

For more information on National’s WEBENCH LED Architect, click here or try it out at www.national.com/LEDarchitect.