You’ve seen them appearing more and more often on the walls of homes and offices: the universal dimmer switches that are used for controlling LED lighting fixtures.
These designs pose challenges for electronics engineers when it comes to adding thermal protection. Since universal dimmers are embedded in the wall, it’s difficult for them to dissipate heat. Also, the MOSFET used in lighting dimmer designs can fail in resistive mode, generating heat and leading to a thermal runaway condition and, possibly, catastrophic events. Keep reading…