Insulation type AC-DC converter and LED DC power supply device using the same

In an insulation type AC-dc converter in which input current from a commercial power supply is converted to obtain insulated direct current, the overall efficiency is raised and the structure is simplified. A multi-resonance type half-bridge DC-DC converter having an insulation transformer T is used as a first converter, and a boosting chopper circuit for power factor improvement is used as a second converter. Hence through multi-resonance operation, increases in losses can be suppressed even when the switching frequency is raised, and because a half-bridge circuit is used, switching elements and similar with lower voltage ratings can be employed, whereby overall efficiency can be increased. Moreover, a voltage substantially similar to the full-wave rectified waveform of the power supply voltage is obtained from the output capacitor at the boosting chopper circuit input, whereby there is no need for a feed-forward circuit across the insulation transformer, and moreover the electrolytic capacitor which had to be provided on the converter input side is unnecessary. This is advantageous for achieving miniaturization and a thin design.