Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7355186 | Charged particle beam device with cleaning unit and method of operation thereof The invention provides a charged particle beam device, an emitter module for emitting charged particle beams and a method of operation thereof. Thereby, a charged particle beam emitter (15) emitting charged particles along an optical axis (1) is realiz... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7355348 | Ballast for a discharge lamp having a continuous-operation control circuit The invention relates to a novel ballast for a discharge lamp, in which a continuous-operation control circuit is brought out of operation when a physical operation, which defines a preheating time, of a preheating timer has as yet not been sufficiently returned if ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7339322 | Apparatus and methods for making spectroscopic measurements of cathode fall in fluorescent lamps Apparatus and methods are disclosed for measuring cathode fall within a fluorescent lamp that contains an electrode and a gas. A level of cathode fall associated with the electrode may be identified based on an intensity and wavelength of radiation emitted by the ga... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7268496 | Discharge lamp lighting device and lighting system When a discharge lamp is preheated, impedance of a filament electrode of the discharge lamp is computed. In accordance with the computed impedance, preheating and lighting of the discharge lamp are controlled. ... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7256549 | Three electrode arc-discharge lamp A method of operating an arc discharge lamp that has first and second electrodes is described. First, the first electrode is heated with a third electrode with a first arc until the first electrode temperature is sufficiently elevated to allow for thermionic emissio... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7199526 | Electronic ballast An electronic ballast capable of extending life of the fluorescent lamp is disclosed. The electronic ballast according to the present invention comprises a DC/AC converter, a fluorescent lamp, a transformer, a preheating transformer and an AC switch. Wherein, the AC... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7196476 | Apparatus and methods for making capacitive measurements of cathode fall in fluorescent lamps Apparatus and methods for measuring cathode fall in fluorescent lamps are disclosed. Together with measurements of cathode temperature, such measurements of cathode fall may inform a determination of cathode heater voltage as a function of discharge current (i.e., a... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7193367 | Indirectly heated electrode for gas discharge tube, gas discharge tube with this, and its operating device An indirectly heated cathode C1 comprises a heater 1, a double coil 2, a mesh member 3, and a metal oxide 10. An electrical insulating layer 4 is formed on the surface of heater 1. Heater 1 is inserted into and... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7141762 | System and method for information handling system peripheral heating element thermal failsafe Information handling system peripherals that use a heating element are protected from catastrophic failure due to overheating by a thermal failsafe associated with the heating element that fails the heating element if excessive temperatures are reached. For instance... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7106008 | Flashlight control circuit A flashlight control circuit is provided to control the flash according to an exposure voltage and a predetermined voltage. Either a first comparator, second comparator and logic gate or a comparator, a first inverter, a first transistor, a first logic gate and a se... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7088048 | Device and process for switching and controlling an electron dose emitted by a micro-emitter This invention relates to a device for switching and controlling an electron dose emitted by a micro-emitter comprising a sensor module (30) that receives the output current from the micro-emitter and a voltage to adjust the... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7084581 | Device and method for controlling a gas discharge lamp, and lighting system with gas discharge lamp and control device A device and a method for the control of a gas discharge lamp are disclosed. In order to detract as little as possible from lamp life in spite of the luminous flux requirements to be fulfilled during the run-up of the lamp, the lamp is operated with an alternating c... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7005641 | Electron beam apparatus and a device manufacturing method by using said electron beam apparatus An electron beam apparatus, in which an electron beam emitted from an electron gun having a cathode and an anode is focused and irradiated onto a sample, and secondary electrons emanated from the sample are directed into a detector, the apparatus further comprising ... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6965237 | Device for scanning or detecting electromagnetic waves A detecting device for detecting electromagnetic waves generated by electric facilities includes a support having a peripheral surface for attaching a number of wave detectors which detect the electromagnetic waves generated by the electric facilities. The support m... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6936970 | Method and apparatus for a unidirectional switching, current limited cutoff circuit for an electronic ballast In accordance with one aspect of the present application, a lamp inverter circuit includes a switching portion that converts a bus voltage signal into an alternating current signal. An input portion receives the bus voltage signal, and a resonant load portion drives... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6917163 | Inductively powered lamp assembly A lamp assembly configured to inductively receive power from a primary coil. The inductively powered lamp assembly includes a lamp circuit including a secondary and a lamp connected in series. In a first aspect, the lamp circuit includes a capacitor connected in ser... | 07/12/2005 |
| 6911789 | Power supply for a hot-filament cathode In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a switch-mode power supply to generate the heating current for a hot-filament electron-emitting cathode. The power supply directly couples, without an output transformer, the output from a... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6909248 | Deuterium arc lamp assembly with an elapsed time indicator system and a method thereof A lamp system includes a light source and an elapsed time indicator system which is coupled to the light source. The elapsed time indicator system accumulates a count of elapsed time of operation of the lamp system. The count provides an indication of a life span of... | 06/21/2005 |
| 6838834 | Lighting system and electric power supplier for the same An electronic ballast of a lighting system includes an output power supplier and a heater power supplier. The output power supplier is configured to supply electric power to a lamp of the lighting system. The heater power supplier is configured to provide substantia... | 01/04/2005 |
| 6812920 | Display device A display device which is suitable for connection to a computer etc. allows an operator to freely set a power saving mode to suppress the wasteful consumption of power. Power reduction means reduces, in a plurality of modes, the power supplied to device components i... | 11/02/2004 |
| 6750619 | Electronic ballast with filament detection A fluorescent lamp electronic ballast for use with fluorescent lamps of the preheat or heated filament type is provided. The electronic ballast includes a multiple output DC to DC converter with a primary winding and a plurality of secondary windings for connecting ... | 06/15/2004 |
| 6603275 | Electronic starter for fluorescent lamps An electronic starter for fluorescent lamp has a preheating circuit for controlling the preheating of the fluorescent tube and a power switch and locking circuit for cutting off the current to the preheating circuit. The power switch and locking circuit m... | 08/05/2003 |
| 6552494 | Fluorescent lamp driver circuit Herein described is a driver circuit of a fluorescent lamp having a first and a second electrode and igniting when the voltage between the first and second Electrode exceeds a given threshold voltage. The driver circuit comprises an inductance coupled to ... | 04/22/2003 |
| 6504534 | CRT display unit and power supply control method therefor When a "screen saver" operates to display a homogeneous black picture image after the same image is continuously displayed on a CRT for a predetermined period of time, a power supply for a CRT display unit is controlled to be turned off, thereby preventin... | 01/07/2003 |
| 6495979 | Power-saving apparatus and method for computer peripheral devices A power-saving apparatus comprises: a heater; a control unit for detecting at least two power-saving commands, and for outputting a first power-saving control signal and a second power-saving control signal; a power supply unit for supplying rated voltage... | 12/17/2002 |
| 6456009 | Adaptive heater voltage algorithm and control system for setting and maintenance of the heater voltage of a vacuum electron device An adaptive heater voltage algorithm and control system for setting and maintaining a vacuum electron device (VED) heater voltage, such as that of a klystron. An algorithm and control system are disclosed that sets and maintains the VED's cathode at the l... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6417630 | Circuit arrangement A ballast circuit for operating a lamp having preheatable electrodes. The frequency of a high frequency bridge inverter is controlled by a control circuit which has input connections to one of the lamp electrodes for monitoring the electrode temperature. ... | 07/09/2002 |
| 6404421 | Heater voltage generation A heater circuit (H) according to the invention comprises a stabilizing power supply (SPS) with a control input (CT) which receives a control signal (Cs) to control the value at which the heater voltage (Vh) has to be stabilized. A timing circuit (TC) gen... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6320319 | Charged particle generating apparatus A charged particle generating apparatus including a first electrode, a second electrode, a current source supplying a current to the first electrode for heating the first electrode and a voltage source for generating an attraction voltage for generation o... | 11/20/2001 |
| 6211620 | Ballast for fluorescent lamp A ballast for a fluorescent lamp includes a high frequency power source circuit for supplying a preheat start type fluorescent lamp with preheating and lighting current via an inductor. The high frequency power source circuit includes at least two switchi... | 04/03/2001 |
| 6114810 | Electronic ballast circuit for fluorescent lamps which have a high Q factor and high resonance voltage An electronic ballast circuit for fluorescent lamps, said circuit comprises an anti-interfering circuit, a rectifying circuit, a filtering circuit, a frequency-converting circuit and a resonant circuit connected sequentially; a main resonant capacitor C4 ... | 09/05/2000 |
| 6091187 | High emittance electron source having high illumination uniformity Direct and indirect electron bombardment provide a sufficiently high degree of temperature uniformity across the emitting surface of a large-area electron source for an electron beam projection system such that a broad beam having illumination uniformity ... | 07/18/2000 |
| 6084355 | Circuit for controlling power supplied to a cathode heater of a cathode ray tube A cathode heater of a cathode ray tube is rapidly energized either when turning on electric power or when returning to a power-on state mode of the Display Power Management System (DPMS) in an electronic appliance using the cathode ray tube as a video dis... | 07/04/2000 |
| 6008587 | Fluorescent lamp electronic ballast control circuit An electronic ballast control apparatus and method for fluorescent lamps includes applying a heating current through the filaments of the lamp, and delaying the application of arc current through the filaments and the gas for a predetermined time. This al... | 12/28/1999 |
| 5998812 | Amplifying-gate thyristor with an increased hold current An amplifying-gate thyristor having an increased integrated circuit includes a main thyristor and an amplifying thyristor. The amplifying thyristor is of the gate turnoff-type. The main thyristor and the amplifying thyristor are such that the amplifying t... | 12/07/1999 |
| 5952832 | Diagnostic circuit and method for predicting fluorescent lamp failure by monitoring filament currents A diagnostic circuit monitors filament currents in hot cathode fluorescent lamps for detecting when the filament erodes to the point of breaking. When such a filament failure is detected, information is processed and a request is sent to replace the lamp ... | 09/14/1999 |
| 5923126 | Fluorescent lamp electronic ballast with rapid voltage turn-on after preheating An electronic ballast for a fluorescent lamp includes a delay triggered circuit which, upon expiration of a predetermined period during which the lamp filaments, constituting opposite electrodes of the lamp, are preheated, applies high frequency operating... | 07/13/1999 |
| 5854538 | Circuit arrangement for electrode pre-heating of a fluorescent lamp A circuit arrangement used with electronic ballast equipment has an inverter which supplies a high-frequency half-bridge voltage to at least one load circuit having a lamp throttle, a fluorescent lamp, an ignition capacitor, and a half-bridge capacitor. I... | 12/29/1998 |
| 5841240 | Efficient discharge lamp electrode heating circuit operable over wide temperature and power range A circuit arrangement for operating a discharge lamp comprising input terminals for connection to a supply voltage source. A load branch B has terminals for holding the discharge lamp and includes an inductive ballast. A device I is coupled to ends of the... | 11/24/1998 |
| 5821696 | Method and circuit to start and operate high pressure discharge lamps Start and operation of high pressure discharge lamps, in which a high-frequency starting voltage UHF and an operating voltage UB are furnished to the lamp electrodes includes the steps of: 1) turning on the high-frequency starting vo... | 10/13/1998 |
