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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7843139 | Apparatus and method for controlling the filament voltage in an electronic dimming ballast An electronic dimming ballast comprises a filament turn-off circuit for controlling the magnitudes of filament voltages supplied to the filaments of a gas discharge lamp. Each of a plurality of filament windings is directly coupled to one of the filaments and is ope... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7843138 | 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 power transformer, the output ... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7723920 | Drive circuit for a switchable heating transformer of an electronic ballast and corresponding method The drive signal for a switchable heating transformer of an electronic ballast should be capable of being produced in a simple manner. For this purpose, the invention provides for an oscillating inverter voltage, which has a variable inverter frequency, to be tapped... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7576494 | High voltage discharge lamp lighting method, lighting apparatus and image device using that lighting apparatus The present invention applies to provide a lighting method of a high pressure discharge lamp dedicated particularly for image equipments in which re-lighting when turning ON the switch again immediately after the switch OFF is instantaneously performed even in the h... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7420336 | Method of controlling cathode voltage with low lamp's arc current The embodiment disclosed herein relates to systems and methods to provide improvements to power delivery systems employed with lamps in general and fluorescent lamps in particular. In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, cathode current is controlled to a maxim... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7279844 | Electronic ballast The invention relates to a ballast for low-pressure discharge lamps, comprising a controllable inverter circuit for the generation of a high-frequency supply voltage for a discharge lamp (1), a lamp inductance (L1) connected to the inverter circuit... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7274153 | Portable fluorescent drop-light A hand-held fluorescent lamp assembly powered by typical line supply of 120 VAC, 60 Hz via an attached power cord and employing multiple commonly available fluorescent lamps. The assembly includes switches to independently control the multiple fluorescent lamps. The... | 09/25/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7262442 | Triac operating in quadrants Q1 and Q4 A triac including on its front surface side an autonomous starting well of the first conductivity type containing a region of the second conductivity type arranged to divide it, in top view, into a first and a second well portion, the first portion being connected t... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7239094 | Electronic ballast with adaptive lamp preheat and ignition An electronic ballast includes a microcontroller with software to provide an adaptive lamp preheat and ignition operation. The microcontroller commands a test frequency from the inverter and detects the frequency response of the resonant output circuit by measuring ... | 07/03/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7193368 | Parallel lamps with instant program start electronic ballast In a current fed electronic ballast multiple lamps are operated in a parallel circuit arrangement. The ballast provides pre-heating to the cathodes of the lamps for a period of time before an open circuit voltage is ramped up to the preferred starting voltage of the... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7187062 | Coupler detector The present invention is a coupler built on a semiconductor substrate, e.g. GaAs. Semiconductor processing allows for small trace and space rules. The tighter design rules provide for tighter coupling than can be achieved by ceramic processes. The greater coupling a... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7183714 | Ballast with relamping circuitry An apparatus for detecting the reconnection of a lamp filament to an electronic ballast driving a fluorescent lamp. A control circuit controls an inverter circuit to providing power to a filament control circuit. The filament control circuit preheats and powers the ... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7119490 | Starter for minimizing damage to lamp electrodes of a discharge lamp at startup A starter for a discharge lamp is disclosed for operation from an AC supply voltage. The starter comprises a first terminal for connection to a first lamp electrode, a second terminal for connection to a second lamp electrode, a switching element coupled between the... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7119495 | Controlling a light assembly A method and apparatus for operating a light assembly with fewer peripheral devices than is currently required is presented. The apparatus of the invention includes a lamp unit, a current restricting unit coupled to the lamp unit, and a current sensing unit that is ... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7098608 | Lossless circuit for sampling of lamp voltage An electronic ballast has a resonant tank circuit that includes a tank inductor and a tank capacitor connected in series. Lossless sampling of the output voltage of the electronic ballast is achieved by monitoring the voltage across a sampling capacitor placed in se... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7098607 | Electronic ballast with lossless snubber capacitor circuit An improved high input voltage instant start electronic ballast uses a substantially lossless snubber circuit. The substantially lossless snubber circuit is incorporated into the ballast to reduce turn off losses and increase the efficiency of the ballast. The snubb... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7098606 | Electronic ballast with open circuit voltage control and cable compensation An electronic ballast uses a voltage sampling circuit and a voltage control circuit to limit the open circuit voltage of the ballast. A lamp voltage sensing circuit is provided that uses a voltage dividing capacitor to accomplish lossless monitoring of the open circ... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7091675 | Driving apparatus for cold cathode fluorescent lamps A driving apparatus (2) for cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) includes a primary and a secondary driving circuits (22, 21), a primary and a secondary light tubes (24, 23), a primary and a secondary feedback circuits (26, 27), and two... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7083309 | Fluorescent lamp tube having integrated electronic ballast A new fluorescent lamp comprises a lamp tube and an electronic ballast, it is characterized in that it is provided with an outer tube, there are respectively an outer plug at both ends of the outer tube, in which inserts a socket for the lamp tube. The electronic ba... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7081709 | Method and apparatus for lighting a discharge lamp A reliable and efficient circuit for lighting a discharge lamp is described. An inverter accepts a direct current supply voltage and outputs an alternating current lamp voltage to drive the discharge lamp at a relatively high frequency. In one embodiment, the invert... | 07/25/2006 |
| 7081835 | Control device for the actuation of lamps A control device for the actuation of lamps in particular for internal aircraft lighting, wherein the control device (1) has an input (18) for the supply of an input signal and a plurality of outputs (21–28) for passing output signals to conne... | 07/25/2006 |
| 7051290 | Graphical interface for receiving eyeglass prescription information A high volume lens curing system is described. The high volume lens curing system is configured to cure multiple eyeglass lenses in a continuous manner. The lens curing system includes a computer-implemented method configured to collect prescription information, sav... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7015652 | Electronic ballast having end of lamp life, overheating, and shut down protections, and reignition and multiple striking capabilities An electronic ballast having end of lamp life and overheating protection, and automatic reignition and multiple striking capabilities includes AC/DC rectifier, PFC/boost, inverter, and ballast protection and control circuits. The ballast protection and control circu... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7002301 | 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... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6998786 | Control circuit of electronic ballast for fluorescent lamp Disclosed is a control circuit of an electronic ballast for a fluorescent lamp, wherein the control circuit comprises a protection circuit and an automatic re-lamp circuit. The protection circuit detects an abnormal voltage condition resulted from a defective lamp t... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6972531 | Method for operating at least one low-pressure discharge lamp A method for operating at least one low-pressure discharge lamp having heatable lamp electrodes, in which, during the preheating phase of the lamp electrodes, the type of lamp is identified. In this case, the temperature dependence of the electrical resistance of th... | 12/06/2005 |
| 6943395 | Phase random access memory with high density A phase random access memory including a plurality of access transistors, each access transistor including a drain region, and a phase-changeable film shared by the plurality of access transistors. The phase-changeable film is connected to a bitline through a first ... | 09/13/2005 |
| 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 |
| 6914392 | Switching apparatus for operating discharge lamps The following circuit is proposed for discharge lamps having a particularly high starting voltage. An a.c. voltage generator (1) provides a corresponding a.c. voltage. A starting voltage generating device, which comprises a piezo transformer (2), is co... | 07/05/2005 |
| 6911778 | Ignition control circuit for gas discharge lamps The disclosure includes an ignition control circuit comprising a transformer having at its secondary side an operating winding, and at least one filament winding. In a pre-heating phase, only the filament winding, which is normally connected to the filaments of a la... | 06/28/2005 |
| 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 |
| 6906468 | Ballast device for uv radiator and also method and device for disinfecting water The invention relates to a novel ballast device for pre-heating, starting and operating at least one UV emitter, constructed in the form of a gas discharge lamp with two heating coils lying opposite each other in relation to a gas discharge path, whereby four electr... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6858987 | Flash lamp unit and flash radiation device The object of the present invention is to provide a flash lamp unit with a long service life which allows a high radiant efficiency to be obtained and a flash radiation device demonstrating excellent flash radiant performance despite a small size, and the flash lamp... | 02/22/2005 |
| 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 |
| 6806657 | Device for operating discharge lamps A device for operating a plurality of discharge lamps (71, 72) is to be fashioned cost effectively. Two lamps (71, 72) are therefore operated in a single load circuit. In the preheating phase, the incandescent filaments (711, 712, 721, 722) are ... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6771025 | Magnetron controller with transformer controlling the inrush current A control unit for a magnetron, the circuit being supplied form a source of a.c. voltage and comprising a power switch, a process controller/firing circuit for the power switch and first and second transformers. The first transformer supplies a desired filament volt... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6750469 | Phase change nonvolatile storage device and drive circuit In a phase-change nonvolatile storage device using a phase-change material as storage cells, which is improved to overcome a basic problem involved in conventional devices of this type and reliably, easily operable as a storage device, the pre-record state of a stor... | 06/15/2004 |
