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Lawrence Welk, the bandleader who entertained millions of Americans over a generation of broadcasting his TV show, once received a patent: for a music-themed design of an ashtray.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8115403 | Method of starting an HID lamp and ballast incorporating same There is provided herein a method for starting a high intensity discharge lamp and a ballast incorporating the same. In a preferred embodiment, the method comprises the steps of: (a) obtaining a cumulative probability function of breakdown times, P(t), for the lamp ... | 02/14/2012 |
| 7919926 | Aggregate ignition method in high frequency metal halide lamps A high frequency ballast for a metal halide lamp comprises a controller, a switch, and an oscillator. The controller selectively enables and disables the oscillator via the switch to ignite the lamp. The ignition method includes enabling the oscillator such that the... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7893628 | Electronic circuit for operating a plurality of gas discharge lamps at a common voltage source The presented circuit makes it possible to operate a plurality of gas discharge lamps, particularly cold cathode tubes, at a common voltage source. The uniform distribution of current to all the lamps is achieved without using any magnetic components, but only using... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7436127 | Ballast control circuit A ballast control circuit having a bridge driver for driving a transistor bridge of a ballast circuit coupled to a resonant ballast output stage including a lamp, the ballast control circuit comprising a circuit for setting a minimum oscillation frequency and a volt... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7432662 | Circuit arrangement and method for operating at least one lamp The present invention relates to a circuit arrangement for operating at least one lamp (LA), which has a first filament (W1) and a second filament (W2), it comprising an apparatus (10) for determining a variable which is correlated with the temp... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7432663 | Circuit for igniting a high intensity discharge lamp A circuit (300) for igniting a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp comprises input terminals (302,304), output terminal (306,308), a charging circuit (RIGN,CIGN), a transformer (320) having a primary winding (322 | 10/07/2008 |
| 7385356 | Energy saving startup circuit for power supply A startup circuit (30) for a power supply (44), has an input (31) for connecting to a source of high voltage thereto, and an output rail (33) for feeding rectified voltage to the power supply. A first energy storage device (35) is ... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7365497 | Discharge lamp ignition device and projector To avoid the phenomenon of unsightly flickering in images projected by the projector, in high pressure discharge lamps—especially in high intensity discharge lamps, such as high pressure mercury lamps, metal halide lamps, and xenon lamps—that are used in project... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7358770 | Driver circuit A circuit includes a first driver, a second driver, and a transformer coupled to the first and second driver. In operation, the first driver receives a first signal from a first input port, the second driver receives a time-delayed version of the first signal from a... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7341051 | Electronic high frequency plasma catalyzer The catalyzer is applicable in the ignition of gasoline engines of transportation vehicles, generates, stand alone and stationary machines and others. Its advantage is that it has a higher quality of the ignition and an increased efficiency. The first version of the... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7271545 | Ballast and igniter for a lamp having larger storage capacitor than charge pump capacitor A ballast according to the present invention operates in an ignition state, a warm-up state, and a steady state for igniting and powering a lamp. The ballast comprises an igniter that ignites the lamp during the ignition state and a switching power inverter, for exa... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7251571 | Methods of diagnosing open-secondary winding of an ignition coil using the ionization current signal In a first embodiment, the present invention is a method of detecting an open secondary winding, including the steps of enabling an integrator, resetting the integrator, detecting an ionization current, integrating the ionization current over a spark window, compari... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7215523 | Apparatus for protecting an integrated circuit and method thereof An apparatus for protecting an integrated circuit is applied to an electrical apparatus having a control unit. The control unit is used for controlling the integrated circuit and the protecting apparatus. The protecting apparatus includes a power input terminal, a p... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7196480 | Method of soft-starting a switching power supply containing phase-control clipping circuit A method of operating a power controller that converts a line voltage to an RMS load voltage includes a soft start in which a conduction angle of a phase-control clipping circuit is gradually increased to a steady state value that defines the RMS load voltage. The c... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7188466 | Passive, high-temperature amplifier for amplifying spark signals detected in igniter in gas turbine engine A system for detecting spark in an igniter for a gas turbine engine. An igniter generates a plasma, or spark, somewhat similar to an automotive spark plug. In the invention, an inductive pick-up is positioned adjacent the igniter, to detect current pulses in the ign... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7165542 | High energy ignition method and system using pre-dwell control A system and method of managing the energy stored in a single ignition coil of a distributor inductive ignition for an engine. The engine comprises a plurality of cylinders and the ignition coil has a primary coil current. The ignition coil has a stored energy and a... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7166969 | Drive circuit for illumination unit In case of driving a plurality of lamps with the use of a plurality of output transformers, a difference in the bright-ness of each lamp occurs by a dispersion of characteristics of the output transformers, and an object is to prevent such troubles. For this purpose... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7141935 | Inverter circuit for surface light source system An inverter circuit for discharge lamps, in which transformers are separated into multiple small or middle-sized transformers connected to one another to provide a high-power transformer equivalent to a large transformer. The inverter circuit includes a plurality of... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7141941 | Staggering switching signals for multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamp backlighting system to reduce electromagnetic interference In order to minimize switching-induced electromagnetic interference in a power supply switching circuit of the type used to control the AC power for multiple high voltage devices, such as cold cathode fluorescent lamps employed for backlighting a large scale liquid ... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7116062 | Method of soft-starting a switching power supply including pulse width modulation circuit A method of operating a power controller that converts a line voltage to an RMS load voltage includes a soft start in which a duty cycle of a pulse width modulation circuit is gradually increased to a steady state value that defines the RMS load voltage. The control... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7095181 | Method and apparatus for controllably generating sparks in an ignition system or the like An apparatus for controllably generating sparks is provided. The apparatus includes a spark generating device; at least two output stages connected to the spark generating device; means for charging energy storage devices in the output stages and at least partially ... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7093421 | Spark igniter for gas turbine engine An igniter for a gas turbine engine. An igniter generates a plasma, or spark, somewhat similar to an automotive spark plug. In the invention, an auxiliary electrode is provided, which is embedded in and covered by a solid insulator. During initial phases of operatio... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7093422 | Detecting spark in igniter of gas turbine engine by detecting signals in grounded RF shielding A system for detecting spark in an igniter for a gas turbine engine. An igniter generates a plasma, or spark, somewhat similar to an automotive spark plug. In the invention, an inductive pick-up is positioned adjacent the igniter, to detect current pulses in the ign... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7095182 | Ignition control apparatus for internal combustion engine An ignition control apparatus for an internal combustion engine of the present invention has a switching circuit and a control circuit. The switching circuit includes a first switch controlling a main current constituting the most portion of the coil current, a seco... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7088245 | Remote-readable identification tag and method for operating the same A remote-readable identification tag (T) that is provided with at least two resonance circuits (81 . . . 8n) and at least one transmitter/receiver antenna system (1) coupled with the circuits. The at least two circuits have a respectively differ... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7075247 | Controller and driver architecture for double-ended circuitry for powering cold cathode fluorescent lamps A distributed controller and DC voltage switch-driver system supplies AC power to a cold cathode fluorescent lamp of the type used to backlight a liquid crystal display. The system includes a local controller and lamp operation-monitoring subsystem, which generates ... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7053562 | Lamp containing soft-start power supply A lamp includes a lamp voltage conversion circuit which converts a line voltage to an RMS load voltage by clipping or modulating a load voltage. The voltage conversion circuit includes a time-based signal source that triggers conduction in the voltage conversion cir... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7049758 | Method of soft-starting a switching power supply having time-based pulse triggering control A method of operating a power controller that converts a line voltage to an RMS load voltage includes a soft start in which a conduction angle or duty cycle is gradually increased to a steady state value that defines the RMS load voltage. The controller has a circui... | 05/23/2006 |
| 6989637 | Method and apparatus for a voltage controlled start-up circuit for an electronic ballast A voltage control startup circuit for a lighting ballast includes first and second transistors for converting direct current from a voltage source into alternating current to operate a lamp. The circuit includes an input portion for receiving a bus voltage signal, a... | 01/24/2006 |
| 6941869 | Sensor for monitoring electronic detonation circuits A voltage sensor (10) for monitoring electronic ignition circuits (1) which contains a plurality of igniters (4) connected to an ignition line (3) and an ignition device (2) connected to the ignition line (3) to program the ... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6848437 | Ignition device for an internal combustion engine The ignition device for an internal combustion engine includes, a control unit (1) for outputting an ignition signal used to determine a time when an ignition plug (8) should be ignited, a switching unit (5) connected to the other terminal of a ... | 02/01/2005 |
| 6756744 | Method of initiating lighting of a discharge lamp, circuit for lighting a discharge lamp, light source device using the circuit, and optical instrument incorporating the light source device A method of initiating lighting of a discharge lamp is provided including applying to the discharge lamp to be lighted an initiating voltage resulting from superimposition of a step-up pulse voltage of 1,000 to 3,000 V onto a voltage of 500 to 1,500 V which is conti... | 06/29/2004 |
| 6539929 | Ignition device for an internal combustion engine A one-chip integration circuit including a power part and a control part integrated within an IGBT monolithic silicon substrate is disclosed. The control circuit part comprises a current limiting circuit for limiting a current so that it does not flow ove... | 04/01/2003 |
| 6389050 | High-speed CMOS driver for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers High-speed driver circuits interface with and enhance the performance of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) diodes used within fiber optic communication systems, according to embodiments of the invention. A reference diode is formed from a fir... | 05/14/2002 |
| 6339296 | Low profile emergency ballast An emergency ballast for a low profile fluorescent lamp fixture including an AC ballast including an end of lamp life shut down circuit. The emergency ballast includes a timing circuit which operates when AC power is restored to the lamp fixture after the... | 01/15/2002 |
| 6333604 | Integrated ignition circuit and method An integrated circuit (10) for driving an ignition coil (14) has a first transistor (30) providing a coil current (ICOIL) at a first lead (22) of the integrated circuit. A second transistor (32) has a collector coupled to the first lead and an ... | 12/25/2001 |
| 6257216 | Device for suppressing undesired ignitions in a spark ignition engine The primary winding of an ignition coil is connected in series with an ignition switch that can be switched by a control circuit. A circuit including a capacitor, a resistor, and a diode is configured between the control terminal and the collector of the ... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6188180 | Ignition circuit for automotive high intensity discharge lamps An ignition circuit for a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp, comprising: first and second series coupled switching transistors connected across upper and lower voltage buses to which a source of DC voltage is connectable, the first switching transistor ... | 02/13/2001 |
| 6167876 | Circuit arrangement for an ignition stage, in particular for the ignition circuit of a motor vehicle A circuit arrangement of an ignition output stage, in particular for an ignition circuit of a motor vehicle, is described. The circuit arrangement includes a multiple Darlington transistor (Darlington) which drives a primary winding of an ignition coil, a... | 01/02/2001 |
| 6107748 | Circuit arrangement of a final ignition stage A circuit arrangement of an ignition output stage in particular for an ignition circuit of a motor vehicle, having a switching arrangement which triggers a primary winding of an ignition coil, and a trigger circuit for the switching arrangement. The trigg... | 08/22/2000 |
