Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8129919 | Discharge tube driving device A discharge tube driving device which drives a plurality of discharge tubes includes a switching circuit which generates a driving pulse, and a driving transformer which has a primary winding for receiving the driving pulse and a secondary winding for generating a h... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8098019 | Driving circuit of multi-lamps A driving circuit of multi-lamps including a power supply module, a transformer module, a first detection module, and a control module is provided. Whether the power supply module is turned off is controlled by a control signal. The transformer module respectively p... | 01/17/2012 |
| 7439683 | Backlighting system for display screen A circuit board on which the electronic components providing power to a series of light sources is positioned as near as possible to light sources in order to minimize parasitic energy losses which would be introduced by lengths of wiring. The light sources are usua... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7436133 | LCD back light panel lamp connecting structure An improved LCD back light panel lamp connecting structure comprises cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), and adjacent CCFL modules having high voltage ends and feedback ends arranged alternately, and the feedback ends on both sides of the CCFLs respectively coupl... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7385358 | Power supply circuit and transformer thereof A power supply circuit for a first and a second lamps and the transformer thereof is provided. The power supply circuit comprises a driving circuit and a transformer. The transformer includes a magnetic core, a primary coil set, a secondary coil, a first coil and a ... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7319297 | Balanced current lamp module and multi-lamp circuit A balanced current lamp module driven by a power source includes a first balanced current unit, a second balanced current unit and a balanced transformer. The first balanced current unit includes a first transformer, a first lamp and a second lamp. The first transfo... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7291994 | System and method for establishing spindle motor current during cold temperature operation of HDD When a HDD is operating at a temperature below a threshold, a partial sine wave is input to the spindle motor to activate the motor to reduce undesirable speed oscillations of the motor. At normal operating temperatures a full sine wave is input for noise reduction.... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7279851 | Systems and methods for fault protection in a balancing transformer An apparatus and methods for balancing current in multiple negative impedance gas discharge lamp loads. Embodiments advantageously include balancing transformer configurations that are relatively cost-effective, reliable, efficient, and good performing. Embodiments ... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7274156 | Power supply circuit and transformer thereof A power supply circuit for a first and a second lamps and the transformer thereof is provided. The power supply circuit comprises a driving circuit and a transformer. The transformer includes a magnetic core, a primary coil set, a secondary coil, a first coil and a ... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7265499 | Current-mode direct-drive inverter An efficient and flexible current-mode driver delivers power to one or more light sources in a backlight system. In one application, the current-mode driver is configured as an inverter with an input current regulator, a non-resonant polarity-switching network, and ... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7193496 | Magnetic element and power supply A magnetic element and a power supply which can output a plurality of different output pulse signal voltages or different output AC voltages while preventing an increase in the number of parts or an area occupied by parts are provided. The magnetic element includes ... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7183722 | Apparatus and method of driving lamp of liquid crystal display device A lamp driving apparatus of a liquid crystal display device includes m lamp groups in which a plurality of lamps generating light are disposed; n (n | 02/27/2007 |
| 7170198 | Trigger arrangement for a Marx generator In trigger/firing arrangement in a Marx generator comprising n stage capacitors—n being a natural number greater than 1-, the same amount of spark gaps and 2(n−1) charging branches, with the spark gaps operating in a self-breakdown mode, the trigger-/firing arra... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7141933 | Systems and methods for a transformer configuration for driving multiple gas discharge tubes in parallel An apparatus and methods for balancing current in multiple negative impedance gas discharge lamp loads. Embodiments advantageously include balancing transformer configurations that are relatively cost-effective, reliable, efficient, and good performing. Embodiments ... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7086885 | Shape memory actuator device A shape memory actuator device, comprising of a shape memory cable assembled through a sheath and susceptible of being supplied with an electric current to cause it to heat up. The sheath is placed in such a way to allow a manual activation of the controlled mechani... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7075244 | Multi-lamp backlight system A multi-lamp backlight system. The system includes a core, a first coil set wrapped around the core, to which a first AC voltage is applied, a second and third coil sets wrapped around the core and respectively disposed on two sides of the first coil set, on which a... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7061183 | Zigzag topology for balancing current among paralleled gas discharge lamps An apparatus and methods for balancing current in multiple negative impedance gas discharge lamp loads. Embodiments advantageously include balancing transformer configurations that are relatively cost-effective, reliable, and efficient. Embodiments include configura... | 06/13/2006 |
| 7034800 | Driving circuit and driving method for piezoelectric transformer, backlight apparatus, liquid crystal display apparatus, liquid crystal monitor, and liquid crystal TV A driving circuit for a piezoelectric transformer is provided, which is capable of driving a piezoelectric transformer at a high efficiency and with low distortion, and being miniaturized. At the commencement of lighting a cold-cathode fluorescent tube, a digital co... | 04/25/2006 |
| 6958579 | Thermally-protected ballast for high-intensity-discharge lamps A ballast for electrical lighting fixtures has improved thermal protection features. The ballast has ballast laminations, primary and secondary coils, and a thermal protector, the thermal protector being wired in series with the secondary coil. When the ballast is o... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6958582 | Lamp current control circuit The present invention is a lamp current control circuit applied to a high voltage outputting combination for providing uniformity of lamp current of at least one load. Voltage dividing units of the lamp current control circuit receive high power signals output by th... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6922883 | Method for making a non-linear inductor Non-linear inductor(s) are used to reduce the percent total harmonic distortion of the harmonics in the line currents in the input side rectifier system of an ac drive system. Several constructions for the non-linear inductor(s) are described. The non-linear inducto... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6259214 | Method for operating a discharge lamp An operating method, in particular a dimming method for a discharge lamp. In order to set the maximum brightness, two outer electrodes (5,6), for example, are used to generate in the discharge lamp a dielectrically impeded discharge which, through the for... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6225757 | Combination MH/HPS ballast A combination electronic ballast designed to operate a metal halide lamp and a high-pressure sodium gas discharge lamp is disclosed. The ballast includes a primary and secondary coil coupled to a magnetic core. The primary is adapted to be connected to an... | 05/01/2001 |
| 5998941 | Low-voltage high-efficiency fluorescent signage, particularly exit sign An "exit" sign lighting system comprising, in combination a housing having the word EXIT formed in an opening wall thereof, a translucent member in said opening, a gas discharge device, such as a fluorescent tube is driven from a source of a low-voltage, ... | 12/07/1999 |
| 5763964 | Distributed neon power supply system A high frequency power supply for distributed luminous tube signage including a master power unit and one or more slave units. The master unit includes a digital oscillator, controller, and electronic switches to induce a switched high frequency waveform ... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5378964 | Electronic ballast circuit for discharge lamps An electronic ballast circuit for discharge lamps, comprising a power factor enhancing and noise removing circuit for enhancing a power factor of an input AC voltage and removing a noise component therefrom, a rectification circuit for full wave-rectifyin... | 01/03/1995 |
| 5371442 | Remote ballast circuit assembly According to the invention there is provided a remote ballast circuit assembly comprising at least one ballast circuit; a housing having a top panel, an optional perforated bottom panel, two lateral side panels and a back panel, the panels defining a hous... | 12/06/1994 |
| 5345149 | Lighting system with fluorescent and incandescent lamps A lighting system using a 120 volt AC power source and including within a single enclosure a low wattage fluorescent lamp and a low wattage incandescent lamp. The fluorescent lamp provides an efficient light source operating at a low voltage and low watta... | 09/06/1994 |
| 5325024 | Light source including parallel driven low pressure RF fluorescent lamps A fluorescent light source includes multiple fluorescent lamp tubes driven in parallel by a single RF source. The fluorescent lamp tubes can be twin tube fluorescent lamps or straight fluorescent lamps. RF electrical energy is capacitively coupled to low ... | 06/28/1994 |
| 5132884 | High efficiency illumination system A high efficiency illumination system having lighting fixtures in spaced apart relation, light reflector panels in the lighting fixtures having two side by side central curved portions and two curved side portions on respective sides of the central portio... | 07/21/1992 |
| 5130610 | Discharge lamp lighting apparatus In a discharge lamp lighting apparatus of this invention, an AC voltage of a commercial AC power source is full-wave-rectified by a rectifier, and this full-wave-rectified AC is smoothed by a smoothing circuit connected to the rectifier. An inverter opera... | 07/14/1992 |
| 5065072 | Power supply circuit for an arc lamp, in particular for a motor vehicle headlight A power supply circuit for an arc lamp, in particular for a motor vehicle headlight, the power supply circuit being wherein it comprises: means for converting electricity from a low voltage DC supply such as a vehicle battery into an alternating voltage o... | 11/12/1991 |
| 4912372 | Power circuit for series connected loads A power circuit for N series connected loads according to the present invention includes N transformers having primary windings connected in series across a constant current AC source and secondary windings connected in series with the N loads. N-1 conduc... | 03/27/1990 |
| 4906901 | Power supply for outdoor lighting systems using high frequency A power supply for outdoor lighting systems accepts ordinary household alternating current of 120 volts at 60 hertz. The power supply uses a digital switching means to convert this current into a lower voltage at a higher frequency. Typically, these value... | 03/06/1990 |
| 4749916 | Illuminator for cultivating plant An illuminator for cultivating a plant by a discharge lamp excited by the output of a high frequency power source by utilizing photosynthetic mechanism. The output power of the high frequency power source is controlled to high and low powers by a bright a... | 06/07/1988 |
| 4723096 | Arc lamp power supply using a voltage multiplier A power supply is provided for an arc discharge lamp (38) which includes a relatively low voltage high current power supply section and a high voltage starter circuit (10). The low voltage section includes a transformer (15), rectifier (24), variable resi... | 02/02/1988 |
| 4574222 | Ballast circuit for multiple parallel negative impedance loads A current-balancing transformer is provided to supply plural parallel-connected electrical loads, especially loads such as gas discharge lamps which exhibit negative impedance and/or non-linear impedance over at least a part of their normal operating rang... | 03/04/1986 |
| 4547705 | Discharge lamp lightening device Two fluorescent lamps are lightened by a single inverter circuit which provides switched power current to a single leakage transformer. The leakage transformer has a single primary winding coupled with said inverter circuit and a pair of secondary winding... | 10/15/1985 |
| 4546306 | Voltage stabilizing transformer An improved magnetic core transformer for use as a voltage stabilizer in gas discharge lamps and tube circuits. The transformer has a magnetic stack length greater than either side of the magnetic cross-section and a floating shunt assembly constructed fr... | 10/08/1985 |
| 4518896 | Dual voltage lighting fixture A dual voltage lighting fixture for permiting the interchangeable use of light bulbs having substantially different operating voltages. The apparatus includes a housing to which is mounted a standard sized light bulb socket and a connector. A transformer ... | 05/21/1985 |
