Philips Electronics North America Corporation

U.S. Philips Corporation

Jerzy Janczak

Pawel M Gradzki

Machiel A Hendrix

Paulus P Arts

Adan F Hernandez

Everaard M Aendekerk

A ballast including a single sense element and a single controller for mulitple lamp operation. The ballast avoids the need for separate feedpaths for sensing individual lamp conditions and/or the need for separate controllers for controlling the individual lamp conditions. Consequently, the ballast scheme avoids the use of expensive components (e.g. controllers and chokes) and minimizes the number of components required in order to operate multiple lamps.

Ballast scheme for operating multiple lamps

A dimming interface for translating the conduction pulse width of a signal produced by a triac dimmer into a proportional rectified average voltage serving as a dimming signal. The dimming signal is supplied as an input to an IC driver for controlling the level of lamp illumination. The proportional rectified average voltage can be converted into a signal representing a duty cylce whereby a variation in the mains line voltage does not affect the dimming signal.

Triac dimmable compact fluorescent lamp with dimming interface

A triac dimmable electronic ballast having a single stage feedback power factor inverter is configured to isolate the resonant circuit current from a DC bias, or a DC transient caused by activations of the triac. The resonant circuit is driven by a high frequency inverter, and contains a feedback path to a DC storage element. Two DC blocking devices are provided, one between the resonant circuit and the inverter, and one between the resonant circuit and the DC storage element.

Triac dimmable electronic ballast with single stage feedback power

A ballast feedback scheme including a single stage current feedback inverter. To avoid overboosting of the voltage impressed across a buffer capacitor only a portion of the high frequency lamp current is fedback to the buffer capacitor during both ignition and steady state operation of the lamp. Ignition of the lamp is well controlled.

Ballast feedback scheme

A compact flourescent lamp in which the level of illumination is controlled by a triac dimmer. Premature turn off of the triac dimmer is avoided through the serial combination of at least one resistor and at least one capacitor forming a snubber placed across the output of the electromagnetic interference filter of the compact flourescent lamp ballast. The snubber dampens oscillations generated within the compact flourescent lamp whereby sufficient power is drawn by the compact flourescent lamp to sustain conduction of the triac dimmer throughout the dimming range of the latter.

Dimmable compact fluorescent lamp

A triac dimmable compact fluorescent lamp having a low power factor. A power feedback circuit coupled between the input and output stages of the lamp ballast creates sufficient current demand to sustain triac conduction at low dim levels. The power fed back from the output stage to the input stage, which includes a voltage doubler, reflects the voltage across the lamp.

Triac dimmable compact fluorescent lamp with low power factor

A triac dimmable compact fluorescent lamp including a power feedback circuit. The power feedback circuit helps to maintain the level of current drawn from the triac to at least the level of the triac holding current especially during low dim levels. In one preferred embodiment, the feedback circuit is fed into a junction joining together a pair of fast recovery diodes for converting the high frequency square wave signal into a unidirectional signal supplied to an inverter. Overboost voltages across a buffer capacitor are minimized during low dim levels.

Triac dimmable, single stage compact flourescent lamp

A dimmable fluorescent lamp including a feedback circuit for drawing sufficient current to maintain an appropriate charge across the buffer capacitor. A bypass capacitor provides a path for diverting a portion of the power which would otherwise be fed back to the buffer capacitor during low level dimming. Consequently, overboost voltages across the buffer capacitor during low level dimming are substantially reduced.

Dimmable, single stage fluorescent lamp

A circuit arrangement for the high-frequency operation of a discharge lamp comprises a first rectifying circuit (D1-D4) for generating a DC voltage across a first capacitor (C1) from a low-frequency supply voltage. A DC/AC converter (IV) for generating a high-frequency AC voltage at a frequency f from the DC voltage is coupled to a load branch (B) provided with coupling means (T3, T4) for coupling the discharge lamp (Li) to the load branch. The load branch connects a junction point N1 of the DC/AC converter to a junction point N2 between the first rectifying circuit and the first capacitor. A second rectifying circuit for converting a high-frequency voltage generated by the DC/AC converter into a DC voltage is coupled to the first capacitor and to a junction point N3 in the load branch. A control circuit controls the power consumed by the discharge lamp through variation of the frequency f. The coupling means are connected between the junction point N2 and the junction point N3 in the load branch.

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Woodhaven, NY, United States of America

Jerzy Janczak