The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 16, 2019
Filed:
Nov. 11, 2013
Signify Holding B.v., Eindhoven, NL;
Shangwu Chen, Wheeling, IL (US);
SIGNIFY HOLDING B.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
A device () and method () control a dimming level of one or more lighting units () in response to a user interaction with a reference-free user interface (), such as a rocker-type interface. A bidirectional triode thyristor () supplies an AC input voltage () to the lighting unit(s) when it is triggered. A triggering circuit () triggers the bidirectional triode thyristor. The triggering circuit includes a capacitor () and a variable resistance element () which sets a time constant during each half cycle of a period of the AC input voltage for charging the capacitor to a triggering voltage which triggers the bidirectional triode thyristor. The resistance of the variable resistance element is controlled in response to a dimming input signal from the reference-free user interface. The dimming input signal indicates only relative changes in the output level of the lighting unit(s) with respect to the present level.