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:
Oct. 13, 1992
Filed:
Sep. 26, 1990
Ronald M Schmidt, Burbank, CA (US);
Alfred T Schmidt, North Hollywood, CA (US);
Madan M Sharma, Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Litebeams, Inc., Burbank, CA (US);
Abstract
A pulse driver circuit for providing very high frequency pulses with fast rise time to neon or gas discharge lamps to thereby produce higher optical output than is possible using conventional drivers. Gas discharge lamps have at least two states of operation. One is the application of breakover voltage to initiate gas ionization which may be called the preionization state. The second state is known as the breakdown condition which is when the gas in the lamp has ionized and is producing the optical output. The pulse driver, starts the ionization at a relatively low breakover voltage because of its fast rise time. The pulse driver comprises an astable oscillator, the output of which passes through a pulse width capacitor. The generated pulse train drives a power driver transistor which causes current to flow through a transformer causing a voltage to be applied to a lamp. The power applied to the transformer is used in a feedback loop which provides pulse width control to keep the current applied to the transformer constant so that the output of the lamp is relatively constant over a given voltage range.