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. 08, 1996
Filed:
Apr. 13, 1995
Thomas Ribarich, Glarus, CH;
Felix Tobler, Schanis, CH;
Knobel AG Lichttechnische Komponenten, Ennenda, CH;
Abstract
Method for operating a ballast for discharge lamps. The ballast comprises a rectifier for rectifying and filtering an AC line voltage, with the rectified voltage being smoothed with a capacitor and fed to an inverter, wherein the inverter drives a resonant lamp circuit that includes a gas discharge lamp, with the frequency of the inverter being generated by a voltage controlled oscillator and a control circuit, so that during normal operation of the lamp, the inverter frequency is chosen according to the current value of the rectified voltage, and during start-up of the ballast, the inverter frequency is lowered from a high starting frequency, while being continuously monitored to ensure the latter does not fall below a minimum frequency, with the value of the minimum frequency depending on the value of the rectified voltage, thus decreasing the dependence of the light flux on the rectified voltage and assuring a safe start-up process.