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. 20, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 27, 1996
Applicant:
Inventors:
Claudio Diazzi, Sesto Calende, IT;
Mario Tarantola, Bareggio, IT;
Fabrizio Martignoni, Morazzone, IT;
Assignee:
SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, S.r.l., Milan, IT;
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G05F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
315294 ; 315360 ; 315362 ; 3152 / ;
Abstract
The need of implementing a second local oscillator in addition to the drive oscillator, for timing the different phases of the starting process of a half-bridge or bridge stage driving an external load, such as a fluorescent lamp, is avoided by employing a timing counter to count the number of oscillations produced by the drive oscillator, and a digital-to-analog converter for controlling the frequency of oscillation of the drive oscillator.