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:
Aug. 31, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 02, 1997
Brian E Jurek, Austin, TX (US);
High End Systems, Inc., , US;
Abstract
A gas discharge lamp is provided having a ballast control element and suppressible igniter. The igniter is chosen to superimpose an ignition pulse onto the initial AC ballast cycle or cycles provided to the lamp. The secondary coil of the igniter transformer is initially shorted until sufficient voltage is applied to the igniter. This causes a switch arranged across the secondary coil to open. A voltage detector coupled to a primary winding of the igniter transformer senses the amount of voltage applied from the ballast. Once that amount has been detected, the secondary winding is no longer shorted and the igniter can initially ignite the lamp during a peak of the initial cycle or cycles from the ballast. After the lamp has been initially ionized/discharged, or after a pre-defined set of discharges, the switch remains closed for the duration of each and every ballast cycle. Thus, the igniter is suppressed from the ballast output, and the ballast alone provides lamp discharge.