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:
Nov. 06, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 14, 2000
Applicant:
Inventor:
Berthold Birk, Aschaffenburg, DE;
Assignee:
Mannesmann VDO AG, Frankfurt, DE;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H05B 3/702 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H05B 3/702 ;
Abstract
A method for dimming a fluorescent lamp, in which a transformer is driven by an AC voltage in a push-pull manner. In a method which ensures flicker-free light emission over a wide temperature range at the highest possible dimming rate, a resonant circuit containing the current transformer, the secondary capacitance element and the fluorescent lamp is momentarily made to oscillate in an ionization phase in such a way that the fluorescent lamp is reliably prevented from illuminating, and then the fluorescent lamp is positively controlled.