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:
Dec. 22, 2009
Filed:
Dec. 07, 2006
Masayasu Ito, Shizuoka, JP;
Hitoshi Takeda, Shizuoka, JP;
Masayasu Ito, Shizuoka, JP;
Hitoshi Takeda, Shizuoka, JP;
Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A vehicle lighting apparatus includes a plurality of semiconductor light sources that are connected with each other in series, a switching regulator for supplying an electric power from a power source to each of said plurality of semiconductor light sources, forward voltage detection circuitry for detecting a forward voltage of each group by dividing said plurality of semiconductor light sources into groups; and failure detection circuitry for detecting the failure of the semiconductor light sources belonging to said each group based on the detected output of said each forward voltage detection circuitry. There are arranged between said groups a first voltage detection terminal and a second voltage detection terminal, mutually connected, as the voltage detection terminals connected to the forward voltage detection means to detect at least one of said groups, as well as a first failure detection wiring connecting the semiconductor light sources belonging to one group and said first voltage detection terminal and a second failure detection wiring connecting the semiconductor light sources belonging to the other group and said second voltage detection terminal.