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:
Feb. 15, 2011
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2006
Mizuki Utsuno, Niiza, JP;
Kazushige Hirata, Niiza, JP;
Toru Ashikaga, Niiza, JP;
Toyotomo Morita, Niiza, JP;
Mizuki Utsuno, Niiza, JP;
Kazushige Hirata, Niiza, JP;
Toru Ashikaga, Niiza, JP;
Toyotomo Morita, Niiza, JP;
Sanken Electric Co., Ltd., Niiza-shi, JP;
Abstract
A luminescent lamp lighting device includes a plurality of switch circuitseach connected to each of luminescent lampsin series under one-to-one correspondence, a plurality of optical coupling circuitseach connected to each of the switch circuits under one-to-one correspondence to turn on/off the switch circuits and a plurality of current detecting circuitseach connected to each of the luminescent lamps in series under one-to-one correspondence to detect currents flowing the luminescent lamps. The device determines whether the luminescent lamps are turned on or not, based on the currents detected by the current detecting circuits and controls the optical coupling circuits based on the determination result so as to allow all of the luminescent lamps but a luminescent lamp requiring a highest lighting voltage to be turned on in order of low lighting voltage, next allow the lighted luminescent lamps to be turned lighted off, and allow all of the remaining luminescent lamps to be turned on again after turning on the luminescent lamp requiring the highest lighting voltage.