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:
Jun. 14, 2016
Filed:
May. 07, 2014
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Irwin Nederbragt, Brighton, CO (US);
Steven Barrow, Longmont, CO (US);
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Circuits and methods for detecting the presence of a leading-edge phase-cut dimmer. The dimmer detector comprises an edge detector, a pulse stretcher and a filter. The edge detector detects whether an input signal has a rapidly rising edge and generates an output signal pulse if a rapidly rising edge is detected. If the edge detector outputs a signal pulse, the pulse stretcher generates a stretched pulse having a duration that is longer than the signal pulse received from the edge detector. The filter produces a dimmer detect signal that indicates whether a leading-edge phase-cut dimmer is detected. If the pulse stretcher output signal comprises at least a predetermined number of stretched pulses within a predetermined amount of time, the dimmer signal signals the presence of a leading-edge phase-cut dimmer.