LED circuit arrangement having a diode rectifier

• US 20060071806A1
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Hofmann, Markus, Hollnberger, Peter, Rasp, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,808,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/815.450
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/33 being semiconductor devices, e.g. diodes
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/40 Details of LED load circuits

Abstract

An LED circuit arrangement in which an AC voltage source (1) provides a voltage supply and which has a diode rectifier (3, 7). The diode rectifier (3, 7) comprises at least one rectifier diode (4, 8, 9, 10, 11) which is a radiation-emitting LED chip. The at least one radiation-emitting LED chip (4, 8, 9, 10, 11) simultaneously functions as a luminous means and as a rectifier diode. The LED circuit arrangement is distinguished by a particularly low production cost.

Claims

1. An LED circuit arrangement in which an AC voltage source (1) provides a voltage supply and which has a diode rectifier (3, 7),

wherein

the diode rectifier (3, 7) comprises at least one rectifier diode (4, 8, 9, 10, 11) which is a radiation-emitting LED chip.

2. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the diode rectifier is a half-wave rectifier (3).

3. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the diode rectifier is a bridge rectifier (7) whose rectifier diodes (8, 9, 10, 11) are radiation-emitting LED chips.

4. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the circuit arrangement comprises at least one further radiation-emitting LED chip (12, 13) which is operated as a load on the diode rectifier (3, 7).

5. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the LED circuit arrangement comprises at least one multichip LED (14, 15) containing a plurality of radiation-emitting LED chips (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

6. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 5,

wherein

the multichip LED (14, 15) contains at least one radiation-emitting LED chip (8, 9, 10, 11), which forms the rectifier diode of the diode rectifier (7), and at least one further radiation-emitting LED chip (12, 13) which is operated as a load on the diode rectifier (7).

7. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 3,

wherein

the LED circuit arrangement comprises at least two multichip LEDs (14, 15) each containing three radiation-emitting LED chips, each multichip LED (14, 15) containing two radiation-emitting LED chips (8, 9, 10, 11), which are part of the bridge rectifier circuit (7), and one radiation-emitting LED chip (12, 13) which is operated as a load on the bridge rectifier circuit (7).

8. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 7,

wherein

the radiation-emitting LED chips (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) of the multichip LED(S) (14, 15) emit light of the same color.

9. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the LED circuit arrangement contains at least one electronic component (5) for smoothing a DC voltage that is generated by the diode rectifier (3, 7).

10. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 9,

wherein

the electronic component is a capacitor (5).

11. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the circuit arrangement contains a transformer (2).

12. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

a mains voltage is provided as the AC voltage source (1).

13. A low-voltage luminous means,

which

has an LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 1.

14. A low-voltage luminous means,

which

has a plurality of parallel-connected LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 7.

15. The low-voltage luminous means as claimed in claim 13,

which

has a reflector (22) made from a glass or plastic which has preferably been provided with a metallization.

16. The low-voltage luminous means as claimed in claim 13,

which

is adapted for an operating voltage of 12 V.

17. A power supply unit,

which

contains an LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 11, the at least one radiation-emitting LED chip (4, 8, 9, 10, 11) which functions as the diode rectifier (3, 7) simultaneously constituting an optical display for operation of the power supply unit.

18. The LED circuit arrangement as claimed in claim 5,

wherein

the radiation-emitting LED chips (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) of the multichip LED(s) (14, 15) emit light of the same color.