Modified dimming LED driver
First Claim
1. An illumination control circuit receiving input voltage for powering one or more illumination sources wherein said illumination control circuit comprises:
- an input sensing module receiving said input voltage and comprising;
a voltage modifier producing an output voltage proportional to said input voltage, anda filter removing unwanted voltage fluctuations in said input voltage; and
a controlling module receiving said output voltage from said input sensing module, and producing one or more output dimming signals to control one or more illumination sources; and
one or more driver modules receiving said input voltage and said output dimming signals, and producing one or more output currents to drive one or more illumination sources;
wherein said output currents of said driver modules are controlled according to said output dimming signals of said controlling module to vary the intensity of said illumination sources in proportion to the relative value of said input voltage.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A driver circuit produces variable current output for an LED lighting system providing improved dimming capability and greater power efficiency when responding to industry standard lighting dimmers, through the use of an input voltage monitoring circuit which variably controls the current output of a switching regulator. Output current modulation methods such as analog, PWM, Pulse Frequency Modulation, or other digital modulation, and combination or hybrid methods such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,088,059 B2 may be employed. The current invention marries such output modulation techniques with a control method which is derived through intelligent monitoring of the input voltage waveform. The circuit and method described is adapted to higher current applications such as LED lighting systems using the latest high-power LEDs.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. An illumination control circuit receiving input voltage for powering one or more illumination sources wherein said illumination control circuit comprises:
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an input sensing module receiving said input voltage and comprising; a voltage modifier producing an output voltage proportional to said input voltage, and a filter removing unwanted voltage fluctuations in said input voltage; and a controlling module receiving said output voltage from said input sensing module, and producing one or more output dimming signals to control one or more illumination sources; and one or more driver modules receiving said input voltage and said output dimming signals, and producing one or more output currents to drive one or more illumination sources; wherein said output currents of said driver modules are controlled according to said output dimming signals of said controlling module to vary the intensity of said illumination sources in proportion to the relative value of said input voltage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An illumination control circuit comprising:
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an input voltage sensing circuit producing an output signal proportional to said input voltage, and a microcontroller receiving said output signal from said input voltage sensing circuit, and adapted to write a digital pulsed modulation signal to a power regulating device according to programmed instructions, and a power regulating device receiving said digital pulsed modulation signal of said microcontroller to control an illumination source, and regulating the power delivered to said illumination source to control the intensity of said illumination source; wherein said power regulating device is controlled according to said digital pulsed modulation signal such that the intensity of said illumination source varies in proportion to the relative duty cycle of said pulsed modulation signal of said microcontroller. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification