Lamp electronic ballast with a piezoelectric cooling fan
First Claim
1. The combination of a lamp electronic ballast and a piezoelectric fan positioned to remove heat from the ballast, the ballast comprising a rectifier adapted to receive AC power and produce DC power with an AC ripple voltage, and an inverter coupled to the rectifier and to an output of the ballast which is adapted to be coupled to a lamp, the piezoelectric fan being coupled to be driven by power from said AC ripple voltage present at the rectifier and having a mechanical resonance related to the frequency of the AC ripple voltage.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A lamp electronic ballast with a piezoelectric cooling fan. Use of ballast-driven lamps is limited in some lighting applications by thermal considerations. For example, the problem of heat removal from compact fluorescent lamps with integrated ballasts has limited their use. Similarly, the use of ballast-driven fluorescent lighting in high hat and other closed luminaire applications has been limited by thermal considerations. Thermal management of ballasts for such thermally sensitive applications is provided by a piezoelectric fan integrated with the ballast. The power to drive the fan may be obtained from the same AC line input that supplies the ballast, or from an AC ripple voltage present at the output of a rectifier in the ballast, or from the output of the ballast to the lamp, or from any suitable circuit location in the ballast. The fan maybe a membrane-type spot-cooler comprising a thin membrane carried by a frame mounted adjacent a hot spot. The membrane has one or more holes in it and is vibrated about a central plane by suitably spaced piezoelectric elements attached to the membrane.
38 Citations
32 Claims
- 1. The combination of a lamp electronic ballast and a piezoelectric fan positioned to remove heat from the ballast, the ballast comprising a rectifier adapted to receive AC power and produce DC power with an AC ripple voltage, and an inverter coupled to the rectifier and to an output of the ballast which is adapted to be coupled to a lamp, the piezoelectric fan being coupled to be driven by power from said AC ripple voltage present at the rectifier and having a mechanical resonance related to the frequency of the AC ripple voltage.
- 10. The combination of a lamp electronic ballast and a piezoelectric fan positioned to remove heat from the ballast, the ballast providing AC power at an output thereof which is adapted to be coupled to a lamp and comprising an inverter coupled to receive DC power and to provide the AC power at an output thereof, the piezoelectric fan being coupled to the output of the inverter and having a mechanical resonance related to the frequency of the AC power.
- 20. A miniature piezoelectric fan comprising a membrane having one or more apertures therein, and one or more piezoelectric elements fixed so as to vibrate the membrane about a central plane in response to an electrical signal coupled to the piezoelectric elements effective to move air through the one or more apertures.
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27. The combination of a lamp electronic ballast and a piezoelectric fan positioned to remove heat from the ballast,
the ballast having an input for receiving electric power, and first means for producing power within the ballast for a ballast use other than cooling, said power within the ballast including a component at a frequency higher than the received electric power, said first means including second means for providing, from said power within the ballast including said component, electrical power at an output thereof which is adapted to be coupled to a lamp, the piezoelectric fan being electrically coupled to the ballast and for driving by power coupled from said component at a frequency higher than the received electric power.
Specification