Flexible lighting segment
First Claim
1. An illumination apparatus, comprising a lighting segment comprising a plurality of lighting sections, each of said sections comprising a printed circuit board having a solid state optical emitter mounted thereon, said sections interconnected by printed circuit board connectors which serially position said printed circuit boards with edges of adjacent printed circuit boards proximate to each other, said connectors being deformable to alter the orientation in response to an applied force, said sections being electrically connected to each other such that said solid state optical emitters are electrically connected in series, said segment having a current regulator which controls current through said solid state optical emitter.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An illumination apparatus comprises a lighting segment that includes a plurality of lighting sections. Each of the sections comprises a printed circuit board having a solid state optical emitter mounted thereon. The sections are interconnected by printed circuit board connectors, which serially position the printed circuit boards with edges of adjacent printed circuit boards proximate to each other. The connectors are deformable to alter the orientation in response to an applied force. The sections are electrically connected to each other such that the solid state optical emitters are electrically connected in series. The segment has a current regulator that controls current through the solid state optical emitter.
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Citations
25 Claims
- 1. An illumination apparatus, comprising a lighting segment comprising a plurality of lighting sections, each of said sections comprising a printed circuit board having a solid state optical emitter mounted thereon, said sections interconnected by printed circuit board connectors which serially position said printed circuit boards with edges of adjacent printed circuit boards proximate to each other, said connectors being deformable to alter the orientation in response to an applied force, said sections being electrically connected to each other such that said solid state optical emitters are electrically connected in series, said segment having a current regulator which controls current through said solid state optical emitter.
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3. An illumination apparatus, comprising a lighting segment comprised of a plurality of electrically interconnected sections, adjacent ones of said sections being flexibly connected to each other by connections which permit relative movement therebetween, each of said sections comprising a solid state optical emitter and an optical element, at least one optical element being a first refractive element and at least another optical element selected from the group consisting of (1) a second refractive element having different refractive characteristics than the first refractive element and (2) an optical diverter having a total internal reflection surface.
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4. A method of illuminating an elongate strip of translucent material, the method comprising:
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configuring a lighting segment having a plurality of serially-connected lighting sections, wherein configuring the lighting segment includes altering a separation between at least two adjacent lighting sections;
energizing the plurality of series-connected light-emitting diodes to emit light;
passing light from the plurality of light-emitting diodes through a plurality of optical elements, respectively, each of said plurality of optical elements producing an elongated pattern having a substantially uniform intensity across said pattern; and
imbricating the elongated illumination patterns to substantially uniformly illuminate said elongate strip of translucent material. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
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7. An illumination apparatus, comprising:
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a segmented support structure comprising a plurality of sections which are movably connected to each other such that each section is movable in three orthogonal directions relative to an adjacent section;
a plurality of point sources mounted on said plurality of sections, respectively; and
a plurality of non-rotationally symmetric lenses mounted on said plurality of sections, respectively, to receive light from said plurality of point sources, respectively. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An illumination apparatus, comprising:
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a lighting segment, wherein the lighting segment includes;
a first lighting section, wherein the first lighting section includes;
a first printed circuit board; and
a first solid state optical emitter mounted on the printed circuit board;
a second lighting section connected to the first lighting section by a flexible interconnect such that the second lighting section can be moved in three orthogonal directions, wherein the second lighting section includes;
a second printed circuit board; and
a second solid state optical emitter mounted on the second printed circuit board and electrically connected in series with the first solid state optical emitter, and a current regulator which regulates current through the first and second solid state optical emitters. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification