Controllable retrofit LED lamps and lighting system having an LED lamp

• US 9,006,995 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2010
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tridonic AG (Zumtobel Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Tridonic AG (Zumtobel Group AG)
• Inventors: Pereira, Eduardo, Zimmermann, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Tung X
• Application Number:
  US13/514,169
• Publication Number:
  US 20120280638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 315/246, 315/247, 315/287, 315/291, 315/294, 315/297, 315/316, 315/324, 315/362
• US Class Current: 315/297
• CPC Class Codes: F21K 9/232 specially adapted for generating an essentially omnidirectional light distribution, e.g. with a glass bulb
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 3/00 Globes; Bowls; Cover glasses with refracting properties F21V5/00; with reflecting properties F21V7/00; characterised by cooling arrangements F21V29/506
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/10 Light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 39/044 continuously H05B39/042 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/357 specially adapted for retrofit LED light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/3574 Emulating the electrical or functional characteristics of incandescent lamps
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/185 via power line carrier transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/00 Energy efficient lighting technologies, e.g. halogen lamps or gas discharge lamps
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/30 Semiconductor lamps, e.g. solid state lamps [SSL] light emitting diodes [LED] or organic LED [OLED]

Abstract

The invention relates to a retrofit LED lamp (17) comprising a carrier (18) having at least one light-emitting diode (LED) (29), further comprising a driver circuit (12) for supplying power to the LED (29) and a socket (20) for electrically and mechanically connecting to a conventional lamp holder, characterized in that the retrofit LED lamp (17) comprises a carrier frequency system or power line communication (PLC) unit (16) connected to the electrical contacts (3, 4) and designed for receiving and/or transmitting data via the socket (20).

Claims

1. A retrofit LED lamp (17), comprising a carrier (18) having at least one light emitting diode (LED) (29), a driver circuit (12) for supplying power to the LED (29) and a base (20) for electrical and mechanical connection to a conventional lampholder, wherein the retrofit LED lamp (17) comprises a power line communication (PLC) unit (16) designed for receiving and/or transmitting data via the base (20), said data being modulated by a dimmer onto the supply voltage of the LED lamp (17) by means of power line communication (PLC), wherein the power line communication (PLC) unit (16) is configured with a de-multiplexer (21), and the de-multiplexer (21) is configured to de-multiplex and extract plural signals in the de-modulated data after de-modulation of the data modulated by the dimmer.

2. The retrofit LED lamp (17) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power line communication (PLC) unit (16) is designed for receiving commands with regard to the brightness, color and/or color temperature of the at least one LED (29), wherein, in the case of a plurality of LEDs and/or LEDs having at least two different spectra, the brightness, color and/or color temperature of individual LEDs of the plurality of LEDs or of the resultant mixed spectrum are predefined by means of the commands.

3. The retrofit LED lamp (17) as claimed in claim 1, comprising an AC-DC converter (13) for connection to a power supply system current, and a DC controller (14) connected to the AC-DC converter (13) and serving for delivering a current for operating the LED (29).

4. The retrofit LED lamp (17) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the control unit (15) controls the DC controller (14) in accordance with the received command.

5. A lighting system, comprising at least one luminous means, including at least one LED lamp as claimed in claim 1 and an actuable dimmer switch configured for a power line communication (PLC) modulation and a phase gating of the supply voltage of the LED lamp, wherein the actuation of the dimmer switch is a result of manually or signal-technological input dimming commands.

6. A method for operating at least one retrofit LED lamp (17), comprising a carrier (18) having at least one light emitting diode (LED) (29), a driver circuit (12) for supplying power to the LED (29) and a base (20) for electrical and mechanical connection to a conventional lamp holder,

wherein the method comprises the steps of:

power line communication (PLC) modulation of the supply voltage of the LED lamp by a dimmer, and

demodulation and de-multiplexing of the carrier frequency system or powerline communication (PLC) unit (16) in the retrofit lamp (17).