Patents Examined by Jonathan Cooper
  • Patent number: 9247598
    Abstract: A portable lighting device having a plurality of modes of operation and method of operating the portable lighting device are disclosed. One method of operating the portable lighting device is by rotating the portable lighting device along a principal axis of projection of the light source to enter into a new mode of operation. Normal, dim, motion sensitive, variable brightness, blink, right and left hand, lock out, SOS, night light, strobe, compass and signal modes are disclosed, and the modes may be adjusted. A rechargeable battery pack is disclosed that includes a housing, a rechargeable battery, and an accelerometer. A battery cassette is disclosed that provides a negative electrode at each end of the battery cassette, and a central connector that provides a positive electrode at both ends of the battery cassette.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: MAG INSTRUMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Anthony Maglica, Stacey H West, Scott Nathanson, Robert P Radloff
  • Patent number: 9226352
    Abstract: Driver circuit and driving method for an LED lighting device are provided. The driver circuit includes an AC power supply, a dimmer, a transformer, and/or a dimming control circuit. The dimming control circuit includes a filtering unit, a rectifying unit, a boost converter unit, a control-signal conversion unit, and/or a buck converter unit. A dimming position is defined at a point in the driver circuit to perform a dimming control process of the LED lighting device by the dimmer. A voltage corresponding to the point is boosted by the boost converter unit to provide a boosted voltage. The boosted voltage is sampled and converted by the control-signal conversion unit into an analog control voltage signal acceptable by a buck converter unit. The buck converter unit alters an amount of a current of the LED lighting device, after receiving the analog control voltage signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: ZHEJIANG SHENGHUI LIGHTING CO., LTD
    Inventors: Yehua Wan, Jinxiang Shen
  • Patent number: 9226351
    Abstract: Disclosed is a compact converter plug that can be used with LED lighting strings. The converter plug has a size and shape that is comparable to a standard wall plug and is capable of plugging into a standard wall socket. The converter plug is waterproof and can be easily assembled. A unique converter circuit is utilized that is compact and highly efficient. Monitoring is performed by a transformer coil that generates a monitoring signal. The converter is controlled by controlling the modulation frequency of a direct current signal using a controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: 1 Energy Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Long Chen, Beijing Yu, Jing Jing Yu
  • Patent number: 9215786
    Abstract: Disclosed is a lighting apparatus. The lighting apparatus includes: a control module supplying power; a heat sink receiving the control module; a light source mounted on the heat sink and connected to the control module; and a communication module including a connection terminal inserted into the heat sink and connected to the control module, and an antenna device protruding from the heat sink. Since the lighting apparatus can be controlled in a wireless scheme, a user of the lighting apparatus can easily control the lighting apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: LG INNOTEK CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Won Suk Chung
  • Patent number: 9210758
    Abstract: A circuit for providing thermal compensation for a driver circuit used to drive light emitting diodes (LEDs) is provided. The driver circuit can include a rectifier circuit configured to rectify an AC power source into a DC power source providing a DC source voltage. The driver circuit can further include a boost circuit configured to boost the DC source voltage to provide a drive voltage for driving the light emitting diodes. The boost circuit can include a switching element that is controlled based at least in part on a current sense circuit having a sense transistor. A thermal tracking transistor is provided as part of the reference to the sense circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
    Inventor: Louis Robert Nerone
  • Patent number: 9204515
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a light source module, a light source module driving circuit and a driving method. The driving circuit comprises: a power supply, which provides input voltage; a control signal generating circuit, which inputs the input voltage provided from the power supply and outputs an enable signal and a dimming signal; a driving chip, which is connected with the power supply and connected to the enable signal and the dimming signal output from the control signal generating circuit, driving the light source of the light source module according to the enable signal and the dimming signal. Through the above way, the present invention utilizes the input voltage to generate the enable signal and the dimming signal. Therefore, it only needs to provide external input voltage to control the light source module in operation, which makes the control more convenient and reliable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd
    Inventor: Hua Zhang
  • Patent number: 9198260
    Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention discloses a light-emitting signal control circuit comprising: a first driving transistor for allowing a voltage to be output from a first voltage source to a output end under the control of a low level drive signal; a second driving transistor for allowing a voltage to be output from a second voltage source to the output under the control of a second low level drive signal; a first transmission control transistor connected between the first voltage source and the control end of a first driving transistor; a control signal unit for generating the first low level drive signal and the second low level drive signal; a voltage stabilizer connected between the second low level drive signal and first transmission control transistor. The circuit will suppress the voltage fluctuation on the control end of the first transmission control transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: EVERDISPLAY OPTRONICS (SHANGHAI) LIMITED
    Inventors: Xing Yu Zhou, Yu Hsiung Feng
  • Patent number: 9194569
    Abstract: An illuminant device includes a housing, a illuminant element, a resistor, and an over-temperature protective element. The housing includes an upper portion, a lower portion opposite to the upper portion, and two accommodating spaces, respectively formed in a first tubular configuration arranged between the upper end and the lower end and a second tubular configuration spatially isolated from the first accommodating space. The illuminant element is placed on the upper portion. The resistor is located within one of the accommodating space and electrically connected to the illuminant element. The over-temperature protective element is located within the other accommodating space and electrically connected to the illuminant element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: INTERLIGHT OPTOTECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hsi-Yan Chou, Yu-Chou Hu, Fu-Chen Liu
  • Patent number: 9190586
    Abstract: A semiconductor light-emitting device includes at least one light-emitting chip. The light-emitting chip includes plural light-emitting units, which are electrically coupled to each other in series, in parallel or in series-parallel combination; a first-type electrode electrically coupled to an external power source, the first-type electrode being disposed on one of the light-emitting units; a second-type electrode disposed on another of the light-emitting units; and a tapped point for electrically coupling at least one of the light-emitting units to an electronic component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: PHOSTEK, INC.
    Inventors: Shih Tsun Yang, Yuan-Hsiao Chang, Jhih-Sin Hong
  • Patent number: 9188307
    Abstract: A light fixture includes a light emitting diode (LED) structure, a housing with one or more sensors, and control circuitry that is configured to receive data from the sensor and automatically alter characteristics of light emitted by the LEDs in the fixture in response to the received data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: Ephesus Lighting, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph R. Casper, Christopher D. Nolan, Joseph J. Witkowski, Jeff R. Shuster, Brian M. Wilson
  • Patent number: 9183788
    Abstract: A backlight driving circuit includes a constant current driving chip, a power module, and a light emitting diode (LED) lightbar coupled with the power module. The constant current driving chip includes a control module that controls switching frequency of the power module, and an adjusting module that adjusts duty cycle of effective current flowing through the LED lightbar. The control module includes a frequency pin used to set the switching frequency of the power module. An external pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming signal is sent to the adjusting module of the constant current driving chip. The backlight driving circuit further includes a detection module that detects duty cycle of the PWM dimming signal, and a monitor module coupled with the detection module of the backlight driving circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Inventors: Hua Zhang, Fei Li
  • Patent number: 9185784
    Abstract: A controlling method for an electrical apparatus and a device thereof are provided in the present invention. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing an electrical apparatus and an AC power; (b) generating a control signal synchronized to the AC power; and (c) controlling the electrical apparatus by the control signal. The device includes a threshold detector, a phase-locked loop coupled to the threshold crossing detector and an output circuit coupled to the phase-locked loop.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Inventors: Richard Landry Gray, Po Ming Tsai
  • Patent number: 9179509
    Abstract: A circuit in accordance with one embodiment of the invention can include a light emitting diode (LED) assembly comprising a plurality of LED channels that are controlled independently with a switch mode driver. The circuit also includes N+1 wires coupled to said LED assembly, where N is equal to the number of said plurality of LED channels of said LED assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Kedar Godbole, Hariom Rai
  • Patent number: 9171870
    Abstract: In a light emitting device, luminance irregularities caused by fluctuation in threshold of TFTs for supplying a current to EL elements among pixels hinder the light emitting device from improving the image quality. A voltage equal to the threshold of a TFT 110 is held in capacitor means 111 in advance. When a video signal is inputted from a source signal line, the voltage held in the capacitor means is added to the signal, which is then applied to a gate electrode of the TFT 110. Even when threshold is fluctuated among pixels, each threshold is held in the capacitor means 111 of each pixel, and therefore, influence of the threshold fluctuation can be removed. Since the threshold is stored in the capacitor means 111 alone and the voltage between two electrodes is not changed while a video signal is written, fluctuation in capacitance value has no influence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hajime Kimura
  • Patent number: 9162611
    Abstract: A light assembly and method for generating a light pattern, the assembly comprising a first light module including a first LED array, the first LED array including at least a first line of LEDs where each LED in the first array generates an LED light pattern and where dark areas occur between adjacent LED light patterns, the first LED array forming a first light pattern including interleaved bright and dark areas and a second light module wherein the first and second light modules are arranged with the first light pattern misaligned with a second light pattern generated by the second light module so that at least a subset of the bright areas in the first light pattern are aligned with dark areas in the second light pattern to generate a combined light pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: J.W. Speaker, Corporation
    Inventors: Bradley William Kay, Kevin Jay McWithey
  • Patent number: 9167662
    Abstract: In at least one embodiment, a system and method provide current compensation in a lighting system by controlling a lamp current to prevent a current through a triac-based dimmer from undershooting a holding current value. In at least one embodiment, at least one of the lamps includes a controller that controls circuitry in the lamp to draw more lamp current for a period of time than needed to illuminate a brightness of the lamp at a level corresponding to particular phase-cut angle of the supply voltage. By drawing more current than needed, the controller increases the dimmer current during the period of time to prevent the dimmer current from falling below the holding current value. In at least one embodiment, the period of time corresponds to a compensating pulse of the lamp current at a time when the dimmer current would otherwise fall below the holding current value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric J. King, John L. Melanson, Daniel J. Baker, Mohit Sood, Rahul Singh
  • Patent number: 9167646
    Abstract: A PWM architecture of a microcontroller is disclosed that includes a fault module for regulating and detecting faults in current sensing or illuminating devices (e.g., LED strings). The fault module is part of a hardware regulation loop of LED voltage and LED current that allows the CPU to be placed in idle mode (“IDLE”) while an LED string is regulated in illumination. The microcontroller includes a PWM generator having a double channels PWM timer with a specific fault mode and an amplified comparator with a voltage reference. The architecture allows tuning of various parameters, including LED peak current, LED voltage supply, LED voltage regulation step and LED dimming value. In IDLE mode, the hardware regulation loop can regulate LED peak current and LED voltage supply without any CPU resource (microcontroller in IDLE mode). The fault module part of the hardware regulation loop can also detect and inform the CPU of: 1) an open LED; 2) a weak battery; and 3) an LED voltage that is under a target value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Atmel Corporation
    Inventor: Karl Jean-Paul Courtel
  • Patent number: 9155152
    Abstract: A light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixture is configured to interface a three-way socket and provide at least two levels of output light intensity. A detection unit determines whether one or both input voltages lines of the three-way socket are active and provides a control signal to an LED controller indicating which input voltage lines are active. The LED controller is configured to provide different output current levels to an LED bank based on whether one or both input voltage lines are active. By adjusting the output current level based on which input lines are active, the LED lighting fixture provides at least two output lighting intensity levels. LED lighting fixtures according to various embodiments can therefore serve as a direct replacement for three-way incandescent bulbs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: Dialog Semiconductor Inc.
    Inventors: Nan Shi, Liang Yan
  • Patent number: 9155174
    Abstract: A power control/lighting system includes a controller to provide compatibility between a lamp ballast configured to receive a dedicated dimmer signal and a phase control dimmer. In at least one embodiment, the controller converts a phase control dimming signal into dimming information useable by a lamp ballast of a gas discharge lamp based lighting system. Additionally, in at least one embodiment, the controller also controls power factor correction of the power control/lighting system. In at least one embodiment, the controller provides dimming information based on the phase control dimming signal that allows the lamp ballast to be used in conjunction with a phase control dimmer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: William A. Draper, Robert Grisamore
  • Patent number: 9148925
    Abstract: A circuit for controlling a switch in a power converter in which peak current is regulated to achieve a specified average current through a load. The circuit can include a first input to receive a voltage corresponding to a pre-specified target average current through the load, and a second input to receive a voltage corresponding to a voltage across a sensing resistor immediately after the switch turns ON. The circuit generates a threshold value that is approximately equal to twice the voltage corresponding to the pre-specified target average current through the load, minus the voltage corresponding to a non-zero voltage across the sensing resistor just after the switch turns ON. Control logic is operable to monitor a voltage across the sensing resistor such that when the voltage across the sensing resistor reaches or exceeds the threshold value, the control logic generates a signal that causes the switch to be turned OFF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2015
    Assignee: Atmel Corporation
    Inventors: Charles Cai, Wai-Keung Peter Cheng