Patents by Inventor Kotaro Matsui

Kotaro Matsui has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7479742
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting circuit 1 includes a direct current-alternating current converting circuit 3, a starting circuit 4, controlling means 15 for controlling power, switching elements 5H, 5L driven by the controlling means 15 and a series LC resonance circuit (7p, 8, 9). A frequency modulating circuit is provided for restraining acoustic resonance by modulating a frequency of driving the switching element. When a basic frequency related to the drive frequency is equal to or higher than 1 MHz, a modulation width is set to be equal to or higher than 20 kHz.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2009
    Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kotaro Matsui, Tomoyuki Ichikawa, Soichi Yagi
  • Patent number: 7439687
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting circuit 1 includes an electric power supply part and a control part. The control part generates a control signal (Sc) for controlling the magnitude of electric power based on a lamp voltage (VL) of a discharge lamp. The electric power supply part supplies the electric power based on the control signal (Sc) from the control part to the discharge lamp. The control part has a differential computation part for differentiating a lamp voltage corresponding signal (VS) with respect to time and generating a first differential signal Sd1 (=dVS/dt), and an integral computation part for integrating a second differential signal (Sd2) which monotonously increases and decreases as the first differential signal (Sd1) increases and decreases with respect to time and generating a first integral signal (Si1), and generates the control signal (Sc) so that the electric power decreases with an increase in the first integral signal (Si1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kotaro Matsui, Tomoyuki Ichikawa
  • Publication number: 20080164818
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting circuit includes a power supplying portion having a half bridge inverter for converting an output of a DC power supply into AC power, and a bridge driver for driving the half bridge inverter, and a control portion for generating a control signal S1 to control a driving frequency F of the bridge driver. The control portion has a random number generating circuit for generating a random number signal and changes the driving frequency F in accordance with the random number signal at a time interval of N/F, wherein N is an integer of one or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2008
    Publication date: July 10, 2008
    Applicant: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomoyuki Ichikawa, Kotaro Matsui, Yusuke Kasaba
  • Publication number: 20080122380
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting circuit supplies an AC power for lighting a discharge lamp. The discharge lamp lighting circuit includes a power supply portion for supplying the AC power to the discharge lamp and a control portion for controlling the magnitude of the AC power. The power supply portion includes a series resonance circuit including transistors, a transformer, a capacitor and an inductor and a bridge driver for driving the transistors. The control portion controls the bridge driver so that the AC power increases intermittently. Thus, as the temperature of electrodes can be increased while suppressing the temporal average value of the supplied power within a rated power, the movement of a luminous point at the time of lighting the discharge lamp with a high frequency can be suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2007
    Publication date: May 29, 2008
    Applicant: KOITO MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kotaro Matsui, Tomoyuki Ichikawa, Takuya Serita
  • Publication number: 20070273302
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting circuit 1 includes an electric power supply part and a control part. The control part generates a control signal (Sc) for controlling the magnitude of electric power based on a lamp voltage (VL) of a discharge lamp. The electric power supply part supplies the electric power based on the control signal (Sc) from the control part to the discharge lamp. The control part has a differential computation part for differentiating a lamp voltage corresponding signal (VS) with respect to time and generating a first differential signal Sd1 (=dVS/dt), and an integral computation part for integrating a second differential signal (Sd2) which monotonously increases and decreases as the first differential signal (Sd1) increases and decreases with respect to time and generating a first integral signal (Si1), and generates the control signal (Sc) so that the electric power decreases with an increase in the first integral signal (Si1).
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2007
    Publication date: November 29, 2007
    Inventors: Kotaro Matsui, Tomoyuki Ichikawa
  • Publication number: 20060261756
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting circuit 1 includes a direct current-alternating current converting circuit 3, a starting circuit 4, controlling means 15 for controlling power, switching elements 5H, 5L driven by the controlling means 15 and a series LC resonance circuit (7p, 8, 9). A frequency modulating circuit is provided for restraining acoustic resonance by modulating a frequency of driving the switching element. When a basic frequency related to the drive frequency is equal to or higher than 1 MHz, a modulation width is set to be equal to or higher than 20 kHz.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2006
    Publication date: November 23, 2006
    Inventors: Kotaro Matsui, Tomoyuki Ichikawa, Soichi Yagi