Patent ID: 9386641
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: H05B,Y02B

Claim Text:
1. A dimmer synchronous load for a lighting system, wherein the lighting system is fed by an AC supply voltage, the lighting system comprising a radio frequency interference (RFI) filter coupled to the AC supply voltage for filtering out RF harmonics, a rectifier coupled to the RFI filter for rectifying the AC supply voltage, and a lighting driver coupled to the rectifier and serving to drive a lighting means, the dimmer synchronous load comprising: a synchronous load coupled to an output of the rectifier and configured, while maintained conducting, to load the AC supply voltage; a dimmer detector for detecting whether the current consumed by the lighting driver from the AC supply voltage comprises surges that exceed a given intensity, for determining whether the AC supply voltage is produced by a lighting dimmer; and a synchronous load controller coupled to the rectifier for sensing the AC supply voltage, further coupled to the dimmer detector for receiving therefrom an indication whether the AC supply voltage is produced by a lighting dimmer and further coupled to the synchronous load, the synchronous load controller configured to maintain the synchronous load conducting while concurrently detecting that the AC supply voltage is lower than a given threshold and receiving from the dimmer detector an indication that the AC supply voltage is actually produced by a lighting dimmer.