Patent Publication Number: US-2007097678-A1

Title: Bulb with light emitting diodes

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates generally to a LED lamp, and more particularly to a bulb with light emitting diodes (LEDs).  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      As the improvement of technique, there are high-luminance light emitting diodes (LED) in the present market, and such LEDs are broadly applied to various products, such as interior lights and taillight of automobile.  
      LED has to be connected to the socket for LED only, and it can&#39;t be connected to the socket for tungsten lamp directly. Therefore, while user wants to replace tungsten lamp with LED, both of the lamp and the socket have to be replace together. It raises the cost for replacement. Some improved LED is provided, which can be connected to the socket for tungsten lamp directly, such that it can reduce the cost to replace tungsten lamp with LED. Such new LED bulb has vertical plates, on which LEDs are provided, with two ends inserted into a top plate and a bottom plate respectively, and the bottom plate is connected to a conventional cap. Therefore, the vertical plates have to be inserted into the bottom plate and connect wires to the cap. This process is difficult and has higher cost, so that the LED bulbs can&#39;t be provided to consumers with lower price.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a LED bulb with a simple assembling process.  
      According to the objective of the present invention, a bulb type light emitting diode structure comprises a top light-emitting module having a top circuit board and a plurality of light emitting diodes. The top circuit board has a plurality of first lock slots thereon and wires electrically connected to the light emitting diodes respectively. A plurality of vertical light-emitting modules have a vertical circuit board and a plurality of light emitting diodes respectively. Each of the vertical circuit boards has a first coupling portion and a second coupling portion on two ends thereof respectively. The first coupling portions are inserted into the first lock slots of the top light-emitting module respectively to electrically connect the vertical light-emitting modules to the top light-emitting module. A positioning base has a positioning plate and a coupling portion projected from a side of the positioning plate. The positioning plate has a plurality of second lock slots at a side opposite to the coupling portion to engage the second coupling portions of the vertical light-emitting modules respectively. The positioning base has a through hole through the positioning plate and the coupling portion for the wires passing through. A cap has a top fixed to the coupling portion of the positioning base. The wires through the through hole are electrically connected to a bottom of the cap. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is an exploded view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a sectional view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention; and  
       FIG. 3  is a sectional view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
      As shown in FIGS.  1  to  2 , a bulb with light emitting diodes (LEDs)  100  of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention mainly comprises a top light-emitting module  10 , a plurality of vertical light-emitting modules  20 , a positioning base  30 , and a cap  40 .  
      The top light-emitting module  10  has a top circuit board  11  and a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs)  12 . The top circuit board  11  substantially is a disk-like member having a predetermined conductor pattern (not shown) and a plurality of first lock slots  13  with a predetermined interval therebetween. There is a predetermined interval between the neighboring first slots  13 . The LEDs  12  are connected to a top side of the top circuit board  11  and electrically connected to the conductor pattern. The top circuit board  11  is provided with wires  14  and a ground wire  15  on a bottom side thereof.  
      Each of the vertical light-emitting modules  20  has a vertical circuit board  21  and a plurality of LEDs  11 . The vertical circuit board  21  substantially is a rectangular member having a predetermined conductor pattern (not shown) and a first coupling portion  23  and a second coupling portion  24  on ends thereof respectively. The LEDs  22  are connected to a top side of the vertical circuit board  21  and electrically connected to the conductor pattern.  
      The positioning base  30  has a positioning plate  31  and a coupling portion  32 . The positioning plate  31  is a disk-like member having a plurality of second lock slots  33  with a predetermined interval therebetween. The coupling portion  32  is projected from the positioning plate  31  at a side opposite to the second lock slots  33  with a diameter are less than that of the positioning plate  31 . The positioning plate  31  has a through hole  34  through the coupling portion  32 .  
      The cap  40  is as same as the conventional bulb cap to be connected to a conventional bulb socket, which is hollow and coated with insulating coating on an interior side. The cap  40  has a bottom with a convex conductive connector  41 .  
      Above are the elements of the bulb type LED structure  100 , and we are going to describe the assembling and characters hereunder.  
      First, the vertical light-emitting modules  20  have the first coupling portions  23  inserted into the first lock slots  13  of the top light-emitting module  10 . With the touch of the first lock slots  13  and the first coupling portions  23 , the vertical light-emitting modules  20  are electrically connected to the top light-emitting module  10 . And then, the second coupling portions  24  of the vertical light-emitting modules  20  is inserted into the second lock slots  33  of the positioning base  30  to draw the wires  14  and the ground wire  15  out via the through hole  34  of the positioning base  30 . As a result, the top light-emitting module  10 , the vertical light-emitting modules  20 , and the positioning base  30  is connected together with a fixed relative relationship. The ground wire  15  is fixed to the cap  40  by welding, and then the cap  40  is fitted to the coupling portion  32  of the positioning base  30  with the wires  14  connected to the conductive connector  41  of the cap  40  (it is done by welding too). The assembling process of the present invention is completed.  
      The present invention has a specific structure and the corresponding assembling process that make the assembling process easier. While the positioning base is engaged with the vertical light-emitting modules, the wires and the ground wire are exposed to facilitate the welding of the wires and the ground wires with the cap.  
      As shown in  FIG. 3 , a LED bulb  200  of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a top light-emitting module  50 , a plurality of vertical light-emitting modules  60 , a positioning base  70 , and a cap  80 . Theses elements are as same as the elements above, and the differences of the second preferred embodiment are hereunder.  
      The positioning base  70  has a positioning plate  71  and a coupling portion  72  projected from a bottom side of the positioning plate  71  also. The positioning plate  71  is provided with a transparent shell member  73  with bores  74 .  
      After assembling process of the LED structure  200 , the shell member  73  covers the vertical light-emitting modules  60  and is connected to a margin of the top light-emitting module  50 . The shell member  73  protects the vertical light-emitting modules  60  from impact, and the bores  74  of the shell member  73  can prevent the vertical light-emitting modules  60  from overheat.