Source: https://insight.rpxcorp.com/pat/US9198237B2
Timestamp: 2020-08-07 04:35:06
Document Index: 736002062

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61']

Patent US 9,198,237 B2
at least one LED circuit comprising at least two LEDs connected in series;
a driver having an input for receiving a first AC voltage and frequency from an AC power source, the driver havinga first circuit capable of receiving the first AC voltage and first frequency and having an output capable of being connected to the at least one LED circuit to drive the at least two LEDs;
a second circuit capable of receiving the first AC voltage and first frequency and having an output capable of being connected to the at least one LED circuit to drive the at least two LEDs; and
,a third circuit which senses and permits the output of only one of the first or second circuits to be provided to the at least one LED circuit.
2. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein the third circuit is configured to sense and provide the output of the first circuit to the at least one LED circuit.
3. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein the third circuit is configured to sense and provide to the output of the second circuit to the at least one LED circuit if no output is sensed from the first circuit.
4. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein the AC voltage source is mains power.
5. The LED lighting system of claim 1 further comprising at least two LED circuits each having at least two LEDs connected in series.
6. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein each of the first and second circuit includes a resistor, a fuse and a bridge rectifier connected in series with the received AC voltage and current such that the output of the first and second circuits is a DC voltage and current.
7. The LED lighting system of claim 6 wherein the first and second circuit further include a voltage suppressor connected in parallel with the bridge rectifier, the voltage suppressor being connected in series with the resistor and the fuse.
8. The LED lighting system of claim 7 wherein the voltage suppressor is a transient voltage suppressor.
9. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein the at least one LED circuit includes a resistor connected in series with the two or more LEDs.
10. The LED lighting system of claim 9 wherein the at least one LED circuit includes a capacitor connected in parallel with the resistor.
11. The LED lighting system of claim 1 further comprising at least one additional circuit capable of receiving the first AC voltage and first frequency and having an output capable of being connected to the at least one LED circuit to drive the at least two LEDs.
12. The LED lighting system of claim 11 wherein the third circuit is configured to switch to the at least one additional circuit if no output is sensed from the first circuit or the second circuit.
13. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second circuits include a transformer connected to the AC power source for stepping the input AC voltage up or down.
14. The system of claim 13 wherein the first and second circuits include a transformer connected to the AC power source for stepping the frequency of the input AC voltage up or down.
15. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein the forward voltage of each of the at least two LEDs is at least 36V.
16. The LED lighting system of claim 1 wherein the driver further includes at least two capacitors connected to a fourth circuit wherein the fourth circuit only allows one of the at least two capacitors to connect to the first or second circuit.
17. The LED lighting system of claim 16 wherein the fourth circuit is configured to disconnect the one of the at least two capacitors connected to the first or second circuit if the one capacitor fails.
18. The LED lighting system of claim 17 wherein the fourth circuit connects a different capacitor from the at least two capacitors to the first or second circuit if the one of the at least two capacitors fails.
The present application is a 371 National Phase of International Application No. PCT/US2011/036359 filed May 12, 2011 which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/333,963 filed May 12, 2010 and is a continuation-in-part of International Application No. PCT/US2010/062235 filed Dec. 28, 2010 which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/284,927 filed Dec. 28, 2009 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/335,069 filed Dec. 31, 2009 and is a continuation-in-part of: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/287,267 , filed Oct. 6, 2008, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/997,771, filed Oct. 6, 2007; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/364,890 filed Feb. 3, 2009 which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/066,414 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,489,086) filed Feb. 25, 2005 which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/547,653 filed Feb. 25, 2004 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/559,867 filed Apr. 6, 2004; International Application No. PCT/US2010/001597 filed May 28, 2010 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/287,267, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/217,215 , filed May 28, 2009; International Application No. PCT/US2010/001269 filed Apr. 30, 2010 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/287,267, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/215,144, filed May 1, 2009; the contents of each of these applications are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
It would further be advantageous to provide multiple voltage level and/or multiple brightness level light emitting LED circuits, chips, packages and lamps “multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED devices” that can easily be electrically configured for at least two forward voltage drive levels with direct AC voltage coupling, bridge rectified AC voltage coupling or constant voltage DC power source coupling. For example, it would be advantageous to provide a device that can be driven with more than one AC or DC forward voltage “multi-voltage” at 6V or greater based on a selectable desired operating voltage level that is achieved by electrically connecting the LED circuits in a series or parallel circuit configuration and/or more than one level of brightness “multi-brightness” based on a switching means that connects and/or disconnects at least one additional LED circuit to and/or from a first LED circuit. It would be advantageous if the desired operating voltage level and/or the desired brightness level electrical connection was achieved and/or completed at the LED packaging level when the multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness circuits and/or single chips are integrated into the LED package, or the LED package may have external electrical contacts that match the integrated multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness circuits and/or single chips within, allowing the drive voltage level and/or the brightness level selectability to be passed on through to the exterior of the LED package and allowing the voltage level or brightness level to be selected at the LED package user, or the PCB assembly facility, or the end product manufacturer.
FIG. 1 discloses a schematic diagram of a multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 10. The multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 10 comprises at least two AC LED circuits 12 configured in an imbalanced bridge circuit, each of which have at least two LEDs 14. The at least two AC LED circuits have electrical contacts 16a , 16b , 16c , and 16d at opposing ends to provide various connectivity options for an AC voltage source input. For example, if 16a and 16c are electrically connected together and 16b and 16d are electrically connected together and one side of the AC voltage input is applied to 16a and 16c and the other side of the AC voltage input is applied to 16b and 16d , the circuit becomes a parallel circuit with a first operating forward voltage. If only 16a and 16c are electrically connected and the AC voltage inputs are applied to electrical contacts 16b and 16d , a second operating forward voltage is required to drive the single chip 18. The single chip 18 may also be configured to operate at more than one brightness level “multi-brightness” by electrically connecting for example 16a and 16b and applying one side of the line of an AC voltage source to 16a ad 16b and individually applying the other side of the line from the AC voltage source a second voltage to 26b and 26c.
FIG. 2 discloses a schematic diagram of a multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 20 similar to the multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 10 described above in FIG. 1. The at least two AC LED circuits 12 are integrated onto a substrate 22. The at least two AC LED circuits 12 configured in a imbalanced bridge circuit, each of which have at least two LEDs 14. The at least two AC LED circuits have electrical contacts 16a , 16b , 16c , and 16d on the exterior of the substrate 22 and can be used to electrically configure and/or control the operating voltage and/or brightness level of the multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device.
FIG. 3 discloses a schematic diagram of a multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 30 similar to the multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 10 and 20 described in FIGS. 1 and 2. The multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting device 30 comprises at least two AC LED circuits 32 having at least two LEDs 34 connected in series and anti-parallel configuration. The at least two AC LED circuits 32 have electrical contacts 36a , 36b , 36c , and 36d at opposing ends to provide various connectivity options for an AC voltage source input. For example, if 36a and 36c are electrically connected together and 36b and 36d are electrically connected together and one side of the AC voltage input is applied to 36a and 36c and the other side of the AC voltage input is applied to 36b and 36d , the circuit becomes a parallel circuit with a first operating forward voltage. If only 36a and 36c are electrically connected and the AC voltage inputs are applied to electrical contacts 36b and 36d , a second operating forward voltage is required to drive the multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness lighting device 30. The multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness lighting device 30 may be a monolithically integrated single chip 38, a monolithically integrated single chip integrated within a LED package 38 or a number of individual discrete die integrated onto a substrate 38 to form a multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness lighting device 30.
FIGS. 6a and 7a disclose schematic diagrams of a multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting devices 50. The multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting devices 50 comprises at least two AC LED circuits 52, each of which have at least two LEDs 54 in series and anti-parallel relation. The at least two AC LED circuits 52 have at least three electrical contacts 56a , 56b and 56c , and in the case of FIG. 7a a fourth electrical contact 56d. The at least two AC LED circuits 52 are electrically connected together in parallel at one end 56a and left unconnected at the opposing ends of the electrical contacts 56b and 56c , and in the case of FIG. 7a, 56d. One side of an AC voltage source line is electrically connected to 56a and the other side of an AC voltage source line is individually electrically connected to 56b , 56c , and 56d with either a fixed connection or a switched connection thereby providing a first brightness when AC voltage is applied to 56a and 56b and a second brightness when an AC voltage is applied to 56a , 56b and 56c , and a third brightness when an AC voltage is applied to 56a , 56b , 56c , and 56d. It is contemplated that the multi-voltage and/or multi-brightness LED lighting devices 50 are a single chip, an LED package, an LED assembly or an LED lamp.
FIG. 8 discloses a schematic diagram of a multi-brightness LED lighting device 62 having at least two bridge rectifiers 68 in series with LED circuits 69. Each of the at least two bridge rectifiers 68 in series with LED circuits 69 comprise four LEDs 70 configured in a bridge circuit 68. LED circuits 69 have at least two LEDs 71 connected in series and electrical contacts 72a , 72b and 72c. When one side of an AC voltage is applied to 72a and the other side of an AC voltage line is applied to 72b and 72c individually, the brightness level of the multi-brightness LED lighting device 62 can be increased and/or decreased in a fixed manner or a switching process.
As shown in FIGS. 18-20, like in an AC embodiment, AC driver 118, rectifier 110, and. DC LED circuit(s), device(s), or chip(s) 132 may be packaged in any number of ways. As shown in FIG. 18, each element may be packaged separately and electrically connected together in series. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 19, a DC LED driver 134 may be formed by combining the high-frequency AC driver 118 with rectifier 110. As shown in FIG. 20, an additional alternative contemplated by the invention is forming a DC LED lighting element 136, which may be embodied as a light bulb, lighting system, lamp, etc., wherein the DC LED lighting element 136 includes each of a high-frequency AC driver 118, a rectifier 110, and a DC LED circuit(s), lighting device(s), or chip(s) 132. It should be appreciated by those having skill in the art that a lighting element containing only rectifier 110 and a DC LED circuit(s), lighting device(s), or chip(s) 132 may also be designed. Such lighting elements have the advantage of being able to be plugged into any AC source, whether it is a high-frequency AC driver, inverter, or transformer, or a simple mains voltage, and provide a light output in the same manner as the imbalanced circuit shown in, for example FIGS. 1-7.
In embodiments like that shown in FIG. 22 wherein multiple drivers are provided for lighting system 300, each driver 304, 306 may contain at least two capacitors and an internal sensor wherein the internal sensor only one of the at least two capacitors to form a portion of the driver, i.e. form a portion of the circuit shown in FIG. 23.
It is to be understood that additional embodiments of the invention described herein may be contemplated by one of ordinary skill in the art, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed. While specific embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated described, numerous modifications come to mind without significantly departing from the spirit of the invention, and the scope of protection is only limited by the scope of the accompanying claims.