Patent ID: 7959869

Claim:
An air treatment apparatus, comprising: a housing having an inlet and an outlet; a plurality of electrodes supported by the housing, where the plurality of electrodes include an array of wire-shaped emitter electrodes and an array of U-shaped collector electrodes, wherein each U-shaped collector electrode includes two trailing surfaces that facilitate outflow of ionized air and ozone toward the outlet and wherein each trailing surface includes a plurality of pointed protrusions for outputting negative ions; a voltage generator operatively coupled to the plurality of electrodes, the voltage generator being operable to provide a voltage difference between the emitter electrodes and collector electrodes; a germicidal lamp located within the housing for eradiating the airflow with ultraviolet (UV) light, wherein the germicidal lamp is disposed within a shell that blocks the portion of the UV light emitted directly toward the inlet and the outlet of the housing; an output device supported by the housing; and a timer operatively coupled to the output device, the timer (a) measuring a time period during operation of the voltage generator, and (b) when the time period has been reached, generating a control signal to the output device indicating that the collector electrodes require cleaning; and a sensing circuit operatively coupled to the voltage generator, the sensing circuit having logic associated with: (a) receiving an input signal corresponding to an occurrence of arcing between the emitter electrodes and the collector electrodes, and (b) sending an output signal which causes the voltage generator to shut off after the input signal is received.