Patent ID: 7960922

Claim:
A high efficiency low power DC driver apparatus for powering a light source, comprising: an input including first and second input terminals coupleable to an AC power supply; a capacitive divider circuit including first and second capacitances coupled in series between the input terminals and coupled with one another at an intermediate node, the capacitive divider circuit receiving an AC input at the input terminals and providing a divided AC output at the intermediate node; a rectifier operatively coupled with the intermediate node to receive and rectify the divided AC output to provide a DC output at a pair of DC output nodes at a power level of less than 10 watts; an output including a pair of driver output terminals coupleable to at least one light source, a first one of the driver output terminals being coupled with a first one of the DC output nodes; and a linear regulator coupled between a second one of the driver output terminals and a second one of the DC output nodes to couple the light source and the linear regulator in a series circuit between the DC output nodes, the linear regulator being operative to regulate a drive current flowing through the series circuit.