Patent ID: 7521874

Claim:
An IC for controlling a power supply circuit for delivering power to a fluorescent lamp, comprising: a ballast control section operable to provide drive signals to the power supply circuit; and an amplifier section integrated into the IC and operable to provide a dimming signal to the ballast control section, wherein the ballast control section drives the power supply circuit to provide for dimming of the lamp based on the dimming signal; wherein the amplifier section includes an operational amplifier including an inverting input, a noninverting input and an output; and wherein the IC includes: an INV pin connected to the inverting input of the operational amplifier; a NINV pin connected to the noninverting input of the operation amplifier; and an OUT pin connected to the output of the operational amplifier, such that each of the inverting and noninverting inputs and the output of the operational amplifier are accessible from an exterior of the IC.