Patent ID: 8344633

Claim:
A driving circuit for driving a plurality of light sources arranged in a series configuration, the circuit comprising: a controllable current source having output terminals, the series arrangement of light sources being connected to said output terminals; a plurality of controllable switches, each light source being bridged by a corresponding controllable switch; a controller, having switch control output terminals coupled to respective control terminals of respective switches, and having a current control output terminal coupled to a control input of the current source, the controller being configured for generating at current control output terminal a current control signal (S C ) for controlling the operation of the current source, and the controller further being configured for generating at switch control output terminals respective switch control signals (S L (i)) for controlling the operative states of the respective switches in order to individually control the light output of the corresponding light sources; wherein the controller is capable of individually setting the switch control signals (S L (i)) for the respective switches, and wherein the controller is configured to boost the light output of one selected light source while maintaining the light output of other light sources in the series arrangement.