Patent ID: 8847515

Claim:
A method wherein a dimmer voltage to a power converter system comprises four states that occur from: A. an approximately zero volt crossing of the dimmer voltage of a dimmer until a phase cut, leading edge of the dimmer voltage; B. an end of state A until a steady state value of a dimmer current has reached a predetermined hold value; C. an end of state B until energy transferred to a load is sufficient to meet at least one energy transfer parameter; and D. an end of state C until a beginning of state A; the method comprising: for state A, enabling a low impedance path for a dimmer current of the dimmer, wherein the impedance of the low impedance path is sufficiently low to maintain a stable phase angle of the dimmer; for state B: enabling control of switch mode power conversion of the dimmer voltage; sensing a leading edge of a dimmer input voltage; and after the sensing the leading edge of the dimmer input voltage, actively controlling a decreasing transition of a current through a triac-based dimmer to prevent a triac of the dimmer from prematurely resetting; for state C, controlling switch mode power conversion to maintain the dimmer current above a threshold; and for state D, entering an inactive state, wherein during the inactive state the low impedance path and the control of mode power conversion is disabled.