Patent ID: 8013539

Claim:
Drive apparatus for at least one triad of first, second and third LEDs, comprising: a controller including a power supply, a processor responsive to inputs indicative of desired hue and intensity, and a power encoding circuit activated by the processor to encode data corresponding to the desired hue and intensity on a voltage output of the power supply; and decoding circuitry co-packaged with each triad of first, second and third LEDs and coupled to the data-encoded voltage output of the power supply for decoding the data encoded by the processor and power encoding circuit, and producing separate drive signals for the first, second and third LEDs to produce light of the desired hue and intensity, wherein the power encoding circuit is a switching circuit that encodes the data corresponding to the desired hue and intensity as a periodic sequence of voltage pulses, wherein the periodic sequence of voltage pulses include first, second and third voltage pulses corresponding to desired activation intervals of the first, second and third LEDs, respectively.