Patent Application
20140028189
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to LED cabin lighting architectures, and more specifically to power distribution for LED cabin lighting architectures and configurations.
Multi-color LED lighting systems for cabin lighting in vehicles such as aircraft typically include multiple LED lighting elements, each of which emit light at a different wavelength, such that a wide range of different colors may be represented. In one such system, there may be three separate assemblies, each of which include LEDs that emit light at a different wavelength from the other separate assemblies, and there may be different lighting technologies as well. Typically, each of these assemblies would include a separate power supply to power the LED lighting elements within the respective assembly.
The following acronyms are used herein.
According to an embodiment, a modular light emitting diode (LED) lighting assembly includes a plurality of LED lighting subassemblies and a power supply electrically coupled with the plurality of LED lighting subassemblies in parallel such that each of the plurality of LED lighting subassemblies receives electrical power from the power supply in parallel with the other of the plurality of LED lighting subassemblies.
According to another embodiment, a method of powering a modular light emitting diode (LED) lighting assembly includes converting input alternating current (AC) electrical power into direct current (DC) electrical power, and supplying the converted DC electrical power to a plurality of LED lighting subassemblies in parallel with one another.
Exemplary embodiments will be explained in more detail with reference to the attached drawings in which the embodiments are illustrated as briefly described below:
As used herein, an assembly refers to a collection of components assembled together as a single unit. The assembly may be defined as contained within a single housing, electrically interconnected with one another in close proximity, physically interconnected with one another in close proximity, or otherwise assembled together as a group in such manner as one of ordinary skill in the art would consider the collection of components to be a single unit. A subassembly may be defined as an assembly in its own right which is also a constituent component of another assembly. Thus, in various embodiments, an assembly in one context may also be considered a subassembly in another context, and vice-versa.
If an LED cabin lighting system has multiple LED lighting elements, assemblies, or subassemblies where each LED lighting element, subassembly, or assembly has its own power supply, a corresponding excess of cost and weight and decrease in efficiency can result. For example, in an alternate design of a multi-color LED cabin lighting system where there are three LED assemblies, each of which emits light at a different wavelength, each of the LED assemblies might also include a separate power supply.
In various embodiments, cost and weight of the LED cabin lighting system can be decreased while efficiency is increased by decreasing the number of power supplies without decreasing the number of LED lighting elements. This may be accomplished by a modular LED cabin lighting architecture in which multiple LED lighting elements are arranged in multiple separate LED lighting subassemblies within a single LED lighting assembly, and the multiple LED lighting subassemblies are powered using a single power supply in the LED lighting assembly.
In various embodiments, a plurality of LED cabin lighting subassemblies may be powered using a single power supply. For example, in an embodiment, all LED cabin lighting assemblies of a large LED cabin lighting system may be powered by a single power supply. However, for a large LED cabin lighting system with many LED cabin lighting assemblies, this approach may not be efficient, because of the size of the power supply required and the length of the power lines running from the shared power supply to all the individual LED cabin lighting assemblies. These inefficiencies may result in a disadvantageous weight and cost of the overall system. A single large power supply may require heavy, high current wires to be run in order to power the system. Such wire runs would increase the system's weight and cost. In addition, it may be challenging to place the single large power supply in an optimal location to efficiently power the large LED cabin lighting system, since the LED cabin lighting assemblies may be spread throughout a large aircraft cabin.
In another embodiment, a single power supply may power a plurality of LED cabin lighting subassemblies that are located in close proximity to one another. In this embodiment, a second plurality of LED cabin lighting subassemblies that is located some distance away from the first plurality of LED cabin lighting subassemblies may be powered by a second single power supply that is different from the first single power supply. The plurality of LED cabin lighting subassemblies that are located in close proximity to one another may emit light at different wavelengths from one another, such that the plurality of LED cabin lighting subassemblies combined with the single power supply form a complete multi-color LED cabin lighting assembly. This architecture may facilitate straightforward optimization of the cost, weight, and efficiency tradeoffs of using multiple power supplies in a large LED cabin lighting system. A multi-color LED cabin lighting assembly according to an embodiment in which a single power supply provides power to multiple LED cabin lighting subassemblies or LED elements reduces a total number of components and leads to better reliability than prior LED cabin lighting systems where each LED cabin lighting assembly had a separate power supply. In addition, the embodiment in which a single power supply provides power to multiple LED cabin lighting subassemblies may be more straightforward to optimize for performance, weight, and cost.
The LED cabin lighting assembly 100 includes an LED cabin lighting subassembly 110, an LED cabin lighting subassembly 120, and an LED cabin lighting subassembly 130. Each of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 may be substantially the same except that they may each emit light at a different wavelength from the others, or incorporate different lighting technology types. These different lighting technology types can include remote phosphor in which phosphor is bonded to a substrate instead of incorporating it into the LED die package (LEDs and LED lighting, as used herein, should also be understood to include remote phosphor lighting). These different lighting technology types can also include fluorescent, incandescent, electroluminescent, and other forms of lighting. Although LED lighting is described in an embodiment herein, it should be understood that this is an instance of a more generalized concept for other lighting technology types as well, which could be substituted in place of LED lighting, where possible.
The LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 may each include an electronic circuit board having one or more LED lighting elements and associated driver electronics. The LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 may all receive power from a common active power factor controller (PFC) and isolated AC/DC power supply 140. The LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 may be coupled in parallel with the power supply 140 via a common power bus as illustrated. Alternatively, each of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 may be coupled with the power supply 140 via individual power supply lines.
The power supply 140 may convert input alternating current (AC) power into output direct current (DC) power. For example, the power supply 140 may receive 115 volt (V) AC power at a frequency of 400 Hertz (Hz) and output power at a lower DC voltage. The power supply 140 may control the amount of power drawn by the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 by controlling the shape and magnitude of the electrical current waveform supplied to the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 in relation to the input AC waveform received by the power supply 140.
The power supply 140 may receive input AC power via an electromagnetic interference (EMI) and harmonic filter 150. The EMI and harmonic filter 150 may be coupled with an input power source 160, such as an AC power supply onboard an aircraft which supplies 115V 400 Hz AC power. The EMI and harmonic filter 150 may include electronic filter elements such as any of resistors, capacitors, and inductors to filter out unwanted harmonic frequencies and electromagnetic interference present on the input power source 160.
Including multiple LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 in the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 as opposed to only a single, larger, all-inclusive LED lighting cabin lighting subassembly provides a number of benefits. For example, each of the LED lighting cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 may be smaller and lower cost than a larger all-inclusive LED lighting cabin lighting subassembly. Therefore, should an LED or associated driver component of an LED cabin lighting subassembly 110, 120, or 130 fail and need to be replaced, the replacement would be more easily and inexpensively performed than if all the constituent components of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 were integrated into a single LED cabin lighting subassembly or integrated into the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 without a separate subassembly. Integrating all the LED lighting elements and driver circuits of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 into a single LED cabin lighting subassembly would also be more difficult, leading to higher cost than the illustrated solution of three LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130.
For example, according to the embodiment illustrated in
By combining the multiple LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130 with a single power supply 140 within the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 in the embodiment illustrated in
In various embodiments, any number of LED elements may be combined within a single LED cabin lighting subassembly. For example, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, or more LED lighting elements may be combined within a single LED cabin lighting subassembly. Likewise, any number of LED cabin lighting subassemblies may be combined within a single LED cabin lighting assembly. For example, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, or more LED cabin lighting subassemblies may be combined within a single LED cabin lighting assembly. In addition, any number of LED cabin lighting assemblies may be combined together into a single LED cabin lighting system. For example, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, or more LED cabin lighting assemblies may be combined within a single LED cabin lighting system. The LED cabin lighting assemblies may be used as wash lights, reading lights, or other types of lights onboard a vehicle.
In various embodiments, optical filters may be included in the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 or any of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130. The optical filters may be used to adjust the color and amount of light emanating from the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 or any of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130. In various embodiments, the optical filters may be provided exterior to the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 or any of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130, for example, separate and external to the enclosures of the LED cabin lighting assembly 100 or any of the LED cabin lighting subassemblies 110, 120, and 130.
The control system can communicate with intelligent lighting modules/subassemblies in the system in addition to controlling power to the lights and other vehicle units. For unintelligent lighting modules/subassemblies, a small front-end control unit may be provided.
In an embodiment, the CAN Bus 308, 310 is used to communicate with the lighting systems and to other insert systems. The CAN Bus is preferable since it contains within it a way of prioritizing communications so that more demanding devices get a greater bandwidth and higher priority. It can engage in arbitration and priority-based communications. In
In order to achieve this, a PWM interface module (PIM) 180 may be provided. This PIM 180 may take the high level CAN Bus signals and convert them into the low level PWM signals needed by the dumb light modules. In an embodiment, the PIM 180 has dimensions on the order of 1″×2″×0.5″, and may have a card edge connector so that it interfaces cleanly with the respective light module and can even appear to be a part of the light module itself. The PIMs 180 may comprise a wireless interface, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and the CAN Bus can be implemented wirelessly as well.
Insert lights 210′ may be combined as one CAN Bus address and dimmed together. Cove/area lights 202 and galley work surface lights 204 can be addressed as a scene on CAN Bus. The master controller 170 can receive RS485 from an existing attendant control panel (ACP) 198 (
Also shown in
In
Finally,
The power may be provided to the galley in a number of different configurations. In a hybrid configuration, a single power supply may be used to power the lighting in the galley at 28 VDC, whereas some or all of the inserts are powered at 115 VAC or 270 VDC. There may be a switch, either hardware or software, that can change a given light unit between 28 VDC and 115 VAC. This single power supply could be connected to the CAN Bus which could report back various aspects of power usage. In one variation, each lighting unit or PIM has its own small power supply associated with it to perform the conversion. In another embodiment, the entire galley, including lights and inserts, runs from a large power supply at 28 VDC.
The LED loads may be provided in a same/common housing/lighting element or could be represented by separate lighting elements. Furthermore, the lighting loads can be synchronized to represent the same color point and intensity all at the same time or to be a part of a same cohesive scene or lighting scheme even though individuals lighting units or LED loads are different. Alternately, the individual lighting units or LED loads can be set to unrelated color points and/or intensity. Any given lighting unit could house LEDs of one color, or could house multi-color LEDs, including RGB, RGBW, RGBY, RGBWY, RBW, WWA, WWR, and those that use remote phosphor technology.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference has been made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, and specific language has been used to describe these embodiments. However, no limitation of the scope of the invention is intended by this specific language, and the invention should be construed to encompass all embodiments that would normally occur to one of ordinary skill in the art. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing the particular embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of exemplary embodiments of the invention. In the description of the embodiments, certain detailed explanations of related art are omitted when it is deemed that they may unnecessarily obscure the essence of the invention.
The apparatus described herein may comprise a processor, a memory for storing program data to be executed by the processor, a permanent storage such as a disk drive, a communications port for handling communications with external devices, and user interface devices, including a display, touch panel, keys, buttons, etc. When software modules are involved, these software modules may be stored as program instructions or computer readable code executable by the processor on a non-transitory computer-readable media such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tapes, hard disks, floppy disks), optical recording media (e.g., CD-ROMs, Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs), etc.), and solid state memory (e.g., random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), static random-access memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, thumb drives, etc.). The computer readable recording media may also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. This computer readable recording media may be read by the computer, stored in the memory, and executed by the processor.
Also, using the disclosure herein, programmers of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains may easily implement functional programs, codes, and code segments for making and using the invention.
The invention may be described in terms of functional block components and various processing steps. Such functional blocks may be realized by any number of hardware and/or software components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, the invention may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, where the elements of the invention are implemented using software programming or software elements, the invention may be implemented with any programming or scripting language such as C, C++, JAVA®, assembler, or the like, with the various algorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures, objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Functional aspects may be implemented in algorithms that execute on one or more processors. Furthermore, the invention may employ any number of conventional techniques for electronics configuration, signal processing and/or control, data processing and the like. Finally, the steps of all methods described herein may be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
For the sake of brevity, conventional electronics, control systems, software development and other functional aspects of the systems (and components of the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail. Furthermore, the connecting lines, or connectors shown in the various figures presented are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical or logical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships, physical connections or logical connections may be present in a practical device. The words “mechanism”, “element”, “unit”, “structure”, “means”, and “construction” are used broadly and are not limited to mechanical or physical embodiments, but may include software routines in conjunction with processors, etc.
The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. Numerous modifications and adaptations will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in this art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined not by the detailed description of the invention but by the following claims, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the invention.
No item or component is essential to the practice of the invention unless the element is specifically described as “essential” or “critical”. It will also be recognized that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” and “having,” as used herein, are specifically intended to be read as open-ended terms of art. The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In addition, it should be understood that although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms, which are only used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore, recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/676,009, filed Jul. 26, 2012, entitled, “Architectures for Led Lighting Assemblies”, herein incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61676009 | Jul 2012 | US |
