Patent Application
20140292210
This invention relates to a standby power shutdown circuit for an electronic device that may be turned off without disconnecting the main voltage and, more particularly, to a low power standby power shutdown circuit for controlling LED or other types of lamp drivers.
In many industrial, commercial or residential lighting systems, it would be desirable to have a way to turn off a driver with a low current interface. This would be useful for three reasons, first, because it would avoid wearing out mechanisms of relays by switching using low current, second, it would allow for the use of a solid state switch, and third, it would use less power than convention standby power circuits. It should be understood that driver as herein is used to include, but not limited to, LED drivers, ballasts for fluorescent lighting, electronic ballasts, HID or other type lamp drivers.
A conventional LED driver is a self-contained power supply that has outputs matched to the electrical characteristics of an LED or array of LEDs.
A conventional electronic lamp ballast uses solid state electronic circuitry to provide the proper starting and operating electrical condition to power one or more fluorescent lamps, HID lamps or other types of lamps.
In conventional lighting control applications, for example, LED drivers as well as other lamp drivers/ballasts typically require either a digital interface such as Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) to turn them off or an external power relay to turn off the line voltage. The digital interfaces can be expensive and external power relays can be expensive and unreliable due to wear out of the contacts over time.
A conventional DALI network consists of a controller and one or more lighting devices (e.g., electrical ballasts and dimmers) that have DALI interfaces. The controller monitors and controls each light by means of a bi-directional data exchange. The DALI protocol permits devices to be individually addressed or to simultaneously address multiple devices. Data is transferred between the controller and the devices by means of an asynchronous, half-duplex, serial protocol over a two-wire differential bus. Such conventional DALI devises require a single pair of wires to form the bus for communication to all devices on a single DALI network.
In the conventional DALI, as well as in other addressable driver systems, an off command requires the communication circuitry/means and the low voltage power supply to remain active (i.e., power on). This may consume up to 1W of energy during the off state of the driver.
According, a need exists in the art for a simple circuit that can be added to any electronic driver to provide a means of switching it off without disconnecting the main power supply input. One feature of such a needed simple circuit is that only a very small external current should be used (i.e., less than would normally be needed for an external relay) to operate the shutdown function. Another feature of such a needed simple circuit is that is should shut down some or all of the control circuitry inside the driver. This will allow for low standby power consumption to be achieved.
The present invention provides for a simple shut down circuit that allows any driver to be turned-off with a small signal current.
One aspect of the present invention relates to an interface that requires only a few components (e.g., in one embodiment only one component is required) while allowing for a low standby power state to be achieved because most, if not, all components/functionality of the driver can be turned off. For example, all internal ICs can be turned off and no internal low voltage supply is required to keep the driver in the off-state. In this aspect, a standby power consumption of less than 200 mW can be achieved.
In another embodiment using additional components, the standby power consumption can be reduced to almost zero power, i.e., less than or equal to 20 mW.
In another embodiment, the present invention relates to an electronic device including components connected to an input main voltage and a circuit for shutting down the components without disconnecting the input main voltage from the electronic device. The circuit includes an opto-isolator having a diode side and a transistor side. The diode side is coupled to an external power source and the transistor side is coupled to a control point within the electronic device so that on-state or off-state of the one or more internal components can be controlled.
In one aspect of the embodiment described in the preceding paragraph, the electronic device may be a lamp driver. The external power source is arranged to drive the diode side of the opto-isolator so that the transistor side of the opto-isolator is in an active state and where the active state is used to control the on-state and the off-state of the one or more internal components. When the transistor side of the opto-isolator is in the active state, a voltage at the control point within the lamp driver is either pulled down below a required operating voltage level or allowed to be at the required operating voltage level for operation so that the on-state or the off-state of an electronic ballast is controlled.
In still another embodiment, the present invention relates to a lighting driver that can be operated in a normal operating on-state or in a low-power consumption off-state without de-coupling the lighting driver from a main power source. The lighting driver includes at least one component arranged to provide a required operating electrical condition to power one or more types of lamps and a connect point arranged to receive a control signal from an external source. An opto-isolator is arranged to control, based upon the control signal, shutting down the at least one component.
In one aspect of this embodiment, the low power consumption off-state of the lighting driver consumes less than 200 mW of power.
In another aspect of the lighting driver embodiment described above, the low power consumption off-state consumes less than or equal to 20 mW of power.
In yet another embodiment, the present invention relates to an electrical device coupled to a main power source. The electrical device includes at least one component arranged to provide functionality needed for an output function of the electronic device and a connector arranged to receive a signal from an external input. The electrical device also includes means, including an opto-isolator, for placing the at least one component of the electrical device in a low-power consumption off-state in accordance with the signal without de-coupling the electrical device from main power source. The low-power consumption off-state consumes less than 200 mW of power.
In general, the various aspects and embodiments of the present invention may be combined and coupled in any way possible within the scope of the invention. The subject matter that is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
According to the principles of the present invention an opto-isolator 101 (as shown in
To illustrate how shut down is performed in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, reference is made to
In the embodiment shown in
But it should be understood that other implementations (couplings) are possible to cause shut down. In this regard, the opto-isolater 101 may be used to short-out or reduce a voltage or signal of an internal circuit node (i.e., a control point) such that functionality is stopped or similarly affected to cause the driver circuit 10 to the turn-off. For example, a typical LED driver circuit may generally consist of one IC with a few additional components (resistors, capacitors and a MOSFET). The opto-isolator 101 of
For example, in one implementation, the control IC may be a TEA1713. The TEA1713 integrates a Power Factor Corrector (PFC) controller and a controller for a Half-Bridge resonant Converter (HBC) in a multi-chip IC. The TEA1713 provides the drive function for a discrete MOSFET in an up-converter and for the two discrete power MOSFETs in a resonant half-bridge configuration. Efficient and reliable power supplies can be designed easily using the TEA1713, with a minimum of external components. In this embodiment, the opto-isolator 101 is coupled to the AC line voltage and the output control signal is coupled to a disable pin on the control IC TEA1713. In this implementation of the present invention, the standby power is below 200 mW at 277V input line and below 20 mW at 120V input line.
As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, the driver current from external current source 102 will essentially turn the transistor side of the opto-isolator 101 on/off. Intiating (i.g., providing) the driver current can be done via various existing lighting control arrangements such as: a remote control signal/interface, a manual switch, an automated control interface, etc. Since the external source 102 provides the energy to activate the opto-isolator 101, no internal supplies are needed in the driver circuit 10 so that an off-state power consumption can approach zero (all or almost all functionality of the driver circuit 10 can be turned off).
Also considering that the opto-isolator 101 is isolated, it can be placed almost anywhere in a driver circuit 10 to shut down one or more energy consuming components of the driver circuit 10. The isolation makes it possible to use the embodiment shown in
It should also be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the wires of a 0-10V interface or the Dali or other interface wires can be used, so no additional wires (i.e., connection points, connectors or terminals) are needed. The Dali interface has been discussed above and below the 0-10V interface is discribed.
The 0-10V interface is an analog lighting control protocol. The 0-10V control protocol applies a voltage between 0 and 10 volts DC to produce a varying intensity level. The 0-10V control protocol is used as a means for controlling fluorescent dimming ballasts and for some drivers used for LED lighting as well as some eHID ballasts.
It should be understood that this embodiment allows the use of the 0-10V interface without interfering with the 0-10V functionality. Also typically, the resistor 104 and the zener diode 103 are already used in the 0-10V interface, so that this shutdown functionality can be added with a single component.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the opto-isolator 101 in
As can be seen from the embodiments and aspects discribed above, the shutdown circuit of the present invention provides an effective and needed solution to shut down nearly any electronic circuit with very few components (a single component as show in
The foregoing detailed description has set forth a few of the many forms that the invention can take. The above examples are merely illustrative of several possible embodiments of various aspects of the present invention, wherein equivalent alterations and/or modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon reading and understanding of the present invention and the annexed drawings. In particular, regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (devices, systems, circuits, and the like), the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated to any component, such as hardware or combinations thereof, which performs the specified function of the described component (i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the illustrated implementations of the disclosure.
Although a particular feature of the present invention may have been illustrated and/or described with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, references to singular components or items are intended, unless otherwise specified, to encompass two or more such components or items. Also, to the extent that the terms “including”, “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in the detailed description and/or in the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising”.
The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. However, modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the present invention be construed as including all such modifications and alterations. It is only the claims, including all equivalents that are intended to define the scope of the present invention.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB12/55620 | 10/16/2012 | WO | 00 | 4/24/2014 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61551529 | Oct 2011 | US |
