# US 11,445,581 B2 · TRIAC module

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- Number: US 11,445,581 B2
- Document ID: US11445581B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/418,194
- Filed: 2020-02-11
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Granted: 2022-09-13
- Earliest claimed: 2019-02-12
- Assignees: Effie Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Effie Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Gowansoo Ko
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11445581B2

## CPC

- H05B 45/10: Controlling the intensity of the light
- H05B 45/20: Controlling the colour of the light
- H05B 45/30: Driver circuits
- H05B 45/37: Converter circuits
- H05B 45/59: for reducing or suppressing flicker or glow effects
- H05B 47/16: by timing means
- Y02B 20/30: Semiconductor lamps, e.g. solid state lamps [SSL] light emitting diodes [LED] or organic LED [OLED]
- Y02B 20/40: Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection
- H05B: ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
- Y02B: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS

## Abstract

The present invention comprises: a TRIAC (110) operated by TRIAC driving current input to a gate terminal (g); a bridge diode (120) for full-wave rectifying current which is output from the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110) or input to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110); a TRIAC triggering unit (130) which operates the TRIAC (110) by receiving current (I) output from the bridge diode (120) as an input and outputting a TRIAC driving current (I1) for turning on the TRIAC (110) to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110); and a latch circuit unit (140) for outputting latch current which is in a latch-on state and has a smaller value than critical current (Ith) of the TRIAC (110) to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110).

## Claims

### Claim 1

A TRIAC module (100) connected to one power line (L1) of two power lines, which are configured to supply a power from a commercial AC power source (AC) to an electrical device (10), to switch the electrical device (10) on and off, the TRIAC module (100) comprising:
a TRIAC (110) connected to the one power line (L1) of the two power lines configured to supply a current from the commercial AC power source (AC) to the electrical device (10), and operated by a TRIAC driving current input to a gate terminal (g) to regulate power supply of the electrical device (10);
a bridge diode (120) connected in parallel with the gate terminal (g) and a T2 terminal (T2) of the TRIAC (110), and configured to full-wave rectify a current that is output from the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110) or input to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110);
a TRIAC triggering unit (130) connected to the bridge diode (120), and configured to operate the TRIAC (110) by receiving a current (I) output from the bridge diode (120) and outputting the TRIAC driving current (I1) for turning on the TRIAC (110) to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110); and
a latch circuit unit (140) latched on to output a latch current, which has a smaller value than a threshold current (Ith) at which the TRIAC (110) is driven, to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110),
wherein, when the latch circuit unit (140) is latched on, the TRIAC triggering unit (130) cuts off the output of the TRIAC driving current (I1) so that the TRIAC (110) is switched off.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The TRIAC module of claim 1, wherein the TRIAC driving current (I1) and the latch current are input to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110) after passing through the bridge diode (120).

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The TRIAC module of claim 2, wherein the TRIAC triggering unit (130) includes:
a first switching element (Q1) connected to an output terminal of the bridge diode (120); and
a second resistor (R2) connected in parallel with the first switching element (Q1) at the output terminal of the bridge diode (120),
an output terminal of the first switching element (Q1) and an output terminal of the latch circuit unit (140) are connected to the bridge diode (120), before the first switching element (Q1) is switched on, the current (I) output from the bridge diode (120) passes through the second resistor (R2) to become a switching trigger current (I2),
the switching trigger current (I2) triggers the first switching element (Q1) so that the first switching element (Q1) is switched on, and,
when the first switching element (Q1) is switched on, the output current of the bridge diode (120) becomes the TRIAC driving current (I1) so as to be input to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110) so that the TRIAC (110) is driven.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The TRIAC module of claim 3, wherein the latch circuit unit (140) is connected to an output terminal of the second resistor (R2),
when a latch trigger signal is input, the latch circuit unit (140) is latched on so that the first switching element (Q1) is switched off, and,
since the first switching element (Q1) is turned off, the TRIAC driving current (I1) is cut off so that a T1 terminal (T1) and the T2 terminal (T2) of the TRIAC (110) are switched off there between.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The TRIAC module of claim 3, further comprising a latch triggering unit (150) connected to a second node (n2) of the TRIAC triggering unit (130), connected to the latch circuit unit (140), and configured to output a latch trigger signal for latching on the latch circuit unit (140) when a first set time (ΔT) has elapsed after the first switching element (Q1) is switched on, wherein the latch circuit unit (140) is latched on when the first set time (ΔT) has elapsed after the first switching element (Q1) is switched on so that the TRIAC (110) is automatically turned off when the first set time (ΔT) has elapsed after the TRIAC (110) is switched on.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The TRIAC module of claim 1, wherein the TRIAC (110) is configured such that a T1 terminal (T1) and the T2 terminal (T2) of the TRIAC (110) are connected in T parallel with an operation switch (SW) connected in series with the one power line (L1) of the two power lines, which are configured to supply the power from the commercial AC power source (AC) to the electrical device (10), to turn the electrical device (10) on and off, and the RIAC (110) is turned on only for a first set time from turning-off of the operation switch (SW), and turned off when the first set time has elapsed,
the bridge diode (120) rectifies an AC current when the operation switch (SW) is turned off, and rectifies the TRIAC driving current and the latch current, which are input to the gate terminal (g1) of the TRIAC (110) from the TRIAC triggering unit (130) and the latch circuit unit (140), respectively,
the TRIAC triggering unit (130) operates the TRIAC (110) by receiving the current (I) output from the bridge diode (120) and outputting the TRIAC driving current (I1) for turning on the TRIAC (110) to the gate terminal (g) of the TRIAC (110) for the first set time (ΔT) as the operation switch (SW) is turned off, and the latch circuit unit (140) is latched off for the first set time (ΔT), and latched on when the first set time (ΔT) has elapsed to switch off the first switching element (Q1) so that the TRIAC (110) is switched off.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The TRIAC module of claim 6, further comprising a latch triggering unit (150) connected to a second node (n2) of the TRIAC triggering unit (130), connected to the latch circuit unit (140), and configured to output a latch trigger signal for latching on the latch circuit unit (140) when the first set time (ΔT) has elapsed after the first switching element (Q1) is switched on, wherein the latch circuit unit (140) is latched on when the first set time (ΔT) has elapsed after the first switching element (Q1) is switched on so that the TRIAC (110) is automatically turned off when the first set time (ΔT) has elapsed after the TRIAC (110) is switched on.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The TRIAC module of claim 7, further comprising an off-time generation unit (160) connected to the second node (n2), connected in parallel with the latch triggering unit (150), and configured to delay a switching-on operation of the TRIAC (110) to the electrical device (10) to turn off the electrical device (10) for an off-time (ΔTa) from a time point at which the operation switch (SW) is switched off to a time point at which the TRIAC (110) is switched on, wherein the electrical device (10) monitors an off state of the off-time generation unit (160), and recognizes a switching-off state of the off-time generation unit (160) as a logic signal to perform a control operation.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The TRIAC module of claim 8, wherein the off-time generation unit (160) is configured as a first capacitor (C1) connected to the second node (n2) between the first switching element (Q1) and a second resistor (R2), connected in parallel with the latch triggering unit (150), and configured to delay the switching-on operation of the TRIAC (110) to the electrical device (10) to turn off the electrical device (10) for the off-time (ΔTa) from the time point at which the operation switch (SW) is switched off to the time point at which the TRIAC (110) is switched on.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The TRIAC module of claim 9, further comprising a discharge circuit unit (170) connected to an output terminal of the bridge diode (120) and the second node (n2), and configured to discharge a voltage applied to the first capacitor (C1) upon switching-on of the operation switch (SW) after the turning-off of the operation switch (SW) to perform the delaying through recharging from the switching-on of the operation switch (SW) after the turning-off of the operation switch (SW) to next switching-off of the operation switch (SW).