US 6,194,839 B1 · Lattice structure based LED array for illumination

Abstract

A lighting system comprising a plurality of light-emitting diodes and a current driver for driving current through a plurality of parallel disposed, electrically conductive branches, wherein the branches comprise at least one cell. In each cell, each branch has a light-emitting diode with an anode terminal and a cathode terminal. The anode terminal of each light-emitting diode is coupled to the cathode terminal of a light-emitting diode of an adjacent branch via a shunt. The shunt further comprises a light-emitting diode. In each cell, each light-emitting diode may have a different forward voltage characteristic, while still insuring that all of the light-emitting diodes in the arrangement have the same brightness. Upon failure of one light-emitting diode, the remaining light-emitting diodes in the lighting system are not extinguished.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A lighting system comprising:

a power supply source;
a plurality of electrically-conductive branches, said branches coupled in parallel to said power supply source, each of said branches comprising at least one light-emitting diode;
and
a plurality of shunts, wherein each one of said shunts couples an anode terminal of a respective first light-emitting diode in one of said branches directly to a cathode terminal of a corresponding light-emitting diode in an adjacent one of said branches, such that a corresponding set of light-emitting diodes together with their corresponding coupling shunts define a lattice-connected cell, and wherein said system comprises at least two said cells, and said branches along with said shunts are coupled to form a cascaded-cell lattice arrangement having a respective node in each branch between adjoining cells.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Lattice structure based LED array for illumination

Life of this patent

Lattice structure based LED array for illumination

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16