LED module for emitting signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11025341-B2
Application number	US-201816621100-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2018
Priority date	Jun 13, 2017
Publication date	Jun 1, 2021
Grant date	Jun 1, 2021

Abstract

An LED module (200) comprising: a first set of LEDs (D1) for emitting illumination to illuminate an environment, arranged within a first circuit path; a second set of one or more LEDs (D2) for emitting light, arranged within a second circuit path; both the first and second sets being powered by a portion of the power received via a same pair of input terminals, and the first circuit path being longer than the second circuit path; and filter circuitry (206, 208) arranged to filter a modulation in the power received via the terminals, the filtering comprising allowing a component of the modulation at a predetermined modulation frequency to be passed only to the second set of LEDs (D2) and not the first set (D1), thereby causing a corresponding signal to be embedded in the light emitted by the second set but not in the illumination emitted by the first set.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An LED module comprising:
a pair of terminals for receiving power;
a first set of multiple LEDs for emitting illumination to illuminate an environment, arranged within a first circuit path of the LED module and powered to emit said illumination by a first portion of the power received via said terminals;
a second set of one or more LEDs for emitting light, arranged within a second circuit path of the LED module and powered to emit said light by a second portion of the power received via said pair of terminals, the first circuit path being longer than the second circuit path; and
filter circuitry arranged to filter a modulation in the power received via said terminals;
wherein the filter circuitry is configured to allow a first component of said modulation at a predetermined modulation frequency to be passed only to the LEDs of the second set and not the LEDs of the first set, thereby causing a corresponding first signal to be embedded in the light emitted by the second set but not in the illumination emitted by the first set
characterized in that
the first set of LEDs are visible-spectrum LEDs configured to emit visible-spectrum illumination; and
wherein the second set of LEDs are infrared LEDs configured to emit infrared light.

2. The LED module of claim 1 , wherein the filter circuitry is configured to:
allow a second component of the modulation with a first, lower modulation frequency to be passed at least to the LEDs of the first set, thereby causing a corresponding second signal to be embedded in the emitted illumination and wherein the first component has a second, higher modulation frequency.

3. The LED module of claim 1 , wherein the first set of LEDs are phosphor-converted LEDs; and
wherein the second set of LEDs are non-phosphor-converted LEDs.

4. The LED module of claim 2 , wherein the filter circuitry is configured to allow the second, lower-frequency component to be passed to the first set of LEDs but not the second set of LEDs, such that the second signal is not transmitted via the light emitted by the second set.

5. The LED module of claim 2 , wherein the filter circuitry is configured to allow the second, lower-frequency component to be passed to both the first and second sets of LEDs, such that the second signal is embedded in the illumination emitted by the first set of LEDs and transmitted via the light emitted by the second set of LEDs.

6. The LED module of claim 1 , wherein the visible-spectrum LEDs are white LEDs.

7. An illumination device comprising:
the LED module of claim 1 ;
an LED driver arranged to supply said power;
and a modulator coupled to the LED driver and arranged to introduce said modulation into the supplied power, the terminals of the LED module being connected to the modulator to receive the modulated power therefrom.

8. The illumination device of claim 7 , wherein the modulator is arranged to include the first and second components in said modulation at the same time such that the first and second signals are transmitted simultaneously.

9. The illumination device of claim 7 , wherein the modulator is arranged to include the first component in said modulation at a different time than the second component, such that the first and second signals are emitted on different occasions.

10. The illumination device of claim 7 , wherein the modulator is configured to continue supplying the first, higher-frequency component to the LED module when the visible spectrum LEDs are switched off.

11. The illumination device of claim 10 , wherein the modulator is configured to use the visible-spectrum and infrared LEDs to implement an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing channel comprising a set of subcarriers, by using the visible spectrum LEDs to transmit a first, lower-carrier-frequency group of the subcarriers comprising the second signal, and using the infrared LEDs to transit over a second, higher-carrier-frequency group of the subcarriers comprising the first signal, the first and second signals being sub-signals of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing channel.

12. A system comprising the illumination device of claim 7 , further comprising receiving equipment, wherein the receiving equipment comprises:
a first light sensor for sensing visible-light modulations and a second light sensor for sensing infrared light modulations, wherein the first light sensor is capable of sensing a lower maximum modulation frequency than the second light sensor; and
a decoder coupled to the one or more light sensors, the decoder being configured to decode the second signal from the sensed visible-light modulations and to decode the first signal from the sensed infrared light modulations.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first light sensor takes the form of a camera for capturing images, whereas the second light sensor takes the form of a dedicated infrared data receiver.

Assignees

• Signify Holding Bv

Inventors

• Arulandu Kumar
• Linnartz Johan-Paul Marie Gerard
• Germe Michel
• Khalid Amir
• Qiu Olivia
• Derrien David

Classifications

• H05B47/1965

  using handheld communication devices · CPC title

• H05B47/195

  the transmission using visible or infrared light · CPC title

• H05B44/00

  Circuit arrangements for operating electroluminescent light sources (for operating light emitting diodes H05B45/00) · CPC title

• H05B45/40

  Details of LED load circuits · CPC title

• Y02B20/40

  Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection · CPC title