Light engines with dynamically controllable light distribution

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11946616-B2
Application number	US-202017114268-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2020
Priority date	May 4, 2018
Publication date	Apr 2, 2024
Grant date	Apr 2, 2024

Abstract

A light engine and system are disclosed in which the light engine contains a core comprising an opening extending through opposing surfaces and a flexible printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB includes a flexible body disposed on an outside of the core and having independently addressable sets of illumination sources mounted thereto, and flexible legs extending from the body and through the opening. The legs are bent such that a terminal portion of each leg is substantially parallel to the opposing surfaces of the core. Independent control of the sets of illumination sources is provided via the legs. The body is separated into segments, each on a different section of the outside and containing body contacts electrically independent of the body contacts of each other segment. Each leg is associated with a different segment, and contains leg contacts on the terminal portion in electrical contact with the associated body contacts.

First claim

What is being claimed is:

1. An apparatus of a light engine, the apparatus comprising:
a core; and
a flexible printed circuit board comprising:
a flexible body disposed on the core and having sets of light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted thereto to at least partially encircle the core, each set of LEDs disposed at substantially a same distance from a center of the core as each other set of LEDs, and
flexible legs extending from the flexible body such that the flexible legs, flexible body, and core pass through a plane substantially perpendicular to a direction of extension of the flexible legs from the flexible body, a terminal portion of at least one of the flexible legs configured to receive control signals to control at least some of the LEDs.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the core has an opening through which the flexible legs extend.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the terminal portion of at least one of the flexible legs is arranged to physically couple to a control circuit board, and
the terminal portion extends at a non-zero angle with respect to a direction of extension of the at least one of the flexible legs from the core.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein:
the control circuit board comprises an opening through which the at least one of the flexible legs extends,
the terminal portion comprises leg contacts electrically coupled with LEDs associated with the at least one of the flexible legs, and
the leg contacts are coupled to contacts on the control circuit board to receive control signals to control the LEDs associated with the at least one of the flexible legs.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the flexible body of the flexible printed circuit board has a plurality of segments on which the LEDs are disposed,
each flexible leg is associated with a different segment, and
each of the segments has body contacts configured to provide control signals to operate the LEDs of the segment independent of control signals to operate the LEDs of each other segment, the control signals configured to be provided to the body contacts through leg contacts disposed on the terminal portion of the flexible leg associated with the segment.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the core has at least three sides,
the flexible body of the flexible printed circuit board has a plurality of segments,
each set of LEDs is mounted on a different segment, and
each segment is disposed on a different side of the core.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein:
the flexible body of the flexible printed circuit board has at least one segment on which no LEDs are disposed, and
the at least one segment is disposed on at least one side of the core.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the LEDs of one of the plurality of segments have a single first color.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the LEDs of another of the segments have a single second color different from the single first color,
the one of the segments is associated with a different flexible leg than the other of the segments, and
the LEDs of the one of the segments are independently controllable from the LEDs of the other of the segments via the different flexible legs.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the LEDs of another of the segments have the single first color,
the one of the segments is associated with a different flexible leg than the other of the segments, and
the LEDs of the one of the segments are independently controllable from the LEDs of the other of the segments via the different flexible legs.

11. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein:
the LEDs of one of the plurality of segments have different colors, and
the LEDs of the one of the plurality of segments are independently controllable.

12. An apparatus of a lighting system, the apparatus comprising:
a light engine comprising:
a core;
a control circuit board configured to receive wireless signals from a wireless controller and generate control signals based thereon; and
a flexible printed circuit board comprising:
a flexible body disposed on the core and having light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted thereto, and
flexible legs extending from the flexible body such that the flexible legs, flexible body, and core pass through a plane substantially perpendicular to a direction of extension of the flexible legs from the flexible body, the flexible legs configured to receive the control signals to control at least one parameter selected from a set of parameters that include: whether specific LEDs are to be turned on, a color of light output by specific ones of LEDs, a brightness of specific ones of the LEDs, and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of light output by specific ones of the LEDs.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:
the core has an opening through which the flexible legs extend,
a terminal portion of at least one of the flexible legs is arranged to physically couple to the control circuit board, and
the terminal portion extends at a non-zero angle with respect to a direction of extension of the at least one of the flexible legs from the core.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein:
the control circuit board comprises an opening through which the at least one of the flexible legs extends,
the terminal portion comprises leg contacts electrically coupled with LEDs associated with the at least one of the flexible legs, and
the leg contacts are coupled to contacts on the control circuit board to receive control signals to control the LEDs associated with the at least one of the flexible legs.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:
the flexible body of the flexible printed circuit board has a plurality of segments on which the LEDs are disposed,
each flexible leg is associated with a different segment, and
each of the segments has body contacts configured to provide the control signals to operate the LEDs of the segment independent of control signals to operate the LEDs of each other segment, the control signals configured to be provided to the body contacts through leg contacts disposed on a terminal portion of the flexible leg associated with the segment.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:
the core has at least three sides,
the flexible body of the flexible printed circuit board has a plurality of segments on which the LEDs are disposed, and
each segment is disposed on a different side of the core.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the control circuit board comprises a memory with a lookup table that contains a correspondence between a light distribution selected by the wireless controller and the parameters.

18. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:
the flexible body of the flexible printed circuit board has a plurality of segments on which the LEDs are disposed,
each flexible leg is associated with a different segment, and
the set of parameters include, for each segment, at least one parameter selected from: whether the segment is to be turned on, a color of light output by the segment, a brightness of the segment, and a CCT of light output by the segment.

19. A method of fabricating a lighting engine, the method comprising:
mounting a flexible printed circuit board on a core such that a body of the flexible printed circuit board at least partially encircles the core, the body having a plurality of segments that each contain a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs), each segment disposed at substantially a same distance from a center of the core as each other segment;
routing flexible legs extending

Assignees

• Lumileds Llc

Inventors

• Diana Frederic Stephane
• Qiu Yifeng
• Wasilko Michael
• Soleimani Nazila
• Den Breejen Jeroen
• Mcreynolds Alan Andrew
• Guth Gregory Donald

Classifications

• H10W90/00

  Package configurations · CPC title

• H05B47/1965

  using handheld communication devices · CPC title

• H05B47/198

  Grouping of control procedures or address assignation to light sources · CPC title

• H10H29/14

  comprising multiple light-emitting semiconductor components · CPC title

• H05B47/19

  via wireless transmission · CPC title