Luminaire with disinfection light exposure and dosage limit control protocol and sensor integration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12514942-B2
Application number	US-202418425428-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2024
Priority date	Aug 28, 2020
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

A luminaire includes a luminaire control circuit and a disinfection light source to emit a disinfection light in an ultraviolet (UV) band for disinfecting a vicinity of a space of a target pathogen that is exposed to the disinfection light. The UV band is 200 nanometers (nm) to 230 nm wavelength. The luminaire initiates a dose cycle of a vicinity in which the disinfection light source emits the disinfection light continuously or during a plurality of periods of a dose cycle from the disinfection light source by recording a beginning time of the dose cycle. The luminaire controls, via a driver circuit, the disinfection light source over the dose cycle to emit the disinfection light continuously or during the plurality of periods for disinfecting the vicinity to substantially obtain a target pathogen UV radiation level and restrict a total UV radiation threshold exposure level by a UV radiation threshold limit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A luminaire, comprising:
a disinfection light source to emit a disinfection light in an ultraviolet (UV) band for disinfecting a vicinity of a space of a target pathogen that is exposed to the disinfection light, the UV band being 200 nanometers (nm) to 230 nm wavelength; a driver circuit coupled to the disinfection light source to control light source operation of the disinfection light source; a luminaire control circuit including:
a luminaire processor coupled to the driver circuit and configured to control the disinfection light source via the driver circuit;
a luminaire memory comprising exposure and dosage control programming which when executed by the luminaire processor configures the luminaire to perform functions comprising:
controlling, via the driver circuit and in response to receiving a control signal from a disinfection light control device, the disinfection light source over a dose cycle to emit the disinfection light continuously or during a plurality of periods for disinfecting the vicinity to obtain a target pathogen UV radiation level and to restrict a total UV radiation threshold exposure level by a UV radiation threshold limit;

wherein:
the UV radiation threshold limit is a first threshold limit for safe exposure of a human to the UV band over a predetermined dose period,
the total UV radiation threshold exposure level is a second threshold limit of exposure of the human to the UV band over the dose cycle, the dose cycle corresponding to the predetermined dose period or being a fraction or multiple thereof,
the target pathogen UV radiation level is a level of exposure to the UV band that is sufficient to reduce the target pathogen by a desired amount in the vicinity over the predetermined dose period, and
the disinfection light control device is a standalone device or integrated in the luminaire.

2 . The luminaire of claim 1 , wherein:
the function to control, via the driver circuit, the disinfection light source over the dose cycle includes functions to:
(a) emit the disinfection light for disinfecting the vicinity,
(b) track an elapsed time of the dose cycle based on the beginning time,
(c) adjust the total UV radiation threshold exposure level based on the emission of the disinfection light continuously or during the plurality of periods,
(d) determine whether the total UV radiation threshold exposure level falls below or exceeds the UV radiation threshold limit, and
(e) determine whether the total UV radiation threshold exposure level falls below or exceeds the target pathogen UV radiation level.

3 . An antimicrobial system, comprising:
a disinfection light control device to generate a control signal to control emission of a disinfection light in an ultraviolet (UV) band for disinfecting a vicinity of a space of a target pathogen; a luminaire including or coupled to the disinfection light control device, the luminaire comprising:
a disinfection light source to emit the disinfection light in the UV band for disinfecting the vicinity of the space of the target pathogen that is exposed to the disinfection light, the UV band being between 200 nanometers (nm) to 230 nm;
a driver circuit coupled to the disinfection light source to control light source operation of the disinfection light source;
a luminaire control circuit including:
a luminaire processor coupled to the driver circuit and configured to control the disinfection light source via the driver circuit;
a luminaire memory comprising exposure and dosage control programming which when executed by the luminaire processor configures the luminaire to perform functions comprising:
controlling, via the driver circuit and in response to receiving a control signal from the disinfection light control device, the disinfection light source over a dose cycle to emit the disinfection light continuously or during a plurality of periods for disinfecting the vicinity to obtain a target pathogen UV radiation level and to restrict a total UV radiation threshold exposure level by a UV radiation threshold limit;

wherein:
the UV radiation threshold limit is a first threshold limit for safe exposure of a human to the UV band over a predetermined dose period,
the total UV radiation threshold exposure level is a second threshold limit of exposure of the human to the UV band over the dose cycle, the dose cycle corresponding to the predetermined dose period or being a fraction or multiple thereof, and
the target pathogen UV radiation level is a level of exposure to the UV band that is sufficient to reduce the target pathogen by a desired amount in the vicinity over the predetermined dose period.

4 . The antimicrobial system of claim 3 , wherein:
the function to control, via the driver circuit, the disinfection light source over the dose cycle further includes functions to:
(a) emit the disinfection light for disinfecting the vicinity,
(b) track an elapsed time of the dose cycle,
(c) adjust the total UV radiation threshold exposure level based on the emission of the disinfection light continuously or during the plurality of periods,
(d) determine whether the total UV radiation threshold exposure level falls below or exceeds the UV radiation threshold limit, and
(e) determine whether the total UV radiation threshold exposure level falls below or exceeds the target pathogen UV radiation level.

5 . The antimicrobial system of claim 4 , wherein:
the function to control, via the driver circuit, the disinfection light source over the dose cycle further includes functions to:
(f) in response to determining that the total UV radiation threshold exposure level falls below the UV radiation threshold limit and falls below the target pathogen UV radiation level, repeat functions (a) to (e).

6 . The antimicrobial system of claim 4 , wherein:
the function to control, via the driver circuit, the disinfection light source over the dose cycle includes functions to:
(g) in response to determining that the total UV radiation threshold exposure level exceeds the UV radiation threshold limit or the target pathogen UV radiation level, end the dose cycle by disabling emission of the disinfection light for disinfecting the vicinity based on the elapsed time of the dose cycle and the predetermined dose period.

7 . The antimicrobial system of claim 3 , further comprising:
a disinfection status indicator to display a disinfection state of the vicinity, the disinfection state being:
(i) the disinfection light source is in an on state of actively emitting the disinfection light for disinfecting the vicinity,
(ii) the disinfection light source is at a percentage or a portion of the target pathogen UV radiation level over the predetermined dose period, or
(iii) the vicinity is in a disinfected state such that the target pathogen in the vicinity is reduced by the desired amount after the target pathogen UV radiation level is obtained over the dose cycle.

8 . The antimicrobial system of claim 3 , wherein:
the disinfection light control device includes a detector; the control signal includes a first sensing signal that indicates the human is present in the vicinity; and an elapsed time of the dose cycle tracks only when the human is present in the vicinity.

9 . The antimicrobial system of claim 8 , wherein:
the function to restrict the total UV radiation threshold exposure level by the UV radiation threshold limit includes functions to:
track the elapsed time of the dose cycle as a sum of a plurality of time durations that the human is present in the vicinity while the disinfection light is emitted from the disinfection light source;
determine the total UV radiation threshold exposure level a

Assignees

• Abl Ip Holding Llc

Inventors

• Ramer David P
• Rains Jr Jack C
• Rodriguez Yan
• Schimmelpfenning Ron Carl
• Wang Jeannine Fisher

Classifications

• H05B47/196

  characterised by user interface arrangements · CPC title

• H05B45/30

  Driver circuits · CPC title

• H05B47/16

  by timing means · CPC title

• A61L2103/75

  Room floors or walls · CPC title

• Y02B20/40

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