CONTROL CIRCUIT OF A DIMMER ASSEMBLY FOR DIMMING AN ENERGY-SAVING LAMP

摘要

The present invention relates to a control circuit of a dimmer assembly for dimming an energy-saving lamp, in particular a gas discharge lamp, the dimmer assembly comprising a dimmer circuit and the control circuit for controlling the output current of the dimmer assembly. The control circuit draws a relatively large initial current which is larger than or equal to the TRIAC latching current (iiatch) when the dimmer is turned on in order to bring it to a conducting state, and draws a second TRIAC current which is larger than or equal to the TRIAC holding current (ihoid) for the remainder of the dimmer conduction angle. The latching time (Tlatch) is usually significantly smaller than the TRIAC holding time (Thold) and is typically of the order of some 10 to 100 µs. In a simple embodiment, the holding current (ihold) is constant and equal to the latching current (ilatch).