Lynk Labs Inc., the leading supplier of AC LED device, light engine and power supply technology, has been awarded its first U.S. patent for an AC LED drive method and aparatus. The newly awarded patent, U.S. Patent, No. 7,489,086 is entitled “AC light emitting diode and AC LED drive methods and apparatus."

The AC LED technology claimed in the patent includes: light engines, power supplied by electronic transformers, and AC LED lighting systems. The patent includes the AC LED lighting systems can have high or low voltage and high or low frequency and can leverage various drive methods.

The drive methods behind the patent depend on the AC LED device or light engine application and include 50/60Hz high voltage or low voltage as well as high frequency (1000 Hz or greater) power supplies including electronic transformer-type power supplies (typically operating in the 20–50 kHz range) which have been used in lighting for decades. The patent also covers capacitive current control (called C3LED technology by Lynk) drive methods that can include using the intrinsic capacitance of an LED or LED package to drive AC LEDs at resonance.

This could one day lead to maximizing LED lighting system efficiency by tuning a BriteDriver AC LED power supply to match the RLC components of a specific LED or light engine. The result could enable up to 98% system efficiency, according to Lynk.

This same patent is pending and soon to be approved in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, EPO, Hong Kong, India and Mexico.

Mike Miskin, Lynk Labs President/CEO, noted that this is just one patent in a broad and diverse LED intellectual property portfolio that Lynk Labs continues to grow.

Lynk Labs AC LED technology is now being integrated into products by a number of OEMs in various markets.