STROBE LIGHTING UNIT

摘要

A strobe lighting unit including a detecting circuit can reliably detect degradations of a xenon light source, which can flash as a light source for devices having a shooting with camera such as a smart phone, etc. The strobe lighting unit can include at least one xenon discharge tube as the xenon light source and at least one lighting circuit to flash the xenon discharge tube. The strobe lighting unit can also include at least one light-detecting circuit to detect degradations of the xenon discharge tube without a photo detector by monitoring an anode electrode of the xenon discharge tube at a flash thereof, and can be configured to output the monitoring result into the devices. Thus, the strobe lighting unit can result in an increase in the possible range of the devices, and can be employed for various devices including a thin mobile phone, a thin smart phone, etc.

主权项

1. A strobe lighting unit, comprising:
a xenon discharge tube having at least an anode electrode and a cathode electrode; a lighting circuit being connected between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of the xenon discharge tube, and configured to flash the xenon discharge tube by applying a high voltage between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of the xenon discharge tube; a switching element having at least a gate being connected to the lighting circuit, configured to input an external lighting signal into the gate of the switching element, and configured to operate the lighting circuit so as to flash the xenon discharge tube in accordance with the external light signal input into the gate of the switching element; a timing generator having an input and an output configured to receive the external lighting signal into the input of the timing generator, and configured to generate a pulse having a light-detecting time to detect whether the xenon discharge tube normally flashes or not from the output of the timing generator; a light-detecting circuit having an input and an output, the input of the light-detecting circuit connecting the anode electrode of the xenon discharge tube, and the light-detecting circuit configured to generate a light-emitting signal from the output of the light-detecting circuit when the xenon discharge tube flashes; a logical multiply circuit having an output and inputs, each of the inputs of the logical multiply circuit connecting the output of the timing generator to input the pulse having the light-detecting time and the output of the light-detecting circuit to input the light-emitting signal; and wherein the strobe lighting unit monitors a degradation of the xenon discharge tube in accordance with an output signal output from the output of the logical multiply circuit.