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Professional dimming has come a long way from the candle snuffers of the 18th century to the gas tables of the 19th century and resistance dimmers of the early 20th century. Forward phase dimming with SCR technology has reigned over conventional loads since the early 1960s and is still today the most cost-effective choice for dimming installations.
When forward phase technology emerged, electronic components made it possible to allow only portions of the AC cycle through to the load. The familiar SCR and Triac devices were used to control the intensity of light, varying the switch ON point of the lamp current each half cycle (forward phase). The convergence of improvements in transistor technology, lower technology costs and more improved processors brought forth reverse phase dimming, also called trailing edge dimming, which switched OFF the current flow at a predetermined interval.
ETC's patented techniques for producing a pure sine wave output with variable amplitude to control lighting levels uses transistors to slice the mains into pulses, vary the current using pulse width modulation, and average the result, which produces a continuous, variable amplitude smooth sine wave.
Now SineWave introduces a completely different approach to dimming, with exciting advantages. Controlling the amplitude of the sine wave, this new technology offers complete silence at the lamp as well as lower power costs. Quiet attributes combined with Ethernet data and status feedback make it ideal for any dimming situation.