Electronic ballast circuit configurations for fluorescent lamps

Abstract

The new Electronic ballast as a starting element has replaced the conservative ballast system of fluorescent lamps. These highly efficient electronic ballasts are preferred over conventional electromagnetic ballasts due to their excellent features, such as weight reduction, increased efficiency in terms of light output and decreased flicker to a large extent. This is particularly achieved by increasing the frequency of operation from normal 50/60 Hz to 40 kHz, hence improving the lamp efficiency by approximately 10%. Numerous research studies are being conducted in order to reduce production costs and to make the electronic ballasts a more attractive alternative. The dimming control capacity in electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps has been quickly increased due to high potential of energy saving and the comfort to users but has new challenges in the design of electronic ballast.