IGNITION DEVICE

摘要

This ignition device 1 is provided with a plasma device 10, a first circuit 11, a second circuit 12 and a control unit 13. The plasma device 10 causes plasma discharge to occur in an air-fuel mixture before arc discharge is caused to occur. The first circuit 11 causes an ignition plug 5 to begin arc discharge. During the arc discharge, the second circuit 12 energizes a primary coil 2 in the opposite direction to the energizing direction resulting from the first circuit 11, thereby maintaining the energizing direction of a secondary coil 3 in the same direction as the energization begun by the operation of the first circuit 11, and causing the arc discharge to continue. The control unit 13 controls the operation of the first circuit 11, the second circuit 12 and the plasma device 10. By this means, when causing plasma discharge to occur in an air-fuel mixture, the period during which energy is input into the ignition plug 5 can be shortened compared with a situation in which plasma discharge is not caused to occur in the air-fuel mixture, and the amount of energy input can thus be reduced.