ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR REDUCING THE TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION CAUSED BY DIMMING FLUORESCENT LAMPS

摘要

An electronic circuit (30) and method is provided for decreasing, or at least maintaining within allowable limits, the total harmonic distortion caused by dimming a cpmpact fluorescent lamp using a standard dimmer circuit such as a triac based phase-cut dimmer. This is achieved while preventing starvation (flickering) of the lamp at high dimming levels. The circuit (30) includes a capacitor (C2) and at least one resistor (R2) connected in series with one another between the output terminals (38, 40) of a rectifier circuit (36) and in parallel with a smoothing capacitor (C1) associated with the rectifier (36).