STARTUP CONTROL FOR A HIGH PRESSURE DISCHARGE LAMP BALLAST

摘要

A high pressure discharge lamp ballast is provided with a control operation for stable transition from a lamp ignition mode into a preheating mode. An inverter is coupled across a DC source and has a plurality of switching elements coupled to the high pressure discharge lamp. A series resonant LC circuit is coupled to the inverter outputs and to the high pressure discharge lamp. A control circuit is coupled to the switching elements and configured to control switching operation. An ignition mode has one or more time periods during each of which a driving frequency of the switching elements is swept through a predetermined range of frequencies and then controlled at a first driving frequency less than the predetermined range of frequencies. A preheating mode follows wherein the switching elements are controlled at a second driving frequency less than the predetermined range of frequencies.