An Oscillating Type Booster Utilizing Backswing Voltage Favourably Used for Discharge Lamp Ignition

Abstract

This paper proposes an original booster of a newtype which is applied for almost all kinds of discharge lamps as the starter.
The booster consists essentially of two closed circuits: the first closed circuit including an electric source, a linear inductor and a capacitor in series connection; and the second closed circuit including a capacitor common to the first closed circuit, a bi-directional diode thyristor and a nonlinear inductor. The nonlinear inductor of the second closed circuit is characterized by functions of inducing the backswing voltage due to its distributed effective capacitance on the unsaturated state and providing high saturable voltage against impressed voltage of high frequency.
These two circuits act continuously and alternately to generate high-amplitude oscillating voltage across the capacitor, that is, the nonlinear inductor checks the thyristor's conduction for a given time at every cycle of oscillation by the induction of the backswing voltage and by the subsequent saturating characteristics thereof, while the capacitor is linearly charged by the electric source through the linear inductor giving a constant-current function.
Consequently, an output voltage across the capacitor is boosted by about ten times the source voltage or the break-over voltage of the thyristor.
It is also disclosed that such boosted output voltage can be controlled arbitrarily by adding a bias means for the nonlinear inductor.
The particular significance of this newtype booster lies in its simplified construction.