Electronic Ballast with Combined Half-bridge Inverter and Buck-boost Converter

Abstract

An electronic ballast is described that uses fewer parts and costs less than conventioal ballast, which require separate switching element and control units for the half-bridge inverter and power-factor-correction (PFC) circuits because these circuits operate independently. In the proposed ballast, the switching element of the half-bridge inverter works as a buck-boost converter, eliminating the need for a PFC circuit. Even though it has fewer operating parts, the proposed ballast still reduces the number of harmonic components in the input current to below that specified by IEC Standard 61000-3-2 for Class C equipment.