Charge pump ballasts as a special type of electronic ballast for fluorescent lamps

To fulfil the demands of the energy provider in case of power friendliness of the technical equipment, some years ago one began to develop replacements of conventional magnetic ballasts for fluorescent lamps. As a result, we now have a large number of more or less different topologies, which represent an interesting application type in the lower power range of the power electronics today. Their advantages are high power factor, low crest factor, an almost sinusoidal waveform of the mains current, for instance. In opposition to that we find a high cost factor in development and manufacturing. One way to reduce the costs is the usage of so called single stage topologies to minimize the number of components. The resulting pro and cons are discussed in this paper. Possible ways of dimensioning are explained on several topologies. Finally the basic possibilities of controlling of such circuits is discussed.