Self-oscillating electronic ballast with dimming control

Self-oscillating electronic ballast is one of the simplest and most cost effective ballasts for driving fluorescent lamps. Disadvantageously, however, the operating frequency of the self-oscillating resonant circuit is, by the nature of its operation, load dependent, and thus is very difficult to control. This paper explores a novel, self-oscillating, dimmable electronic ballast ideal for low cost dimming application. The operating frequency can be easily adjusted to regulate the lamp power and dim the lamp. A prototype is implemented and the operation principle is verified by the experimental results.