A Three-Phase Dimmable Lighting System Using a Bidirectional Power Electronic Transformer

This paper presents a single-stage bidirectional power electronic transformer (PET) for lighting systems as a three-phase electronic ballast. The lighting system supplies multilamp units that are controlled simultaneously by a bidirectional PET using a pulsewidth modulation scheme. The PET contains a single-input multioutput high-frequency isolating transformer to control the illumination of the lamps as well as providing galvanic isolation in each unit simultaneously. The high-frequency operation, direct ac to ac conversion, and bidirectional power flow capabilities help the PET to operate without any bulky storage elements. So good efficiency, and low weight, volume, and cost of the power conversion system can be achieved. The control strategy promotes the ballast performance to let fluorescent lamps operate free from both voltage flicker and disturbances. As a result, improved dimmable illumination, lamps protection, and increasing lifetime of lamps can be achieved. A design procedure based on equivalent circuit is presented to determine the resonant output circuit parameters. The experimental results of the prototype, which converts 110 V/3$\varphi$/50 Hz input voltage to 130 V/1 $\varphi$/25 kHz and 70 V/1 $\varphi$/25 kHz output voltages, show the practical aspects of the proposed PET.