A novel low-cost high-power-factor integrated ballast for fluorescent lamps

The possibilities of a new low-cost high-power-factor ballast for fluorescent lamps are investigated in this paper. The new fluorescent lamp ballast is obtained by integrating two well-known converters: the buck-boost converter operating as power factor correction stage and the half-bridge LC resonant inverter as lamp ballast. The proposed ballast features good input-power-factor, low voltage rating for switches and bulk capacitor, high reliability, compactness and simple control. The steady-state analysis is performed, a low frequency model is proposed and a design procedure is expounded. Finally experimental results from a prototype are presented.