Partitioning digitally programmable power-control for applications to ballasts

The move to full digital control of power electronic circuits has been mixed. This paper describes the procession of technology to embed digital power control in power supply circuits, with particular attention to dimmable fluorescent lighting ballasts. Partitioning of power circuits shows a near optimum match with the evolving system on chip (SoC) approach taken for microcontrollers to provide an integrated digital power control. A performance description of several approaches is given with performance bounds.