Characteristics of ballast for HID lamps using single-ended resonant-type MCT inverter

This paper presents a novel type of solid-state ballast for HID (high intensity discharge) lamps using a single-ended resonant-type MCT (MOS controlled thyristor) inverter. This ballast can supply high frequency (50 kHz) power to a 70 W metal-halide lamp, one of the HID lamps, without accompanying acoustic resonance. The on-state voltage of the MCT is lower than that of an IGBT. Thus the conduction power loss of the ballast is reduced. The characteristics of this ballast are compared with the conventional ballast. Based on the results obtained from analysis and experiments, the proposed ballast is more useful than the conventional one.