A dynamic conductance model of fluorescent lamp for electronic ballast design simulation

A Spice-compatible dynamic conductance model of a fluorescent lamp for use in electronic ballast simulation is presented. The time-dependent conductance of the fluorescent lamp is derived from a plasma ionization balance equation that uses simplified descriptions of the physical processes within the lamp as its basis. The model has been designed to enable user-defined lamp radius, length, buffer gas pressure and cold-spot temperature as input parameters thus representing a valuable tool for ballast simulations. Simulation results are compared to experimental measurements and satisfactory agreement is achieved.