Studies on the long-distance ignition circuit for HID lamps

The electronic ballast for high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps needs a high-ignition voltage produced by a high voltage pulse igniter. However, in the case of a street lamp, the distance from the lamp to the ballast makes it difficult for a conventional pulsed high-voltage igniter to turn on the HID lamps because the ignition voltage is reduced. Therefore, research must be carried out on a resonant ignition to turn on the HID lamps. In this paper, topology and an algorithm for a resonant ignition are compared and verified. First, when a transformer is used in a resonant ignition, the method for reducing the load of the igniter is compared and proposed. Second, the parasitic capacitance, which affects the resonant frequency, is increased depending the length of the cable. The ignition voltage can be increased drastically under the resonant ignition through a frequency sweep. A method for reducing the voltage of the igniter is proposed and analyzed.