Analysis of the half-bridge boost rectifier as integrated electronic ballast with power factor correction

This paper presents the analysis of the half-bridge boost rectifier working as an electronic ballast with high power factor. The electronic ballast integrates the half-bridge boost topology and the half-bridge parallel resonant inverter in a single stage. These converters are sharing both switches, and then very close relationships exist between them. The input stage of the ballast (half-bridge boost rectifier) is working in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) with constant duty cycle and variable switching frequency. In the paper, the operating characteristic is established in order to get a design method of the ballast. The method is used to implement a laboratory prototype for a 26 watts fluorescent lamp. Some experimental results are included