Low-cost digitally controlled DC/DC converter for HID electronic ballast

A low-cost digitally controlled DC/DC switching power supply for high intensity discharge (HID) electronic ballast is presented along with the theoretical analysis and experimental tests. A microcontroller is set up to manage operation of an additional PWM control chip to accomplish a digital control loop. According to the start-up characteristics of the HID lamp, a new control algorithm is proposed for power-feedback control mode. A breadboard of the DC/DC converter is designed and tested on a HID lamp. Experimental results show that the proposed digitally controlled DC/DC converter can be applied for HID ballast.