Analysis and design of a high-power-factor single-stage buck-boost half-bridge electronic ballast for electrodeless fluorescent lamps

In this paper a methodological study of an electronic ballast including design and development issues is presented. The ballast is intended to feed a 100 W electrodeless fluorescent lamp at 250 kHz. The proposed topology consists of a buck-boost converter, as power factor correction (PFC) stage, integrated with a resonant half-bridge inverter, used as lamp power control (PC) stage. The integration of both stages is proposed, in this work, in order to reduce the number of active switches, as well as to simplify the required driving and control circuitry for this application. The implemented topology achieved a high power factor (0.994) and a line current total harmonic distortion (THD) of 8.016%, while the measured efficiency was 85%.