Powering neon lamps through piezoelectric transformers

An investigation of the piezoelectric high-voltage ratio transformer as a potential component for powering neon lamps is discussed. The attractiveness of the piezoelectric technology is primarily the extreme simplicity of the resulting components, which are easy to reproduce in mass production, compared to the widely-used wire-wound ferrite transformers. Furthermore, on account of the electric network behaviour of a piezotransformer, the matching circuitry between lamp and battery requires very few components. Experimental results from a 8 W power-supply prototype inverter are included