Low-Cost PFC Electronic Ballast for 250W HID Lamps Operating as Constant Power Source with 400 kHz Switching Frequency

In this paper, a low-cost PFC electronic ballast for 250 W high intensity discharge (HID) lamps based on the using of LCC parallel-series inverter with resonant current mode control operating as constant power source with 400 kHz switching frequency is presented. With this control method, the inverter does not hand any reactive energy, and both switching and conduction losses are minimized. The design performs an automatic power control without exceeding the maximum power recommended by the lamp manufacturer without additional power control circuitry. An adequate bus voltage (120 V) allows using buck converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode as low-cost power factor correction (PFC) pre-regulator. The ignition process do not needs additional elements to ignite the lamp. The acoustic resonances phenomenon should be taken into account in the design process. The 400 kHz switching frequency is selected above all the lamp acoustic resonances frequencies avoiding the risk of appearance of acoustic resonance phenomenon. Simulations and experimental results have validated the design proposed in this work