An electronic ballast with high power factor for compact fluorescent lamps

This paper introduces a new low cost, high power factor electronic ballast for compact fluorescent lamps. The proposed ballast integrates power factor correction and half-bridge power converters. Another feature of this work is that the self-oscillating technique is used. The MOSFET´s gate drive can be implemented with simplicity and low cost. Theoretical analysis is presented and a very simple design methodology is obtained, since the integrated topology can be treated separately as two independent power converters. Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the principle of operation and the high power factor of the proposed topology