Serial communicationable ballast realization for electrodeless fluorescent lamps using an erasable programmable logic device

Electrodeless lamps have long bulb life, but their application areas are limited in situations where replacement costs are high. In such areas, a communication way is required between ballasts and a control system as well. This paper presents a serial communication module realization method using an erasable programmable logic device. To verify the proposed method, a 150 W prototype ballast was made and confirmed a communication to PC. This way can be easily realized as a standard-cell ASIC, because it was implemented without a microprocessor.