Comparative Analysis of Self-Oscillating Electronic Ballast Dimming Methods With Power Factor Correction for Fluorescent Lamps

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the performance characteristics among different dimming methods for electronic ballasts using the self-oscillating half-bridge (HB) inverter with a power factor correction (PFC) stage. Initially, a review of common dimming methods presented in the literature is presented, and a general analysis of each dimming method is carried out. Furthermore, the operation of the dimmable self-oscillating electronic ballast with a PFC stage is analyzed in order to evaluate the performance of each different dimming methods used. Finally, a comparison among the different dimming methods implemented with the self-oscillating HB inverter and PFC stage is carried out.