An Electronic Ballast with Power Factor Correction

for Fluorescent Lamps

A. Maamoun
Electronics Research Institute, National Research Center
El-Tahrir Street, Do&, Cairo, Egypt
Fax: 202 335 163 1, E-mail
Abstract
A high-frequency electronic ballast with high
power factor and low harmonic distortion for
driving two 36 W-fluorescent lamps is presented in
this paper. The power factor correction (PFC) is
required to shape the input line current. Also, the
low-pass filter at the mains is used to reduce the
harmonic distortion and to reduce the radio
frequency interference (XFg) injected from the
high-frequency electronic ballast into the mains.
Experimental results have been obtained for the
circuit of electronic ballast. The experimental
measurements show that the proposed electronic
ballast has features of continuous line current,
adequate power factor correction and reasonable
total harmonic distortion (THD).
1 Introduction
Electronic ballasts, instead of conventional
electromagnetic ones, are increasingly used to drive
fluorescent lamps for improving the light quality.
Electronic ballasts offer considerable advantages
over the electromagnetic ballasts such as high
efficiency, reduced lamp flicker, less audible noise,
extended lamp life time, light weight and control
flexibility.
An electronic ballast, when extracting power
from the ac-line source, needs a diode rectifier
bridge with large electrolytic capacitor to provide a
smoothdc link voltage for the high-frequency
inverter stage. Such a rectifier circuit inevitably
draws a high-peak input current. This causes a distorted
input current with much harmonics and reduces
maamounaeri . sc i . eg
fluorescent
lamD
high-
resonant
invener
main
Fig. 1. Block diagram of an electronic ballast
the input power factor [l]. Therefore, a power
factor correction (PFC) and low-pass filter are
usually required in front of the electronic ballast
to shape the input line current and to reduce the
harmonic currents. A block diagram of high-
frequency electronic ballast with a PFC and low-
pass filter for driving a fluorescent lamp is shown
in Fig. 1. Many input current waveshaping methods
have been proposed to solve these problems, which
can broadly classified as active methods or passive
methods [2]. In general, active input current
waveshaping methods have several disadvantages of
being difficult to implement, expensive and less
reliable. These disadvantages can be eliminated
through the useof passive input current waveshaping
methods [3]. This paper presents an electronic ballast
wi th passive PFC and low-pass filter for driving two
36W-fluorescent lamps.
2 Basic Concepts
neinput power factor O o f an electronic ballast
0-7803-5957-7/00/$10.00 0 2000 IEEE
385
can becalculated as the following :
P
pF=J m
where
P : the input active power
Q : the input reactive power
Qf : the fundamental reactive power
D : the harmonic distortion power
The displacement power factor (DPF) is the cosine
of phase angle between the fundamental input
current and the sinusoidal input voltage.
The total harmonic distortion (THD) of the input
current waveformof the electronic ballast can be
calculated h m the following expmssions :
J1; +I; 3- 1; +....
THDfun =
I1
I1
and
n=2
I
(3)
T=-
where
I1 :the rms value of the fundamental
In: the rms value of the nth harmonic
I : the r ms value of the input current
The crest factor of the input current waveform can
be calculated as the following :
component of the input current
component of the input current
(4)
Ipeak
Crest factor =~
I
where
Ipe* : the peak value of the input current
waveform
3 The Proposed Electronic Ballast Circuit
The proposed circuit of electronic ballast with
PFC and low-pass filter for driving two 36W-
fluorescent lamps is show in Fig. 2. The LICl low-
pass filter has the following functions :
- limitation of the harmonic distortion
- limitation of radio frequency interference, which
otherwise would be injected from the high-
frequency electronic ballast into the mains
- protection of the electronic components against
high mains voltage peaks
The line voltage is rectified after the low-pass
filter by the bridge rectifier (D1, Dz, D3, and D4).
The capacitors C2 and C3 are charged in series to
the peak line voltage such that each will have one
half the peak line voltage across it. When the line
voltage drops below the 50% point, the capacitors
discharge, preventing the voltage from going to
zero. The rectified voltage is transformed, in the
voltage-fed half-bridge series-resonant parallel-
loaded inverter, to high-frequency voltage which
powers the two 36W-fluorescent lamps [4]. When
the switching transistors Q1and QZ turnon and off
alternately, with a duty ratio of 50%, a square-wave
voltage source is generated and supplied to the
resonant circuit. The fluorescent lamps are placed
parallel to the starting capacitors C9 and Clo. The
voltage at the starting capacitor will become very
high before the lamp is ignited. After ignition the
behaviour of the lamp is similar to a zener diode.
The inductivity of the resonance circuit limits the
lamp current. To start the self-oscillating operation
of the inverter one of the transistors Q1 and Q2 must
be switched on. The transistor Qz is first switched
on. The time constant R2C4must very much longer
chosen than the period of the oscillating frequency.
The start-up bias is given by diac D9, together with
the Rz/C4network, which generates a positive pulse
in the base of Qz. After start-up, this circuit is made
inoperative by means of diode Dg, which keeps the
voltage upon the capacitor C4 at a value lower than
the trigger voltage of the diac. This point is
important because it will avoid oversaturation of
Qz. The secondary windings LZSI and LZSZ are used
for the base drive stages. They must have a
complementary direction of winding to avoid short
circuit. The secondary winding for Q2 must have
the same direction of winding like Lzp. Otherwise
there is no oscillation possible. The switching
frequency of the inverter is determined by the
specified saturation point of Lz and the storage time
of the switching transistors Q1 and Q2 as well as the
3 86
4 x 1N4007
c8*
IP ..
Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of the proposed electronic ballast
resonant circuit parameters. The operating
frequency is always above the resonant frequency
of the load circuit. The operating frequency should
be above the limit of human audibility, therefore
above 18 kHz. The resistors R3 and Rs are used to
limit the maximumbase current. If the resistances
are small there is a risk of short circuit during the
switching time, because the storage time of the
transistors will be improper increased and both of
them would be switched on. If the resistances are
high the transistors may be desaturated while they
are switched on. This leads to a thermal destruction
of the transistors. The resistors & and & adapt the
variation of lamp power.
4 Experimental Results
Experimental results for operation and
performance of the proposed high-frequency
electronic ballast were obtained. Waveforms of the
voltage and current of one 36W fluorescent lamp is
shown in Fig. 3. The lamp can be approximated to a
resistive load. The waveforms and harmonic spectra
of the input voltage, current and power of the
electronic ballast are shown.in Figs. 4,5 and 6.
Summary of the test results is as the following :
supply frequency =50 Hz
input voltage : RMS =2 11 V
peak =293 V
crest factor =1.39
THD,=2%
input current : RMS =0.27 A
. THDh=2%
peak =0.5 A
crest factor =1.85
THD- =24.2 %
THDh =24.9 %
active power =5 1 W
phaseangleof hdamenbl current =22O(lead)
PF =0.9
DPF =0.93
The experimental results show that the proposed
electronic ballast has features of continuous line
current, adequate power factor correction and
reasonable THD.
387
Time. ms
10 pdl i i v
Fig. 3. Waveforms of the voltage and current of one
fluorescent lamp
Volts
Time, ms
(a) Wavefonn
Volts,
rms
(b) Harmonic spec
@) Harmonic spectrum
Fig. 5. Waveform and harmonic spsctrum of the line
current
Wans
Time. ms
(a) Waveform
Wans.
rms
.D
a
.I
m
I
0
-I.
Harmonic number
@) Harmonic spectrum
Fig. 6. Waveform and harmonic spectrum of the
power from the main supply
Fig. 4. Waveform and harmonic specuwn of the line
voltage
388
5 Conclusions References
This paper has introduced a high-frequency
electronic ballast with high power factor and low
harmonic distortion for driving two 36W-
fluorescent lamps. The proposed electronic ballast
is the cascade operation of low-pass filter, PFC and
high-frequency resonant inverter. The low-pass
filter is used at the mains to reduce the harmonic
distortion and to reduce the RFI injected from the
electronic ballast into the mains. The PFC is
required to shape the input line current. The high-
frequency resonant inverter powers the two 36W-
fluorescent lamps. Experimental results have been
obtained for the proposed electronic ballast. A high
power factor and reasonable THD have been achieved
wi* this electronic ballast.
Acknowledgement
I gratefully acknowledge the support for this
work from the Egyptian Electronic Industries
Company (WISSAM), in Cairo, Egypt.
E11
E21
[31
~41
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