• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.23 no.A
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• pp.29-33
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• 2003

This paper proposed methods of filament preheating to extend a fluorescent lamp life. The ballast for the fluorescent lamp can be classified into two main groups magnetics and electronics. The electronic ballast is lighter and smaller than the magnetic ballast and it can dim up and down. There are two ways to start the fluorescent lamp in the electronic ballast: rapid start and instant start. Also there are two methods of the driving inverter self excited oscillation and force excited oscillation. The rapid starting is different from the instant starting in that the rapid start is preheating the filament before the steady state. If there is a preheating process before the lamp ignition, the life of the fluorescent lamp can be increased. This paper presented the preheating methods for self excited oscillating system and force excited oscillating system.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Industry Society
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.741-748
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• 2005

Power saving module which is consisted of ferroelectric ceramic capacitor and time delay switching circuit was installed into electronic ballast in order to enhance energy efficacy and extend life time of fluorescent lamp. The impedance matching of negative resistance characteristics of F/L was optimized with the characteristics of ferroelectric ceramics capacitor to increase the light efficiency of the electronic ballast. The high efficiency of the electronic ballast was achieved by minimizing wasted power at the filament of F/L during the lighting by using the switching function of time delay circuit from preheating mode to non-preheating mode. The life time of F/L was also extended by eliminating the reverse electromotive force using time delay circuits to minimize the impacts to the filament of F/L from unwanted high voltage peaks during light-up period. As the results, the electronic ballast with the first grade energy efficiency was developed using ferroelectric ceramics and time delay module.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07f
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• pp.2786-2788
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• 1999

In this paper, a mixed mode exciting resonant inverter topology applicable to high performance electronic ballast is presented. Mixed mode exciting technique combines the attractive features of self exciting resonant inverter with those of external exciting one. The control IC is designed and manufactured by using a 0.8um CMOS process for 5V operation and has only 8 pins. This performs the operations of filament preheating, dimming control, output power regulation and protections. The mixed mode exciting resonant inverter with control IC has very simple structure, high performance and expensive manufacturing cost.