Study on Improvement of Buck-boost Inverter Suitable for Compact Self-ballast Fluorescent Lamp

This paper reports new electronic ballast for a compact self-ballast fluorescent lamp. This ballast is formed by adding the starter circuit to the neutral-point-type buck-boost inverter that has already proposed by authors. Based on the analysis of circuit operation and experimental results, it is shown that the inverter circuit has following features, 1) the reduction of harmonics of input current, 2) the reduction in the ripple of the output current, and 3) the high power factor. It is possible to extend the life of a lamp, because the starter circuit can lower the firing potential.