A low-cost single-switch field-emission driver applying impulsed-power technique for lighting

An impulsed-power generator, which possesses low cost and simple configuration, operated in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) for driving a tubular field emission lamp (TFEL) is presented in this paper. The proposed system based on flyback topology can provide impulse power driving to eliminate the arcing phenomenon caused by the traditional DC voltage driving. Therefore, both the lighting performance and lamp lifespan are improved. This paper also presents a feedback mechanism to sense the lamp current peak value for stabilizing lamp luminance. In this paper, an equivalent model of the TFEL is constructed to exhibit its capacitive characteristics. Moreover, the circuit configuration and each operation mode in a switching cycle are also described. And then a complete design considerations and mathematical models are discussed in detail. All the experimental results agree with the computer simulations in verifying the theoretical predictions.