A true parallel lamp operation universal program start dimming ballast platform based on decoupled half-bridge inverter

In this paper, a novel true parallel lamp operation universal programmed start dimming ballast platform for fluorescent lamps is proposed. The proposed platform is based on a decoupled half-bridge inverter. The proposed platform ensures true parallel lamp operation and maintains constant current through each lamp even when lamps are extremely unbalanced. The proposed platform ensures good preheat and steady state filament heating in dimming by using independent PWM type filament heating control method. The proposed platform can be applied to drive different types of lamps in one design. The proposed platform ensures half-bridge MOSFETs soft-switching all the time. Mathematical analysis of the proposed platform is discussed in the paper. Experimental results are presented to validate the proposed method.