Simple Control Circuits for Electronic Ballast Design

Electronic ballasts are designed to fulfill a variety of different input and output specifications depending on their end application and performance requirements. These designs typically include non-PFC, passive PFC and active PFC input stages, and, single, dual or multi-lamp output stages. The input voltage requirements for each design can vary significantly depending on the final application for the ballast, and, several protection circuits must also be included in order to meet the safety standards from various ballast regulatory agencies. This paper describes several simple control circuits for realizing different types of electronic ballast designs. This paper introduces the designer to the main circuit blocks of an electronic ballast, describes the different ballast circuit topologies and their respective control circuit, and provides complete schematics and experimental results for each design.