Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)

• Advantages over incandescent lamps

– Energy savings
– Longer lifetime

• Disadvantages over incandescent lamps

– Higher initial cost
– Not as easy to have 3-way control (dimming)

ECE 442 Power Electronics 1

 Fluorescent vs. Incandescent

• Convert UV light to • Convert heat to light

visible light – Burn a filament (wire)
• Two-stage conversion at very high
temperature
– Electrons collide with
mercury atoms,
causing photons of uv
light to be released
– UV light converts to
visible as it passes
through the phosphor
coating inside the
glass tube
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 Fluorescent vs. Incandescent (cont.)

• More efficient • Less efficient

– 25% of energy – 5% of energy
consumed generates consumed generates
light light
– Lower lamp – High filament
temperature temperature (350°F)
– Longer life – 2,000 hour lifetime

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Components and Assembly

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CFL Operation

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 Electronic Ballast Block Diagram
Blocks circuit- AC-to-DC DC-to-AC Ignite and Run
generated noise Conversion Conversion the Lamp

Feedback circuit to control lamp current

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 Lamp Requirements

• Current to pre-heat the filaments

– Low-Frequency AC to DC Conversion (input)

• High Voltage for Ignition

• High-Frequency AC current during running

– High-Frequency DC to AC conversion (output)

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 Generate High-Frequency
50% duty-cycle AC Square
Wave
AC-toDC Conversion
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Resonant tank circuit
filters square wave to
a sinusoid and drives
lamp
8
 At turn-on

• During pre-ignition, the resonant tank is a

series LC circuit with a high Q factor
• Control IC sweeps the half-bridge
frequency from maximum down towards
the resonant frequency of the LC circuit
• Lamp filaments are pre-heated as the
frequency decreases and the lamp voltage
and load current increase

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 Lower the frequency until the lamp ignites

Filaments are pre-heating

To dim the lamp,

increase the frequency
of the half-bridge
The gain of the
resonant tank
decreases and the
lamp current increases
The feedback circuit
adjusts the half-bridge
operating frequency

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ECE 442 Power Electronics 11
 IRS2530D Dimming Control IC

Supply Voltage High-side gate driver supply

Power and signal ground Half-bridge high-side gate

driver output
Dimming reference
and AC lamp High voltage supply return
current feedback and half-bridge sensing input
input

VCO input Half-bridge low-side gate

driver output

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IRS2530D Dimming Control Method

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Combine AC Lamp Current measurement with a
DC reference voltage at a single node

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 3-Way Incandescent Lamp Dimming
Filament #1

4-Position Switch

Filament #2

Common

0 – OFF,
1 – Filament #1 –LOW,
2 – Filament #2 – MED,
3 – Filaments in Parallel -- HIGH

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3-Way Dimming for CFL

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3-Way Socket

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EMI Filter

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Rectifier and Voltage Doubler

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Control Circuit and Half-Bridge Inverter

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 Resonant Tank

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Lamp-Current Sensing and Feedback
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Three-Way Interface Circuit

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Lamp Voltage and Current (Maximum)

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Lamp Voltage and Current (Medium)

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Lamp Voltage and Current (Minimum)

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Maximum: 43kHz, 240mA Medium: 62kHz, 94mA

Minimum: 67kHz, 31mA

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